Hey everyone,
Only two more weeks left of classes; then I'm off to do my Independent Study. The past few weeks we have been blessed with the presence a Tibetan Buddhist teacher and scholar from Nepal. Each evening we've had 2-2.5 hour long teachings that have been wonderful! The Tibetan dialectical style is highly logical and rigorous. Students, including me, got into hourlong back-and-forth debate with him on subjects like self, no-self, karma, time, death, the list goes one.
I was personally blessed to have, probably a 15-20 minute debate with him (in front of the whole group of 40-50 people) about the existence of self. Talk about exciting/nerve-racking. He asserted that there was no self that could be found when we closely examine our own experience, whereas I took the position that the self did exist, just that we have multiple selves over time, they're impermanent, and completely dependent upon causes and conditions . . . This was one case where almost any of my friends or family from home would've been completely lost, and wondering what the hell I was doing in India. There have been many situations like this where my life here seems completely absurd without the appropriate background knowledge in Buddhism.
If you're wondering, no one technically won or lost the debate because it wasn't formal. If it was, he would, of course, obliterated my arguments. Anyway, it was really engaging/refreshing to have a teacher practically dare us to hash out the details of Buddhist teaching with him.
Bleh! Time is so finite! I have to get off the computer now! More details from the week later . . .
3 comments:
"the list goes one"? Sounds rather Zen to me. Love, Dad
tiiiiim! i've been eagerly reading all your entries -- thanks so much for sharing. your life right now in india is in sharp contrast to the lives of your friends back at depauw right now, and how your life would probably be if you were here in indiana. i'm so glad you're having these experiences and i can't wait to hang out with you when you get back and see how these experiences have molded you. by the way, i've had strikingly similar thoughts about self/no-self.
love from depauw,
anjali
i got your postcard and it made my day! thanks timbae :)
i look forward to your stories and thoughts when you return, but i fear we still have quite a while until we meet again. regardless, a trip to the middle east with you must happen the day when we are wise enough.
Post a Comment