|
Put into context, this quote, from Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, begins with the hero of the novel, Willian of Baskerville, attempting to explain why life takes the turns it does to his pupil Adso
"...there was no plot ... only a sequence of causes and concauses, and of causes contradicting one another, which proceeded on their own, creating relationships that did not start from any plan."
Adso says: "In imagining order, you still found something."
William:
“The order that our mind imagines is like a net, or like a ladder, built to attain something. But afterwards you must throw the ladder away, because you discover that, even if it was useful, it was meaningless."
We look, we search, we question, we want answers we can count on day after day, answers that make sense out of this life, our life. Why this and not that, why me and not you? If we are honest with ourselves, we’ve never outgrown being two years old - relentless asking “why?” and relentlessly expecting there is one fixed true answer.
Like Eco’s ladder, we did all the right things (well, may not all…) according to societal expectations that define success. If we didn’t already find the ladder in our young lives at home, we saw ones other people had and fashioned one for our self. What did we attain as we climbed it? The climb for most of us wasn’t easy; it wasn’t just putting one foot on the next rung up. We fought gravity for each and every rung gained. And at some point, we stopped, looked around and began to ask the same question as Adso, finding order.
Coming to Shin Buddhism is like putting down that heavy burden, the heavy burden of the ladder and the weight it accumulated over a lifetime. We put down the weight of expectations for life to be the way we demand it to be. We put down the weight of our ego that demands constant reinforcement that “I am right, you are wrong.” We put down the illusion that someone, anyone, is in control of the immeasurable causes and conditions.
When we awaken to the understanding that it is the untangleable causes and conditions from immeasurable eons ago that is the “order” bringing you and me to the right here, the right now.
When we awaken to this reality, sometimes in an instant, sometimes over a long life, we are liberated from the futile effort of trying to make life something it is not.
And, just like that, we begin to experience gratitude for this very moment we are living.
Namo Amida Butsu.
In Gassho,
Rev. Anita
rev.anita.cbt@outlook.com
|
