The consequences of exuberance

My daughter Elizabeth is visiting us here on Tinian. She is my favorite daughter (she would remind you that she is also my only daughter...), and we always have a lot of fun together. She is a photographer, and will be taking lots of pictures of the island. Anyway, we were having so much fun riding our scooters, we both got sunburned! Of course, it didn't help that I got us lost in the maze that used to be the old airfields on the north of the island...

For some reason it reminded me of the teachings of Buddha. He saw that life was full of pain, sorrow, and death; and that most of that pain and sorrow come as a result of men's passions: greed, lust, vanity, etc. It seemed logical that if one could control, and even extinguish, one's passions, one could also escape life's most painful experiences. Through meditation a person learns to control their thoughts and feelings and passions. Eventually, when one has truly lost all his needs and desires, one can transcend this life and reach Nirvana, or become one with the essence or power of the Universe.

The Buddha taught that the nature of reality was impermanent and interconnected. We suffer in life because of our desires towards transient things. Liberation from this suffering comes by training the mind and acting according to the laws of karma (cause and effect) i.e. with right action, good things will come to you; with bad actions, pain and suffering come to you. This teaching is known as the Four Noble Truths:

1. Suffering is everywhere.

2. There is a cause of suffering, which is attachment or misplaced desire rooted in ignorance.

3. There is an end of suffering, which is Nirvana (the possibility of liberation exists for everyone).

4. There is a path that leads out of suffering, known as the Noble Eightfold Path (right view, right thought, right speech, right conduct, right vocation, right effort, right attention and right concentration).

When reading the specific actions one must perform, or avoid, it is like reading the Ten Commandments: don't lie, don't steal, don't commit adultery, do good to others, etc.

Mormons will also recognize this doctrine concerning the power that is in all and through all things in the universe: we call it the Light of Christ. It is what binds all things together, controls all things, gives light and intelligence to men, and instinct to animals. It is our conscience. This power, emanating from God, is what creates Karma: the natural consequences that come from our actions.

I have always found it interesting how similar most religions really are. Even when they are found in completely different places, times, and people. All ancient societies describe the power of God in similar ways. All ancient societies have similar stories of creation and of the flood.

Anyway, it came to my mind because had Liz and I not been enjoying ourselves so much, we would have recognized our error and returned before we got a sunburn. Buddha would have used our sunburns as an object lesson for his class on the consequences of letting our passions get the best of us.

Just so you know, I love to talk about the Buddha. If I was not a Mormon, I would probably be a Buddhist. Although I am not sure I could live as Buddha did, I believe that he was one of the greatest men who ever lived. Terri and I laugh whenever we see a statue of a fat Buddha--the Buddha would have been very thin, not fat! The Asians portray the Buddha as fat because if one is fat, he is wealthy and blessed. But Buddha only ate one meal a day, just enough to keep the physical body alive. Since over-eating is just another passion to control, the Buddha could never have been fat!

For anyone interested, one of the best books written about Buddha is called:
Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha, by Thich Nhat Hanh

There are only a few books I demanded/coerced my children to read:
The Holy Bible
The Book of Mormon
The Law, by Frederick Bastiat (to truly understand economics and capitalism)
Old Path White Clouds

I also enjoy sci-fi and fantasy books:
Dune
The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings series
The Mote in God's Eye
The Foundation series

And, of course, I love to read history:
Anything by Barbara Tuchman, especially The Guns of August about WWI
Anything by Immanuel Velikovsky, especially Worlds in Collision

Unfortunately reading has become a lost art, as there are just too many other outlets for people to find information or be entertained. I just find reading a book to be more satisfying than reading a computer screen. But then, I'm an old man, so that is to be expected I guess.

It is nice to be home on Tinian again. I missed walking up the hill and turning to see the beautiful sight of the village nestled between the two hills, and the ocean curving into the beach...I think its time to go for a swim!