A New Task?

I shouldn't be surprised that I am even now continuing to discover how I have been changed by my class on Buddhism last semester. Maybe changed is not the right word. Inspired is. Inspiration and love, as all works of the heart, are built by emotion, and not reason. They don't necessarily surpass reason, but they offer wisdom to flow down a different road, and they are thus essential in our lives. They thus don't follow the rules we have set down in our attempts to make sense of life, rules made by the crippled one-legged brain that dominated in the history of humanity. One of these rules is time. One would rationally expect stimulus for inspiration to end when the class ended, but it is not so, the rule of time is broken as the mind continues to explore the colorful memory and discovers inspiration.

My religion teacher told us a couple of times last semester that he had ideas for a few points as to why Taoism is better (more suited to reaching its stated goal) than Buddhism. He refused to say any more. As you may have guessed, as religion students studying Buddhism, this made us drool with curiosity. On the last day, he announced that he had finalized his list of five reasons why he thinks Taoism is better than Buddhism. That actually sounds like it could be a decent Cracked article! Haha. I just realized that. Anyway, that was the last thing he said and then he said, "have a good winter break"; and that was it. I've been dying to just email him and ask him but I feel like I need to earn it.

Anyway, so he inspired me. And its going to be a while before I learn about Taoism, so I decided to do something else. I'm going to try and write a list of five reasons why I think Hinduism is better than Buddhism. I'll hopefully pick up enough knowledge about Hinduism as I study its effects on gender issues this semester. The cool part is, it's spirituality. In my list, as much as I am saying that Hinduism is better than Buddhism, I am automatically saying, less directly, how Buddhism is better than Hinduism. They are two flips of a coin. For example, in my first one I will argue that Hinduism is more grounded than Buddhism. But, in that deal, Buddhism gets the advantage of being more abstract and simple and thus fulfilling another goal. My perspective, even if correctly argued, doesn't, as it shouldn't, mean a thing.   

Blogs Man. Damn.

Okay, Saums, I'm not a blog person. You obviously already know this, and this blog is a total confirmation of it; I actually forgot. I read my letter to you in the first blog post and mentioned how I'm not looking for refinement. It's cause I usually write up a bunch of random shit when I'm bored, and especially when I'm high, and I thought I would just upload this stuff here. These tidbits are in my laptop but I'm not organized enough to upload them into a blog. Basically, I didn't want refinement to be an issue, but its turning out to be, I feel like I can't upload unless the blog is complete and flowed. So, yeah, this is basically why this endeavor was a failure.

I didn't just randomly remember it either. I was reading Osho's Book of Woman and I seriously cannot read that book without thinking about you. It's great. Seriously. The material is great and furthermore his writing makes me joyful, inspired to apply it. His talks on sexuality are amazing, you must read them. His views on marriage are controversial, but if you accept them as idealistic and not try and filter them practically for our real world, I feel like he captures the essence of humanity and shows it in beauty. Also, I like how he cuts the bullshit. His language is simple and doesn't add flavor to the words, they are pure meaning. I wouldn't be able to read a book on love any other way :P. I recommend the read. I wish I had the capacity to type out all the passages I loved out here, but they are just too frequent. I did manage to choose a passage though. It's on his conception of what is really love, and it ends the chapter on Marriage.

"...So never misunderstand love for something else. If love is really love..."What do I mean when I say 'really love?' I Mean that just being in the presence of the other, you feel suddenly happy, just being together, you feel ecstatic, just the very presence of the other fulfills something deep in your heart...something starts singing in your heart, you fall into harmony. Just the very presence of the other helps you to be together. You become more individual, more centered, more grounded. Then it is love.

Love is not a passion, love is not an emotion. Love is a very deep understanding that somebody somehow completes you. Somebody makes you a full circle. The presence of the other enhances your presence. Love gives freedom to be yourself; it is not possessiveness. So, watch. Never think of sex as love, otherwise you will be deceived. Be alert, and when you start feeling with someone that just the presence, the pure presence - nothing else, nothing else is needed; you don't ask anything - just the presence, just as the other is, is enough to make you happy...something starts flowering within you, a thousand and one lotuses bloom...then you are in love, and then you can pass through all the difficulties that reality creates. Many anguishes, many anxieties - you will be able to pass all of them, and your love will be flowering more and more, because all those situations will become challenges. And your love, by overcoming them, will become more and more strong.

Love is eternity. If it is there, it goes on growing and growing. Love knows the beginning but does not know the end."

DUDE! Holy shit! This is just a tiny bit at the end of the Marriage chapter but I thought that was okay, how much can you really say about love without repeating yourself? It is incapturable. So I justified the shortness. This book is supposed to be about women already, and love is technically a digression (though its not). But, I'm feeling romantic. And amazingly, the next chapter is titled 'Love'. How great. Now I will go read it, and if I like any of the parts as much as the one I typed out, I may type out another few paragraphs. This is fun. I miss you.