tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2091479631621288656.post-217129160722678712007-05-07T15:23:00.000-07:002008-10-21T05:48:33.036-07:002008-10-21T05:48:33.036-07:00<span style="font-style: italic;">Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivate good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practising mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I am committed to ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books, films, and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in myself and in society by practising a diet for myself and for society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self-transformation and for the transformation of society. -- <a href="http://www.plumvillage.org/practice/5_mindfulness_trainings.htm">Thich Nhat Hanh</a></span><br /><br /><table valign="top" border="0" cellpadding="15" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="60%">Oh, come on! I don't stand a chance with this one!<br /><br />I don't doubt that Thich Nhat Hanh is wiser than I can ever possibly hope to be, and I know that if I took his advice I'd be a healthier, happier and better person. But there are times when I just think, <span style="font-style: italic;">What planet are you from, dude?</span><br /><br />I'm sorry, I don't mean to be flip. The problem I have with this particular formulation of the Fifth Precept is that it asks us to avoid taking part in anything that is "<a href="http://www.tibet.com/Buddhism/3jewels.html">unwholesome</a>." I understand the general point and benefit of this. It's all too easy to get sucked in to habits, whether of consumption or of thought and speech, that reinforce aspects of our nature (selfishness, egomania, lack of empathy, laziness) while our better virtues atrophy from disuse. So yes, I want to make an effort not to lose myself or my time to things that ultimately harm to me and the world I live in.<br /><br />However, at the same time, I think it's important to also retain a sense of balance and of curiosity — intellectual, aesthetic, artistic, moral, or just plain human curiosity — about "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_side#Nature_of_the_dark_side">the dark side</a>."<br /><br />Drugs and alcohol, plus those TV shows, magazines, books, films and conversations mentioned by Thich Nhat Hanh (and let's add music, of course), which are centered around and/or which draw us in close to things like pain, hatred, self-destructiveness, violence, paranoia, nihilism, apathy — they take us to those places because those places are real, they are part of being human, they are compelling and necessary to understand. Most of us probably don't want to live there all the time, but some people choose to (or don't choose, but end up there anyway) and what they report back (whether it's in the form of a brilliant poem, or a suicide note, or of a crappy commercial lowest-common-denominator TV show) is part of humanity's eternal art-gallery exhibition, the neverending, constantly curated retrospective that shows us the full range of what we are.<br /><br />I don't think refusing to ingest this stuff — refusing to take a close look at the evidence, to really feel its weight and heft and texture for ourselves, up close — really helps us at all. In fact, I think that kind of <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/purism">purism</a> is more likely to keep us ignorant and lacking in empathy. Plus it just seems pretty <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snobby">snobby</a>. We can try to deny the dark side, but it is wily and strong and will tell us things we wish we never knew.<br /><br />I practiced in a <a href="http://dharma-rain.org/">sangha</a> for a while about ten years ago, and I remember a conversation about music coming up, in which someone referred to heavy metal music (<a href="http://www.critical-solution.com/">Guns'N'Roses</a>, specifically) in a way that made it clear that everyone there felt it was both unwholesome and without value. I felt compelled to argue: if Axl Rose and his comrades live in a darker place than we do, and if he writes songs and plays in a band that sounds angry and nihilistic and takes a lot of drugs along with all those other tormented people seeking an ecstatic experience, then we should thank him for going there. We should thank him for reporting back.<br /><br />And quite possibly we should try to spend a little time there ourselves, just so we know.<br /></td><td align="right" valign="top" width="40%"><img src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_HbGJDEbEHOc/Rj-zSFEUCSI/AAAAAAAAAA8/69ZJrrDrCPw/s400/gunsnroses2.jpg" />Maybe an occasional dose will make me stronger, like with snake venom..?<br /><br /><img src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_HbGJDEbEHOc/Rj-2V1EUCTI/AAAAAAAAABE/CMRq93HrCBs/s400/puritan7.jpg" />This seems like the kind of thing that arises directly from attempts to squelch human fascination with the dark side.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><table valign="top" border="0" cellpadding="5" width="55%"><tbody><tr><td align="left" width="45%"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/DiaryOfABadBuddhist" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img alt="" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon32x32.png" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/QcvG" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">SUBSCRIBE</a></td><td align="right" width="50%"><a href="http://www2.blogger.com/profile/03935544884606178084">VIEW MY PROFILE</a></td><td align="left" width="5%"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="blogger-post-footer">button button</div>Marie Drennanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935544884606178084noreply@blogger.com3