> You know in late high school /early college I remember thinking it is
> hard to really show that life has meaning. I thought I had
> existential ennui. Periodically, with the ups and downs of life, I
> have revisited that falling into a kind of desirelessness.
Not at all what Buddhism is about, but it's probably useless to clarify this point on this list. Brian and I have tried to do it several times, with no result. So I won't repeat that effort now.
> CB: OK. My first thought is sort of since I'm going to get sick and
> die, and all my friends will go away, I better make hay while the sun
> shines. Is that what they are trying to get me to think ?
Buddhism isn't about getting you to think anything -- think whatever you like. But traditionally, a Buddhist teacher would mobilize the concept of rebirth, pointing out that "making hay" as a philosophy of life would just be wasting a human life, which (in the traditional Buddhist view) is extremely rare -- most rebirths are as animals or even less desirable beings.
Since the idea of rebirth doesn't cut much ice with most Westerners, the best one could say nowdays is that if that's the way you want to spend your life, OK, as long as you don't harm others (by neglecting your responsibilities towards your children, killing someone by drunk driving, etc.).
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit, 'Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet; Nor ever ever shall, until that I die, For the longer I live the more fool am I. -- Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy (1684)