The Little Purple Notebook On How To Escape From This Universe
Copyleft � 1998 by Maximilian J. Sandor, Ph.D.
Subscription Information: Maria Loren
[email protected]
Website:
http://transmillennium.net/pnohteftu/
Scope
There seems to be a sheer endless number of books about Buddhism in
ciruclation and there seem to be even more books around trying to give
advice about all kinds of self-improvement. The vast majority of both
classes of books are, sadly enough, a rehash of other books which, in turn,
are already recantations about even earlier books.
Aggravating the lack of originality, there are very, very few books in
which the authors refrain from employing highly dubious language
constructions like "you can't...", "we never will...", "all of us have
to...", and so forth. The majority of authors is simply not aware of the
impact of their own words. However, the common argument that a criticism of
this careless usage of language is unjustified because 'everyone is writing
this way' or 'not everybody has time to study semantics or NLP', is very
much off the mark.
A survey of Pali Canon, the earliest recording of Gotamo's teachings, is
showing that he himself carefully abstained from using any such semantic
construct. All his examples, are stated in the form 'if a man would be
doing such and such, the results of his actions would be such and such.."
He did not say 'thou shalt' or 'thou shalt not'. By showing the outcome of
a situation depending on certain conditions, he demonstrated the basic laws
of life in just the way a scientist would go about it.
The danger of careless formulations is considerable and there is a
significant movement, based on the Polish-American Count Alfred Korzybski,
which is going so far as to assign the entire cause of insanity at large to
the uncritical usage of language'.
In the first part of the book there will be several sections on language
itself and further down the line the most devastating but wide-spread
formulation 'all life is suffering' will be analyzed and its utter insanity
and inherent danger will be discussed. Needless to say, that there is no
evidence that Gotamo ever said anything close to it and even rejected any
such interpretation of his teachings at several occasions.
The combination of careless or even reckless usage of language with the
subject of the human mind reveals a shocking probability: which is that the
respective authors may not have understood the very basics of their
self-chosen topic in the first place.
This sad circumstance influences the scope of this book significantly. It
may even be a major factor in its very existence: if there would be a
better literature available, there would be no purpose to undergo the
travail of writing yet another book and to expose the author to the
immanent risks of the 'Teacher's Paradox' which will be discussed later.
Another factor for chosing the scope of this book is the emergence of
various philosophies and practices in recent years which are either having
goals similar to the ones of Gotamo Siddharto or that provide very
valuable tools or perspectives in its pursuit. Some 'Buddhists' insist that
"Buddha's" would be the one and only way to freedom. They ignore, however,
that Gotamo restricted himself to communicating only the most vital basics
that would be understandable easily at the time of his last life, now more
than 2,500 years ago. He did not exclude other possibilities or additional
tools as long as they would lead to the awakening of a person. Ironically,
he did exclude specifically some of the practices that now, for many, form
the picture of 'Buddhism': in the Western World: chanting, praying, and
relying on someone else other than oneself.
As a direct result of these considerations the scope of this book
encompasses the portrayal of the original teachings of Gotamo Siddharto
side by side with the most obvious deviations that evolved over time and a
comparison and, if possible, integration of contemporary views and
techniques of liberating oneself from the yoke of unclear thinking and
seemingly unexplicable passions and desires.
Gotamo's main theme is of fundamental importance for every living being. It
would not make sense to address only those who are already familiar with
his teachings. Outlining the most spectacular abberations of his philosophy
is providing an additional motivation for this book since they show the
pattern of how a conclusive and comprehensive philosophical system can be
twisted over time, yielding in many cases the exact opposite of its initial
proposition.
Because of the most fundamental obstacle to understanding, namely the
assumption that one already knows the topic to be investigated, it can be
expected that many 'Buddhists' will not be willing to have a fresh look at
the concepts discussed in this book. Such a tendency is typically amplified
when people are locked into a rigid system that is characterized by
authority and tradition. Nevertheless, for the few who are willing to think
again and from scratch, extensive quotes from the Pali Canon are given.
Many of the contemporary techniques of expanding one's mind can be
summarized. In any case, special care is given to a comprehensive
bibliography and, where applicable, pointers to World-Wide-Web pages are
being provided. The latter are, of course, more transient than about
anything else in this transient world.
With one excpetion all discussions of theistic religions are excluded.
However, there is no reason why followers of theistic religions should not
enjoy or benefit from the discussion. In particular, many 'Buddhist' sects
are following the patterns of theistic religions. A follower of any of
those sects may indeed feel more disturbed by some of the conclusions in
this book than a follower of a Western theistic religion.
Another topic which is excluded is politics. Even though it is tempting to
analyze the deterioation of Gotamo's philosophical system from a political
or socio-cultural angle, it would not contribute to the understanding of
the issues at hand and rather add confusion and volume to an already wide
field. In many cases, the connection is so obvious that any added word
would be superfluous.
Lastly, since this book is being written with direct feedback from some
parts of the Internet community it is possible but not likely that the
focus is shifting during the creation of the book.
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Copyleft � 1998 by Maximilian J. Sandor, Ph.D.
