Love has no why

Winnie the Pooh

I recently downloaded a little book of quotes by A A Milne, the creator of Winnie the Pooh. One caught my eye:-

  "A quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business. " 

Well, be that as it may, I have always liked a quote or two, and for those unfortunate enough to be familiar with my Blogs, they will know that one of my all time favourites is that spoken by Meister Eckhart, "Love has no why" . Deep words which perhaps touch upon the "meaning" of life. 

Often "words" come in for a lot of criticism, sometimes from those who claim that they obscure the truth, which is deemed to be "beyond" words, a truth of "feeling", to be lived not thought. I seem to remember saying much the same myself. 

However, Dogen argues differently, seeing dualism lurking in the shadows of all such claims. His thought is complex and often  leaves me trailing in its wake, but that said, we "understand as we are, and we are that which we understand", and as such, as Dogen sees it, we all participate in Buddha-nature, even express it at all times. Our ultimate unity does not negate our differences. Our expression now of Buddha nature does not deny our journey - which is itself "home".

Buddha-nature

So "love has no why", which tells me much of the meaning of life. That in fact, life has no "meaning" as such. No purpose other than to be itself. What is the meaning of a rose, a daffodil? In flower, to be itself is enough, no matter the bulb and the withered petals of "before" and "after". One philosopher of science, Alfred North Whitehead, taught of "process", where nothing ever actually is, but is always in process, becoming. Dogen would argue that everything  is a continuous Is, each moment unique and complete in itself, yet empty. Whitehead would perhaps counter with:- "The many become one, and are increased by one." I think perhaps it would be an argument between friends. 

Alfred North Whitehead

Maybe all this sort of thing can be thought of as academic, a waste of thinking, purposeless as well as meaningless. For myself, I think back to when I first began to take the Buddhist path seriously, of just how inspirational I found the words of the Buddha,  that he taught one thing and one thing only, suffering and the ending of suffering. Inspirational words and also, giving purpose to all life and thought . Not "academic" at all. 

I still instinctively associate all thought and even my blogs with those words. Given the suffering of our world, given how suffering's sheer depth and extent can undermine any faith at all in a final meaning to existence at all, then any path that speaks of its "end" becomes significant and makes worthwhile every step we take, of mind or body. Add bodhicitta, the "heart/mind" that seeks enlightenment selflessly, purely for the sake of others, and what more purpose would anyone seek?

Bodhicitta

Yet, selfless or not, "In protecting oneself one protects others; in protecting others one protects oneself." All for one and one for all, or the Tao cannot be divided, but only shared. Oh yes, quotes can certainly save me from thinking for myself - very laborious at times. 

So I think words can be important, even enlightened. They can certainly add clarity.  I think of where so many arguments about "relative" and "absolute" begin, of  there being, logically, only One Truth. Replace the word "Truth" with "Reality" and I find a greater clarity. There can be, and is, only one Reality. Yet a Reality that can be known and experienced each according to our unique selves, in each moment, where the only extension is intensity.

 

Speak of a "truth", of a unique "incarnation", a God distinct and separate, and then claim there can be only one such, and look out, here comes the Inquisition, lost and saved,  heaven and hell, and the terrible dualisms as eternal verities. Speak of one Reality, and the "work of Christ", if we wish to use Christian terms, takes on a hue that can truly "save", truly be shared.

Not used to divide and separate, creating sheep and goats.

Division and unity

Related Quote:-

"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all things you can't hear, and not bothering." 

(A.A. Milne)

And to repeat another quote given in a previous blog, which comes from a book on T.S.Eliot. It again seems appropriate here:-

Eliot feels no compunction in alluding to the Bhagavad Gita in one section of the poem and Dante's Paradiso in the next. He neither asserts the rightness nor wrongness of one set of doctrines in relation to the other, nor does he try to reconcile them. Instead, he claims that prior to the differentiation of various religious paths, there is a universal substratum called Word (logos) of which religions are concretions. This logos is an object both of belief and disbelief. It is an object of belief in that, without prior belief in the logos, any subsequent religious belief is incoherent. It is an object of disbelief in that belief in it is empty, the positive content of actual belief is fully invested in religious doctrine.