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Annihiliation of the Self: Discussions on Nirvana and The Purpose of Life

Arnox

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When the first Star Wars trilogy was released way back in 1977 to 1983, it was a retelling of a classic story that George Lucas wanted to tell after reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. This book was a proponent of telling stories that ended with a hero transcending life as we know it, reaching the total acceptance of non-self and ego death. Such concepts are very old, going back over a millennium. This goal of total death of the self was seen as the final ultimate goal. Those who ignorantly or knowingly rejected this were supposed to be stuck in an endless cycle of rebirth.

But is nirvana really a worthy goal?

There was also a fictional work written by David and Leigh Eddings called The Belgariad and The Mallorean. In it are magic users who can also shift their forms at will to be animals. Through moments when they do this, the reader is exposed to the stark difference between the thinking of an animal and the thinking of a human. An animal is instinctively inclined towards acceptance. Life is the foraging, the hunt, the feeding, the breeding, and the death. That is all there is and should be and one should accept this totally and completely. To not do so is foolishness. But of course, for a human, questioning is in their very nature. More specifically, the question that starts an entire massive chain reaction of decisions and consequences. That question of, "But why... ?"

Of course, sometimes it's uncomfortable to question things because we know that when we do, sometimes we get unpleasant answers. No, you can't fly by making and flapping cardboard wings. No, Chad is not interested in you in that way. No, the evidence doesn't support your particular political views. So even in a species such as ours, there can still be a reluctance to question. This leads to our insular behaviors and thinking that we can all fall prey to at times. Nevertheless, our questioning instinct drives us onwards, and only those who achieve this aforementioned nirvana are free from it.

Along with our instinct to question and explore comes our other instinct to obtain and exercise power. Both power over ourselves and power over our environment. This raises a whole host of new issues that we all need to grapple with because although power is just a tool, how we use the power that we have and how we acquire new power and recover the power we might have had before makes all the difference. But wait! This desire to answer our questions and strive for power is what causes all our pain and heartache in the first place. Truly it must be better to eliminate those at the root, and that root is desire and non-acceptance.

But before we do this, let us first meditate on the humble rock. There it lies on the ground. Perfectly peaceful. Affecting nothing and no one. Only ever being acted upon. Is this rock happy or unhappy then? Of course, the answer is none of them. It has no perceptible emotions whatsoever and neither does it truly observe anything. It is merely present and nothing more. Were this rock to disappear at this very moment from all existence, it is incredibly likely that absolutely nothing at all would change in the future. But yet, Buddhist thought teaches that this unfeeling unthinking unobservant rock is the ideal. This completely inanimate lump of hard matter.

So what is the purpose of life? Isn't it most obviously to live? Why then would we strive to commit the mental and spiritual equivalent of suicide? If there is desire but no questioning, then we end up as animals. Better and more alive than the rock, but not by much. If there is questioning but no desire, then there is no progress. And if there is no progress, then there is stagnation. And permanent stagnation is death in its truest form.

Kreia said:
Apathy is death. Worse than death, because at least a rotting corpse feeds the beasts and insects.
It is rather ironic though that one can only achieve this nirvana by questioning their own actions and desiring to eliminate questioning and desire. Thus, we see that the striving for nirvana is, in the end, a disguised attempt to obtain power over one's self. Of course, the hypocrisy by itself doesn't necessarily make the goal an unworthy one, but if you've been following along, you've seen just how unworthy that goal actually is now, and the hypocrisy behind it is just the cherry on top of this absurd cake that has somehow persisted for at least the better part of a millennium.

Now, on the other extreme side of this spectrum is hedonism, but that's next week's episode. Tune in next time.
 
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