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Rich Siddhartha, the unhappy
relativist
Siddhartha,
the Buddha-to-be, grew up in well-to-do middle class home as a happy
contented child. He had time and space, and the money to fill them with idle distractions.
Eventually, as he grew older he became, like most middle-class off-spring,
bored, ‘low’, in a word, unhappy. That he felt
‘low’ (i.e. un-aroused, un-awakened, i.e. not-a-buddha) happened naturally in
that he was confined (i.e. bound) to his home (his relationships that caused
of his current state) and which suffered diminishing excitement (resulting
from difference) returns due to ongoing sameness. He felt un-free to make new
contacts, thereby to increase the excitement in his life. His comment
was: “Household life is cumbersome and dusty!,” in 3rd millennium
speak: “Life at home sucks!” So, like all
young middle class people he ‘made
plans’. He invented a path (or journey, to wit, a career). He would escape
from (a depressing, hence distressing) home (i.e. boring Dad, Auntie, the
wife and kid, and the stallion, now displayed on every Ferrari) and go on a
trip, on an adventure that would provide new highs (of happiness moments,
i.e. fun) via new relationships. That was not
a great idea as he soon discovered. A new relationship, once you’re in it,
also becomes a home that sucks. No matter what relationship you get into, it
eventually sucks, and that hurts. Sid soon
realised that a path/journey (and there are n of them) leads to goal/home,
and which, as relationship, is without a true self, i.e. atta (i.e. transient
and not owned), hence empty (Sanskrit: sunja), void, in vain (just like his
old home). Once he’d realised that he decided to cut all relationships/homes
and join his peripatetic pals from across the Way, namely the Vedantins, to
seek out/become THE ABSOLUTE (i.e. the quantum or step), that which is free
from the relative, i.e. ‘The One without a 2nd’. Siddhartha de-relativising Sid, the (rich
and) depressed person’s hero, having become the sam-Buddha, i.e. the fully
Aroused or Awakened One, the latter because he had figured out completely
(hence with absolute certainty) why relativity is (i.e. relationships are)
fundamentally empty (of satisfaction, hence fulfilment), spent the rest of
his life staying out of relationship (to wit, a homeless wanderer) and
explaining to people why they should also stop (rat-racing on their
never ending path to new relationship), and chill out, i.e. cool down in/as @
rest ≈ nirvana. Had
Siddhartha grown up in abject poverty poor, like his father’s
subjects/slaves, he wouldn’t have had the need or the time, space or
resources to plan and go on a journey (or path to a new home). He would have
been forced to live from day to day (read: moment to moment, nowadays called
‘living in the NOW’, a temporary respite for the stressed out), that is to
say, he’d have been stuck on his spot/step, i.e. in his quagmire (i.e. of
sameness) and going nowhere, hence an absolutist trapped in a zero value
(almost non-) relationship. Not going anywhere save round and round and
nether (i.e. down, i.e. marking, i.e. emptying time and space, as in marking
a single step/spot), he would have been as miserable as the endless running
but never arriving rich boy ‘who ain’t going nowhere neither!’ So: A path is journey to the relative
(or, a home is a round path or
journey). A path is the after-effect of series of individual steps, hence a
relationship between steps. A path (read: an on-going line, byte, process and
so on) is a relative phenomenon because it relates (i.e. arranges in
relationship over time and space, thus creating a trace or identity, to wit:
a form). Relationship (i.e. a series as trace or identity) per se is unreal, empty, uncertain, incomplete. See: The Pilgrimage Site A step (i.e. a stop/slice, cut, ‘decision’ of a path, a
momentary relationship freeze) is absolute, real/true (Sanskrit: sat). But because it is
un-related, random, consequently does not belong to time and space (and which
emerge with quantum ground turbulence), it is formless, that is to say, not
identifiable (and which is the reason why God can be experienced as real
(presence) but not identified). Early 20th century physicists,
like Planck and Einstein et al, deliberately misnamed the step that is
absolute ‘quantum’ (German: ‘a fixed quantity’), rather than Ganzheit,
whole or unit so as not to be drawn into the nutty religious dispute over
‘The Absolute’. However, the change in verbal description from quantum
mechanics to absolutes (or constants; so Einstein in his c2 notation) mechanics would
have quickly ended the relativity theory versus quantum theory wrangle that
provided so many ‘jobs for the boys’. Siddhartha,
having proclaimed himself a sam-Buddha because he had virtually ended his
journey of discovering why relationship (i.e. relativity) sucks, embarked on
actually ending relationship and, once ended, never restarting it. Ending
relationship (and which happens dependent on quantum (i.e. 1st causes) collision) was
his dharma. His dharma
was, quite obviously, incomplete (and which is why it lasted so long). He
recommended the ending and not re-starting of one’s journey (i.e. of birth
producing life, the ‘greed’ for relationship) since the journey (i.e.
relationship) led to a home that was fundamentally empty (sunja: void of
permanent identifiable reality). By stopping and not restarting, i.e. either
by going ‘On standby’ or turning off
completely, i.e. by de-relativising, one could at least revert to the
absolute (i.e. the initial step or quantum state) prior to relativity and
attain @rest ≈ peace ≈ nirvana (and happiness, as
he suggested). No doubt that
is why the dying Buddha mumbled these last words of advice (Nyanamoli’s
translation): “So, Ananda, each of you should make himself his island,
himself and no other his refuge; each of you
should make the dhamma his island, the dhamma and no other refuge.” Or, in plain
English: “For Christ’s sake, do your own thing. Don’t get into relationship!” The user friendly (hence
M’s) solution Einstein’s Nemesis
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