Dreamy Dreams From a Sinking Happy Land.
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 2:10PM 
Thanks to NYU Global Law
This week I met some people from a few islands in the South Pacific. Apparently, one island, Nukufetau, at its geographic height, is less than 15' above sea level. Thanks to the rising ocean, the peoples of this island actually watch it disappear..."sink" they say.
Anyway, these people from these islands offered some unique perspectives on the LSAT and life in general. And they delivered these perspectives in the passive-aggressive way of being the most pleasant, optimistic, welcoming, life-affirming people I have met since chatting with a few tantric yogis some years back. (Note: Being happy and calm in the face of overwhelming adversity is a clear indication of the contempt you hold for everyone else.) Anyway, this is the veiled lesson my superior American brain realized they were directing at me:
"Your culture is obsessive, ungrateful, whiny, and until it is radically changed or wiped out entirely, will only serve to further blight the beauty of the natural world and its gifts."
How rude is that? As I said, this is the lesson I gleaned. Were it not for my brilliance, their subtle jibes at my ego-centric culture would have gone unnoticed. They did not blatantly imply that I or my countrymen were complainers. In fact, they were so busy thanking me for hanging out with them, I almost missed the lesson that--except for my acute perception--they tried to hide beneath a duvet of gratitude.
Thought experiment:
Your island is sinking into the surrounding undrinkable water; its dwindling population of family and friends are cramped among the influx of refugees from surrounding islands that have been swallowed up by the ocean. Due to an unusual drought, 2-minute showers are a "luxury," as is letting a faucet run without a receptacle beneath it. Posterity's existence is uncertain. And the only way you get your kicks is by making music on traditional instruments, dancing, fucking, and singing. Then one day you visit the land of opportunity and iPhones. Would you prance around thanking people for their hospitality while pretending to enjoy your fledging island-existence free from social and advertising forces--relying only on your natural gifts of musical, erotic, poetic, visual, and spiritual creativity to pass the time? Or would you keep your foreign thoughts to yourself and buy a goddamn app for the iPhone you're borrowing during your brief visit?
LSAT students, Zen meditators, people who accidentally stumbled into this blog: don't be seduced into thinking there's an easier way to do things. Did you know that these people from the South Pacific rarely experience the physical manifestations of irrational psychological stress? We all know that stress headaches, sleepless nights, and that crippling, all-consuming fear of the hypothetical are indications that we're not working hard enough. I mean, the "pursuit of happiness" does not involve kicking back and enjoying the fruits of existence. It's the pursuit of happiness. We have to chase happiness down, break its neck, and stuff it for display on the mantle. That way, we can show friends and the strangers they bring to our dinner parties that we were successful in our pursuit and we have happiness's stuffed carcass to prove it.
So what does the Buddha say?
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
I think any intelligent person will agree that your way of life, when subjected to analysis and reason, is "conducive to the good and benefit" of you and everyone around you. I mean, how good could life be if your iPhone were a drum and your concerns were pleasure?
Reader Comments (2)
this made me laugh out loud
Eloquently put. Bring on the fiddles and pleasure:)