[Buddha-l] Batchelor

[Zelders.YH]

Joy wrote :

>There is something in SB' discourse and reasoning that displeases me and
>that I can't put my finger on. I don't know what he exactly means by
>Buddhist existentialism, but I don't like the existential approach of being
>caught and stuck in an existence from which no escape is possible except
>through death.

Alas, you seem to have all sorts of gloomy associations when you hear 
'existentialism' mentioned.  Well, we could also, without changing 
the content, call Batchelor's 'buddhist existentialism' an 
'eudaimonistic' theory, and make everybody happy.

Speaking for myself, I've always thought that the impossible task of 
the bodhisattva to save alle sentient beings is perfectly portrayed 
in Camus' 'Myth of Sisyphus'. The famous last sentence of that book 
reads : "The struggle itself is enough to fill a man's heart. One 
must imagine Sisyphus happy" , (let's all thank Wikipedia for the 
english translation).

As for Batchelor, his idea is that one should not run away from 
suffering, but one should welcome it, investigate it and discover it 
as the First Noble Truth. Realizing the other three Noble Truths will 
necessarily follow, the four Truths form a causal chain, remember 
?  "Amor fati" is therefore what is needed, (oops, more Nietzsche).

Herman