2.09.2014

imagine. constructive

Recently, I was watching The Simpsons and Lisa said something, followed by, "That's the Buddhist Satan." So, I looked it up and found that the word she used was "Namuche." After I looked up some information about Namuche I found that Namuche is associated with being the counterpart to Indra. Namuche described here as meaning "not letting go the waters."

Lately, I have been thinking a bit about the idea of grasping...

I understand that the name meaning of "of letting go the waters" might be a reference to a story involving Indra where Namuche plays the part of an evil-doer holding the rain from giving life. However, when I first read the name, I took the phrase to be much more metaphorical. Considering the saying, "you can never swim in the same river twice," one could reasonably draw the conclusion that the Buddhist Satan is that part of us that tries to swim in that river twice by not letting go the waters. To explain this point, I would like to give a slogan offered by Gil Fronsdal in one of his Dharma talks (in Three Parts), "nothing whatsoever is worth clinging to." Fronsdal does a wonderful job in this talk of talking about the Buddha's omniscience. He say's that this slogan is one of the common denominators of all things in the world. It seems to me that anybody who would seek to deny that denominator and "not let go the water" of the river of life would be trying to delude the world. Delusion, being the source of suffering, would seem to me to be the Hell being ruled by this "Buddhist Satan."

So, that's what I have to say about that.


love always,
Samuel

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