Philosophy: PhilosYphia

25th June 2008

Do Birthdays Matter?

Today I left a comment on Love Is Blonde that I thought would make a good blog entry, if nothing else because it’d engage my readers’ thoughts, and that’s always fun to watch.

Janet wrote about her birthday and so forth, as one often does. My comment was such:

First off, a very happy birthday, if belated.

Secondly, I wanted to comment on the phenomenon of birthdays. It’s funny — every year goes by and still a part of me wants it to be a day that’s somehow different from all the other ones, but the older I get the less remarkable they are. Is that the case with everyone — do we always want the day to be special, even if it isn’t?

I rather think it’s silly of us to expect our birthdays to be anything of note, but there’s some small kernel inside me somewhere that does. I’m not sure where that comes from — childhood expectations? Flirtatious hopes for something miraculous? I don’t know.

I don’t even mention my birthday anymore when it comes for fear that I’ll be perceived as being an ass and self-centered. (not that I’m calling you an ass, Janet, this is just how I feel) The question is, how important are birthdays anyway? How should we feel about them, really? Does it matter once you’re ancient like me? (30)

Aren’t we a funny species in what we do, celebrating the day we are born but ignoring the date of conception; getting all tied up about when we get married but not the date when we met someone. Who picked these dates in the first place as being notable?

So, dear reader, your thoughts? And for the record, it is nowhere near my own date of birth, so this is not a subtle plea for recognition. It is, very much, something that’s always plagued my thoughts.

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17th April 2008

A Really Bad Buddhist

I’ve often thought that I was somewhat of a “middle man” — someone that liked to try to stand between the extremes, consider all viewpoints, and try to see life from an objective standpoint. Turns out, I might be a Buddhist.

My good friend Henry recently introduced me to Bad Buddhist Radio, a podcast by Ryu Cope, a guy who is putting some practicality and sense into a rather old philosophy. I’m not all caught up with the episodes (there are over 50 now), but I’m loving it so far and it has caused me to muse more than once in the past few days.

When most people think of Buddhism, they think of it as a religion. Ryu clears this up pretty quickly in his first episode, telling some history of the school of thought and detailing the story of Siddhārtha Gautama, an ordinary guy who decided that life had some figuring out to do, and basically came up with four universal truths about life and an eight-faceted way of dealing with the difficulties therein.

The stuff about gods and religion and karma and so forth came years after Gautama got his vision for a better way of living, and Ryu is into bringing back the “true” Buddhist system of philosophy, discarding all the “add-ons” and liberal interpretations of the four noble truths and eight-fold path and just going back to the way that he thinks Gautama meant for people to think about his ideas.

I tell you, it’s been both an eye opener to some new ideas and an awful lot of nodding on my part, confirming much of what I’ve come to believe in my life; the concepts of seeing a situation as it truly is instead of through our own personal filters and bias, of living a life of truth and honesty because it truly is the best policy, and making sure that what you do is motivated by true and honest intention and not because someone else is making or influencing you to do so. Ryu is very articulate and has really opened my eyes to the Buddhist philosophy and I am eager to explore other interpretations and texts of it.

Ryu Cope I think that, while Ryu is probably a bit brash and simplistic for someone out there looking for thick, heavy philosophic discussions, he is a fresh, very palatable speaker and keeps his audience well-entertained during his show while dishing up a good tutorial on the thought school and giving you something to think about at the end of the day.

If you’re even a little bit curious about Buddhism, I’d highly recommend his show, even for an overview of the philosophy. The Bad Buddhist is fun, amusing, and if you’re not careful, you might even learn something or find a new way of viewing the world. I know I have.