Letting go of the 'blankie'

Most of us remember Linus from the comic strip "Peanuts" which, by the way, lasted until 2000.  Some of us remember Linus sucking his thumb and carrying around his security blanket.  Psychologists call Linus' blanket a "transitional object" because it helps him to make a transition from complete dependence on his care providers to relative independence.  Such transitional objects might include a pillow or a stuffed toy.  Such objects also help to soothe a child under times of stress.  It is all quite normal for children to use transitional objects.  In fact it is quite healthy.  It shows the child is willing to go beyond his immediate surroundings and explore.

As a child matures the transitional object becomes inwardized.  When the child becomes an adult after their frontal lobes fully mature around 18 years of age, the child's transitional object becomes something for thought.  It is recognized, for example, as a system of beliefs, basic assumptions, presuppositions, and prejudices, to name just a few.  All this is necessary, for it helps the individual to meet the challenges of day to day life.

Those new to Buddhism who might decide to join a local Zen center come to it with their own kind of Linus blanket, only it is completely inwardized as it should be.  By it the beginner can submit to a limited transformative relationship with Buddhism.  But it also needs to be brought to our attention that the transformative relationship involves a crossing over from a limited all-too-human view of reality to the transcendent in which all transitional objects have to be dumped.  And this also includes, eventually, the Zen center, itself, which in most cases is a transitional object.  When the beginner joined a Zen center it was somewhat like a toddler upgrading his 'blankie' for a big Pooh Bear.

Of course it dawns on us that exchanging one set of transitional objects for another is not really going to work if we expect to reach the transcendent as mentioned earlier.  Real spiritual maturity begins when we go into the mountains, as Buddhist practitioners still do in China, to become hermits or become urban hermits.  There are no transitional object allowed because such a life is for going beyond the Five Aggregates that make up our individuality.  Hopefully, our mind can then reach the unconditioned (visankhara), i.e., nirvana.

 

Comments

[minx]

Good article. reading it I recall one of the easiest and more "comfortable" Mahayana Buddhist texts, the Bodhicaryāvatāra (by santideva) especially chapter 36-39.

asaṃstavāvirodhābhyām eka eva śarīrakaḥ |
pūrvam eva mṛto loke mriyamāṇo na śocati ||36||

Free from commerce and hindrance, possessing naught but his body, he has no grief at the hour of death, for already he has died to the world;

na cāntikacarāḥ kecic chocantaḥ kurvate vyathām |
buddhādyanusmṛtiṃ cāsya vikṣipanti na ke cana ||37||

no neighbours are there to vex him or disturb his remembrance of the Enlightened and like thoughts.

tasmād ekākitā ramyā nirāyāsā śivodayā |
sarvavikṣepaśamanī5 sevitavyā mayā sadā6 ||38||

Then I will ever woo sweet Solitude, untroubled dayspring of bliss, stilling all unrest.

sarvānyacintānirmuktaḥ svacittaikāgramānasaḥ |
samādhānāya cittasya prayatiṣye damāya ca ||39||

Released from all other thoughts, with mind utterly set upon my own spirit, I will strive to concentre and control my spirit.

Good words to remember whenever the need to leave a transitional thing behind becomes to hard.

[K Grey]

Nirvana too being a "transitional object", if experienced apart from Samsara. "Emptiness" or "Bliss" being the biggest "blankie" of all. Rather than carrying it, it carries us. Still a separation there...