Life in a biological organism is constrained by the organism itself. Life, in this regard, is not free from servitude to the organism. The want of food, water, sexuality, all belong to the organism. Buddhism is not a religion that wants us to be servants of the corporeal being because it is so limiting and painful, misleading our vision to what is only finite and transitory.
Because of mankind's ingenuity we are able to give our self leisure by which to think more about the world that is constraining the greater part of mankind’s life. We are also able to get a glimpse of the authentic religious life where the greatness of spirit is first encountered by direct intuition.
Of the estimated 37.2 trillion cells that comprise the human body not a single cell knows what gives it life. Nor does the human brain. The tendency of humans to name it “God” or “spirit” without direct intuition only leads to the dominance of the sign over the signified, something the intellect does quite often if not all the time.
This intellectual treatment of religion is in fact the beginning of the demise of the religious life, a life that is more about opening up the way for direct intuition of the absolute rather than conceptualizing it, either through speech or the written word.
That we are constrained by the organism means we are embodied including our thoughts. As far as we know our body will not give us a way out of this limitation. We are doomed to repeat this condition in countless variations. Ultimately, our biological organism cannot free us because we are unable to transcend it. The act of transcending it is intuition.
They are all living by the suffering principle, nicely put forth in King Lear;
"I am tied to the stake, and I must stand the course."
Mara being the tying force here and the I, i.e. un-enlightened Spirit ignorant of the liberating and luminous principle of its true nature, standing above said force, being impervious to its illusory cominngs and goings.
The latter painfully manifested in the stake and it`s pre-determined course (karmic transmigrations) of birth and death.
Posted by: Jung | January 13, 2021 at 07:19 AM