Buddhism is an ancient discipline, but it still managements to intersect with modern religion at a lot of junctions. In the 20th and 21st centuries, especially, the teachings of the Buddha have become more prevalent, not only in Buddhist circles, but also in non-Buddhist treatment of certain events, philosophies and concepts. The products of these intersections of modern writing and Buddhism demonstrate a strong leaning towards secularism, and neo-spirituality – both of which are essentially the vestiges of globalization. Modern literature, specifically, demonstrates a blurring of boundaries as meta narratives dissolve and genres do not remain as tightly packed in silos as they were before (Beek). Moreover, modern writers, who take on the challenge
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One of the most important of these aspects is that of impermanence. The Buddhist scripture Dhammapada, which is one of the most celebrated texts of the doctrine, and is also the most referred to in modern times, talks about this aspect. According to the text, the entry way to the monastic life is an act of radical renunciation spurred on by our confrontation with suffering, particularly by our recognition of our inevitable mortality (Bodhi With the very first line, Hanh directs the readers’ attention to the Buddhist concept of impermanence – “Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow” (Hnah, 1). By beginning his poem thus, Hanh emphasizes the importance of understanding that our time on Earth, in the physical garb that we have been given, our time is indeed limited. Prebish and Keown articulate that the basic premise of human permanence is derived from the Buddhist notion that all things that originate, have a duration and then must end and decay (209). Therefore, as is evident, mortality is a truth that cannot be denied because nothing is permanent and there are no exceptions to this rule even if one would like to deny it. In every paragraph of this poem, Hanh suggests that he keeps changing form and keeps arriving, but each time before he arrives, he has to …show more content…
Early Buddhist teachings have suggested that everything in the world – whether living or non-living, is liable to perish with time and during this time, change occurs continually on the entity, continuously creating change and metamorphing into something else. In his poem, Hanh goes an extra step and ties the concept of impermanence to connectedness. Connectedness is a concept used in the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhism, which was introduced not in the early Buddhism, but in the later years. This concept, which is also thought of as a “middle path” in the Buddhist tradition, suggests that all phenomena in this world arise only on causes and conditions, and are therefore conceived in dependence to many other things (Scott 148). Therefore, along with a lack of permanence, humans are also endowed with a lack of an intrinsic being of their own. Hanh uses this concept and modernizes it by alluding to the real-world problems. He brings attention to the starving children in Africa, the innocent people fleeing from war ravaged countries who are never able to make it to shore to seek asylum, or the politburo and concentration
One of the most important of these aspects is that of impermanence. The Buddhist scripture Dhammapada, which is one of the most celebrated texts of the doctrine, and is also the most referred to in modern times, talks about this aspect. According to the text, the entry way to the monastic life is an act of radical renunciation spurred on by our confrontation with suffering, particularly by our recognition of our inevitable mortality (Bodhi With the very first line, Hanh directs the readers’ attention to the Buddhist concept of impermanence – “Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow” (Hnah, 1). By beginning his poem thus, Hanh emphasizes the importance of understanding that our time on Earth, in the physical garb that we have been given, our time is indeed limited. Prebish and Keown articulate that the basic premise of human permanence is derived from the Buddhist notion that all things that originate, have a duration and then must end and decay (209). Therefore, as is evident, mortality is a truth that cannot be denied because nothing is permanent and there are no exceptions to this rule even if one would like to deny it. In every paragraph of this poem, Hanh suggests that he keeps changing form and keeps arriving, but each time before he arrives, he has to …show more content…
Early Buddhist teachings have suggested that everything in the world – whether living or non-living, is liable to perish with time and during this time, change occurs continually on the entity, continuously creating change and metamorphing into something else. In his poem, Hanh goes an extra step and ties the concept of impermanence to connectedness. Connectedness is a concept used in the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhism, which was introduced not in the early Buddhism, but in the later years. This concept, which is also thought of as a “middle path” in the Buddhist tradition, suggests that all phenomena in this world arise only on causes and conditions, and are therefore conceived in dependence to many other things (Scott 148). Therefore, along with a lack of permanence, humans are also endowed with a lack of an intrinsic being of their own. Hanh uses this concept and modernizes it by alluding to the real-world problems. He brings attention to the starving children in Africa, the innocent people fleeing from war ravaged countries who are never able to make it to shore to seek asylum, or the politburo and concentration