Last night was the second meeting of the new Hardcore Dharma class, which critics have already hailed as a commercial and critical success. Since our first class books have been purchased and (incomprehensible) sutras puzzled over. We began by reviewing the Four Noble Truths and the third one, “the cessation of suffering is attainable,” led a member of the class to observe  that the cessation of all suffering is a pretty lofty ideal and not, on the face of it, unlike some of the lofty claims made by other religions (“Heaven,” etc.). This led to a discussion of whether or not Buddhism is a religion and ended with the following exchange, which I’ve loosely transcribed:

Ethan: Fundamentalism is possible in any spiritual community. There exist – I could show you some very fundamentalist Buddhist communities in New York.

Class: (murmurs total and incurious agreement)

Ethan: And it’s seductive. It’s nice to have someone tell you what to think.

Person A: Because complexity is annoying.

Ethan: And if complexity is a synonym for interdependence, than this could be called the Annoy Ourselves Project. 

That one got a hearty laugh, and then we went right back to unquestioning agreement with our teacher.

Last night we also began our discussion of the fourth Noble Truth, the Eightfold Path (or, “Here’s how you do it.”), focusing on Right View. Ethan explained that while all views are relative, and one’s gaze is constantly conditioned by expectation to shape our way of seeing things, that there are right views and wrong views. This may sound contradictory, but I’m just explaining it poorly. 

Ethan used an analogy that I found quite useful. All views are relative and are not direct experience; they’re like map of someplace that actually exists. But it’s good to have a map of the territory you’re really in. If you want to take a walk around the East Village, it’s not very useful to have a map of Chicago – you want one of those laminated New York City street maps they sell at newsstands. That is to say, some maps are better than others, and in Right View provides a kind of map to the seven other aspects of the Eightfold Path. 

Ok, I’m sure you commentors are going to correct the bejesus out of me, but that’s ok. It’s late and my notes are sketchy. Suffice to say Hardcore Dharma presses on!