The Manifestation of God

This reading struck me as intruiging, then compelling, then contradictory, and ultimately (as usual) difficult to digest.

I felt the wave metaphor was an effective way of conveying the idea that by understanding our existence as one of many waves made of water we can come to terms with the interrelatedness of our self with all of the elements in our environment and shed individual fears about our isolated existence.

When the author states that "to speak about and distribute ideas is not the study or practice of buddhism", I find contradiction in the fact that this is precisely what the author is doing, but that seems only natural since speaking is essential for others to learn about these viewpoints.

I think there is a great deal of validity to the idea that much of the fear and anxiety that people face every day is the result of a yearning to be closer to a spiritual dimension that all humans desire. Faced with percieved realities of death, isolation, meaning, and loss, people experience anxiety and seek answers, it is natural, and by achieving a keen awareness of their own place and role in this world, they can substantially reduce these anxieties. However, I beleive that the human condition is unique from other beings on this planet, and that our capability for thoughts and feelings and choice make us both unable to escape the real limits of our existence (something that buddhist enlightenment seeks to achieve) and subsequently the fears and anxieties that accompany that reality.

For example, even though my dead wife has transitioned into a new form, I will still miss the old form. Which is not to say that there isn't something to be gained by coming to terms with that grief, but it will not erase the grief. In the same way, regardless of where my human form ends up in the cycle, I have no way of being sure that I will ever regain the consciousness and feeling that I experience today, and that creates an anxiousness that I find hard to extinguish using the thinking in this reading.

I don't want to sound negative, I think that an awareness of our extremely interconnected role in our world is crucial to a healthy understanding of the effect we have on people and things around us, but I don't beleive it is possible for a conscious mind to escape the anxieties that accompany our limited existence.