Finding+Enlightenment

Finding Enlightenment

I personally find a problem with the paths that these Buddhist monks take to find enlightenment. I think that monks that subject themselves to hermitage have already gone too far, but I could understand why they would think that hermitage would help them to attain it. I love camping, or just being in solitude in the outdoors, there is something different about it, like you can feel closer to God because you are witnessing his creation in all it’s splendor. But I don’t think that the key is experiencing it at all times, I think it would work out better if they simply made the effort to be in nature frequently enough to bring back the feelings that nature brings that are lost in civilization. But Siddhartha goes through some of the strangest methods in seeking his enlightenment. By joining the Semanas and depriving himself of basically every living commodity I just don’t understand how anyone could think this would be a good thing. The only thing I can see that it could do for someone is help them to appreciate bodily necessities and to build up a tolerance to pain and suffering. But I don’t think that monks are trying to achieve that, they are trying to blot out their own desires to life’s comfort, and by depriving themselves of everything I think that they would actually build a greater desire for it. Perhaps it was different for them, but anyway that I look at it, I just don’t see a point to lying in a thorn bush for so long you stop bleeding and it stops hurting. Siddhartha really should have studied biology and learned about sensory adaptation. (When exposed to a constant stimulus our bodies will stop responding to it) Self-deprivation and masochism just doesn’t float my boat. I think that a good path to enlightenment would involve much more love. It would also involve selflessness, but not making yourself nothing, just putting others first. I think that leaning and experiencing life in all its varieties would bring one closer to enlightenment. In the end what is most important is being able to wake up in the morning and feel overwhelming joy to have the chance to experience a new day and to be able to observe this beautiful earth and enjoy it with the ones you love. Maybe my thoughts are just too different from a Buddhist’s, but If I could spend a little time hanging out with Siddhartha, I would let him know of the way I think he could be much happier and enlightened.