Buddha Mama?

I'm in the middle of reading Bangkok Haunts, John Burdett's third novel about one of my favorite characters of all time, Sonchai Jitpleecheep. Sonchai is a thirty-ish Bangkok cop who co-owns a brothel with his mother (his father is a white American who split after the Vietnam war). Sonchai is also basically the only cop left in Thailand who doesn't take money from suspects, criminals, and the like. John Burdett's "Bangkok" series is a fascinating jaunt into the southeast Asian mindset: Sonchai is a devout Buddhist who has some interesting justifications for, say, commercialized prostitution (despite his abhorrence of commercialized pornography). According to John Burdett's Wikipedia article, "Sonchai's internal dialogues are a cross between Sherlock Holmes, Carl Jung, and Buddha."

What the heck does this have to do with your baby blog, you ask? Well, being the dutiful librarian (read: nerd) that I am, I've been reading up on Buddhism a bit since getting into Burdett's third "Bangkok" installment. Turns out there's even a Shin Buddhist "congregation" at the college in my town! (Interesting, since there's not even a damn Starbucks within 10 miles, but that's beside the point) Anyway, what really interests me about Buddhism is its focus on life as a journey of enlightenment, its acceptance of suffering as distinctly human (and a way to enlightenment), and its emphasis on compassion for ourselves and others.

Without going into detail about a horrible tragedy that happened in the town where I work recently, or about the callous disregard with which people treat one another on the highway or in other public or even private spaces, I will say this: I want to be kind, loving, compassionate, and respectful of others. I want my child to do the same.

In the end, I want to be measured not by what others have done for me, but what I have done for others. I want to be able to love without thought for what it "costs" me. In particular, this quote struck me:

"...life is a bumpy ride, but the universe is fundamentally good; it is our ego-driven life that causes most of the suffering but luckily our self-centeredness can be transformed into a source of wisdom and compassion."

Since Buddhism does not purport to offer salvation through a higher power, but rather through ourselves, it offers hope through the belief that despite the fact that we humans are the cause of most of our own sufferings, so too can we be the solution.

I think this also appeals to the Libertarian in me (the whole self-reliance thing, and all), but I won't go into that right now, in the interests of keeping the post brief.