I have been looking into Buddhism and its philosophy for quite a while now, and while I find many ideas and practices there that I really love, and have even stolen a few for my own spiritual practice, there has always been a bit of a wall. There has always been something stopping me from fully embracing Buddhism.
At first I assumed that it was simply that the idea of “accepting what is” is the exact opposite of the witches call to “change what is”. However this seems a fairly superficial difference, and with a little thought could likely be easily solved.
And I had even come across schools of thought with in Buddhism and the philosophies of Dionysos’ followers that came together beautifully.
This was mostly within the idea of mindfulness- a key concept in Buddhism.
In Dionysian thought, He can be seen as the life, and vitality, and beat of the world. To stay in the moment, is to listen to the music of the world, is to dwell within Dionysos.
But the deal breaker, the thing that separates me from Buddhism most strongly, is the goals. My goals and the goals of Buddhism are almost antithetical, and yet might appear similar. And somehow it took me a long, long time to figure that one out!
THE goal of Buddhism is to eliminate suffering. A noble and ambitious goal, to be sure. But my goal in life is to fully experience, to full embody myself, and my life.
While this still sounds simply like mindfulness, I want to go beyond simply experiencing my life fully the way it is.
I want to experience my life fully, while also making it the most amazing, bright, dazzling, dizzying adventure it can be.
And I anticipate that suffering will come with that. Experienceing the full range of emotions seems rather fundamental to the full experience of everything that life can be.
I once heard a Buddhist acquaintance say that most people try to stand in the river and catch everything that floats by, taking, taking, taking. And that the way of Buddhism is to sit peacefully by the river and watch everything flow by.
Well I wish to take a different option. That of dive-bombing into the river, swimming and splashing around, having the most fun possible.