Myth and Attention

In a post on a discussion list, someone spoke about the way tradition can blur the meeting of a historical figure with the subsequent myths that arisde around the figure: "...even Buddhism has some blurring when it comes to Siddhartha."  I responded with the post below, which brought me some further thoughts on the subject I am still mulling over. I am tucking the words away here for future reference.

Rather say that Buddhism as a formal tradition naturally has some of this "blurring." Myth is a normal part of the formed tradition, which serves egoic understanding - rational thought. When we approach things experientially, doing the practice, we do not need myth. - it serves no purpose and holds no attraction.

When we approach things rationally, thinking about the practice as opposed to doing it, myth can provide a very useful synopsis of what is being taught. It can also reinforce the faith needed to try the experiential approach.

Jesus, Buddha, George Washington, Newton - whatever the myth and the tradition it serves, it is valuable only as a thought-tool, a symbol which can be manipulated by the conscious egoic mind in its endless quest to translate all of reality into a conceptual model. Myth allows us to get a mental handle on the lesson and predict what will happen when we use it. This is the job of the thinking mind and it is quite proper for it to act so.

Of course, being enlightened and awake individuals, we all know that it would be unhealthy for us to confuse this thinking mind with our Selves...:). It is a computer, a handy and effective survival tool which occasionally goes a little out of control and overruns the consciousness it serves and is part of. A facet of the gem, no more or less than any other face.

That doesn't mean we should condemn it, though, any more than we can condemn a saw that fails to produce a straight cut. Carpenter and saw work as a unit to produce the cut, and so the thinking mind is but an aspect of the person. If I blur the historical human being with Siddhartha with a myth of the Awakened One, this is not my Evil Ego but rather simply a normal effect of where my practice is, which facet my attention is focused on. I accept it, then I continue practicing.

D