Monday, August 20, 2007

Beautiful Oblivion?

Right meditation is not escapism; it is not meant to provide hiding-places for temporary oblivion. Realistic meditation has the purpose of training the mind to face, to understand and to conquer this very world in which we live.

-Nyanaponika Thera, "Power of Minfulness"

It seems a bit odd to see a quotation about meditation using the word "conquer," but, otherwise, I like this quote. It's tricky--for me, anyway--getting to a state of non-thought without escaping into temporary oblivion--and that kind of escaping is very tempting on some days.

1 comment:

Ms-Chievous said...

I just don't see anything wrong with temporary oblivion.