{"id":13220,"date":"2008-10-20T14:44:25","date_gmt":"2008-10-20T06:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/?p=13220"},"modified":"2013-02-01T15:23:33","modified_gmt":"2013-02-01T07:23:33","slug":"adventures-zeph-tales-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2008\/10\/adventures-zeph-tales-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Adventures : Zeph Tales (15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from http:\/\/wp.me\/p54LT-3r7<\/a>, written in 2001…<\/em><\/p>\n

The First Existential Crisis You Ever Had<\/b><\/p>\n

When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of space of which I am ignorant, and which knows me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there, why now rather than then. \u2013 Blasie Pascal<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"TV<\/a>In the old apartment where I grew up, a 9-year-old, at about 6.30pm… I am watching TV’s weekday superhero cartoon. It’s about the greatest highlight of my day, what I look forward to all day. It ends at 7pm \u2013 a mere 1\/2 hour of the day’s 24. And I would notice the already dull orange coloured curtains behind the TV, highlighted by the dull orange hues of the setting sun. It was a ‘highlighted’ fact to me that it was the end of another day, the death of day, the end of another day of my life, the death of some time in my life \u2013 the daily passing away of what I do not understand \u2013 life… Sometimes it sends chilling yet sad shivers down my spine, mixed emotions in motion.<\/p>\n

It is amazing how I was able to shrug off the feeling,
\nday after day,
\ntill I grew up.
\nIt is amazing how the cartoons fulfilled me,
\ngiving me some reason to live for the next day.<\/p>\n

It is amazing how we are still able to shrug off such feelings now,
\nafter we grew up…
\nday after day,
\nwith distractions of non-cartoons,
\nof so many other things,
\nassumed grown up, mature…
\nfrom studies to career, to relationships and all…
\nthat distract us
\nfrom truly asking
\nand truly answering the question \u2013
\n‘What the hell are we doing HERE,
\ndoing what the hell we are doing NOW?’<\/p>\n

We have spent all the time of all our past lives,
\nall the time of this very life,
\nto arrive to this very point \u2013
\nwhere I write this very line,
\nwhere you read these very lines \u2013
\n‘So what now?
\nWhat now?
\nWhat?
\nNOW?’<\/p>\n

I see the primal existential crisis we had,
\nas that when we were born,
\nan abrupt (re)entry into this world and life,
\nbrawling, kicking, unwilling,
\nappalled, system-shocked.
\nWill we go through this again?
\nIs there a point?
\nHave we not learnt yet,
\nto take the coming of a new life graciously?
\nTo arrive smiling, peaceful?
\nOr is this possible only when we are returning for our last life,
\nas a Buddha-to-be?<\/p>\n

Bohemian Rhapsody \u2013
\nare we not the bohemian wanderers of the cycle of life and death,
\nsinging the sad song,
\n‘I don’t want to die [or be born],
\nsometimes I wish I’d never been born [or died].’<\/p>\n

It is amazing how we grew up
\nunbrawling, unkicking, willing,
\nunappalled, systems okay \u2013
\nwhen all that happened was that
\nwe had learnt to successfully shrug off our existential crises,
\nagain and again,
\ntime and again,
\nlife after life,
\ndeath after death.<\/p>\n

We had yet to start living,
\nas long as we had yet to start asking for what we live.
\nLet us relive the crisis,
\nlet us relive,
\nso that we can be truly relieved of the crisis.
\nThe greatest sickness
\nis shrugging off the primal sickness.
\nMay all beings get well soon.<\/p>\n

Maybe we are to be real superheroes after all \u2013
\nto be Arahants, Bodhisattvas and Buddhas,
\nto save ourselves,
\nto save others.
\n____________<\/p>\n

A sidenote
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

X-men, The Incredible Hulk,
\nThe Silver Surfer, Spiderman & His Amazing Friends
\nare now shown on weekdays on TV12’s Kids Central
\nat 5pm \u2013
\nso many years later.
\nAnd I remain fascinated \u2013
\nby the cartoon Bodhisattvas who strive to save the world.<\/p>\n

And the TV screen is much bigger,
\nand in the new apartment,
\nthe setting sun is not behind but at the side.
\nI still can’t get enough…
\nBut is not the point is to be a true superhero?
\nNot just to be entertained by superheroes?<\/p>\n

Mahapurisa<\/em> \u2013
\na Pali term to describe the Buddha \u2013
\nMaha means Great or Super
\nPurisa means Man or Human.
\nSo the Buddha is the original Superman after all,
\nthe real thing, the true hero.<\/p>\n

Continues at http:\/\/wp.me\/p54LT-3rj<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from http:\/\/wp.me\/p54LT-3r7, written in 2001… The First Existential Crisis You Ever Had When I consider the short duration of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mix","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}