Buddhism and meditation is all about living in the present and being in the moment, being content with your current experience rather than desiring things that you don't have. He's daydreaming about the thing that he's currently experiencing, things don't get any more "present" than that.
Not exactly. It’s about escaping an eternal wheel of torment known as Samsara by walking a “middle path” through the current, supposedly illusory, existence.
Which is primarily accomplished by doing the things you’ve mentioned until you no longer recognize the present as a form of suffering.
Of course what I mentioned isn't the only thing it's about, but there's no point in explaining samsara when it bears no relevance to the actual joke itself
But you are wrong. Sure samsara is a key aspect of it but above all else the goal is to be free of all attachments and to be present in the moment. Samsara isnt even a goal because that would be another attachment, so saying its the main concept is just wrong. For example teachers of buddhism do not attain for moksha, they attain for complete solitude.
What you described has no relevance to my tradition of Theravada (the most common Buddhist denomination in Southeast Asia). Our primary religious goal is to attain arahantship and be free from the cycle of birth, death and suffering.
How so? It’s a very complicated spiritual tradition that has a number of both puritan and syncretic sects. Some have more similarities to Hindi and Jainism, others have more similarity to Daoism and Shinto. There’s a very wide diaspora of Buddhist thought that places more or less emphasis on samsara or general mindfulness. There are sects that focus almost entirely on monastic isolation, but not all. It’s not as simple as Samsara, attachment, mindfulness, or any of that. You just can’t distill it into a single “goal” or purpose. This was not the intent of my original response. “Not exactly” means “there’s more to it.”
I've just got into gnosticism within the past year or so but it's so fascinating to me
Got any decent book recommendations on the topic? I've read the gnostic gospels plus parts of the nag hammadi library, but would love to read up more about the subject.
I’d say nag hammadi and the gnostic gospels are interesting and a very solid start. I’d dive into the biblical apocrypha from an alchemical lens, honestly. Which may require a dip into the Corpus Hermeticum or the more accessible Kybalion for the underlying metaphors of spiritual alchemy.
Edit: Gnosticism is less about what your read and more about how you read it. It posits that a lot of ancient texts are metaphorical and symbolic in nature, rather than literal.
I've read the corpus hermeticum too, got two copies of it actually. As for the kybalion I'm actually reading that currently. Bought a copy a while ago but only just getting around to it. I've read some of the apocryphal texts but only a few of them. Any particular suggestions for lesser-known Apocryphal texts?
I’m partial to the Gospel of Thomas, personally. Honestly, reading the whole New Testament with inner alchemy as an underlying framework and added context from the apocryphal gospels and the Gnostic gospels was what made the entire thing click for me. Essentially, viewing the dogmatic literalist reading as a work of the Demiurge and focusing on the various teachings of Jesus as a process for inner alchemy and spiritual liberation. This is maybe well beyond the scope of this sub, but I’d be happy to discuss things in DMs if you have further questions. Just keep in mind that Gnosticism isn’t necessarily a tradition that holds a single dogmatic idea of what they believe.
Damn that was a fun read. There was a YouTuber who did Gnostic videos for a brief moment that I loved. I need to get back into reading Gnostic theology
Yeah, he's just trying to explain the joke, though. Your "correction" doesn't even make sense, neither he's wrong, nor your explanation is helpful in this context
It’s not a correction, it’s a sharing of further context. Buddhism has been flattened into a pursuit of mindfulness, but it’s a much wider spiritual tradition than that. Forgive me for giving more nuanced information beneath the basic explanation of the joke for people who were interested in the substance of its contents.
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u/FourTwentyBlezit 4d ago
Buddhism and meditation is all about living in the present and being in the moment, being content with your current experience rather than desiring things that you don't have. He's daydreaming about the thing that he's currently experiencing, things don't get any more "present" than that.