It was difficult for me to accept at first that there's no place in most Buddhist teaching for what we think of as romantic love. Given my own record of 90-day relationships, giving it up shouldn't have made much difference.
Even as cynical as I am about the promises our culture and media hold out in front of us, I had kept hanging on to hope.
But Buddhism is, in some ways, about giving up hope. We give up hope for getting the shiny, pretty, glittery things in exchange for the seeking of things which are less shiny and glittery but more reliable, less maddening and disruptive and, we hope, more satisfying.
Here's a pretty decent web page on Buddhist teaching on different kinds of attachment, including romantic love. (Check the section called 'Notes on "Ordinary" Love.')
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