The Allegory of the Sea Turtle

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As we prepare for our four day mediation course in the jungles of Northern Thailand, I have started reflecting on some Buddhist philosophies on life and meditation. From what I can tell, a monk’s life is anything but easy, and it doesn’t seem like they have much fun. Most of their days are spent living a very simple existence as they aim to clear the mind through meditation and accept that life is little more that a constant state of suffering.

The monk who wrote the book I am reading, however, states that although every day is not a party, there is much to be grateful for. Buddhists believe in the idea of samsara and reincarnation; they believe that the first thing everyone should be grateful for is the fact that they are born human. In his teachings, Buddha provides an allegory for how rare and special it is to have been born human. In his allegory, he tells the story of a sea turtle that lives at the bottom of the ocean and a fisherman who has thrown a piece of wood into the ocean. Buddhist teaching suggests that the odds of that sea turtle rising from the bottom of the ocean (this particular turtle comes up only once every one hundred years) and touching that piece of wood floating on the ocean are better than the odds of being born a human and not something else, like a sea slug.

Regardless of whether you believe in reincarnation or not, it is a powerful thought. What an opportunity to be able to live in a healthy human body and mind! Every moment is a gift and we have been given the freedom and the ability to do with it as we wish.

As I look around China, I cannot help reflect on how quickly the country has wished itself rich. If life’s riches were measured solely on the amount of expendable cash the average citizen has, than China has joined the ranks of the wealthy in less than ten years. I have, for instance, seen more quarter-million dollar vehicles on the road here than I ever thought I would see in my life. Everyone has an iphone and all that glitters and sparkles is alive and well in Guangzhou.

Despite this glistening facade, as Sean and I listen to some of our Chinese friends speak about their lives, I have quickly realized that there has been a heavy cost to this material change and people have paid (are paying) in time. Instead of spending time with their friends and doing what they enjoy, people are spending more time at work slaving away to buy the things that will ultimately find their way into a landfill, perpetuating the consumer culture that has become a way of Western life. They, like so many of us, have become a product of the toys that in actuality own them.

Even with such a strong Buddhist foundation, the Chinese appear to be walking a path where the quality of life is measured and determined by the accumulation of stuff.

Let me, however, digress for a moment and consider this last thought. This idea is neither new nor was it invented by the Chinese. This week, while teaching a lesson on Humanism, I discussed Thomas More’s notion of Utopia as described in his 1516 book “Of a republic's best state and of the new island Utopia”. One of the more interesting quotes in the book is when More comments that, “No living creature is naturally greedy, except from fear of want - or in the case of human beings, from vanity, the notion that you're better than people if you can display more superfluous property than they can”.

The notion of life being intrinsically intertwined with material goods has been around for a long time, and I am sure that if I read even older literature, I will find twinges of it there as well. I wonder what is so attractive about this concept that keeps humanity stuck here? Is it a lack of self confidence? A way to limit ourselves? Or is it the only way we know to understand ourselves?

I hoped that the philosophy that quietly led the immaterial Chinese Buddhists all these thousands of years would gain precedence and defeat the system that measures life in a way so diametrically opposed to theirs. I hoped that this would occur naturally as China rose as an economic power.

Alas, I think the odds of that happening are as good as that tiny sea turtle rising to the surface of the great sea every hundred years and managing to find that sliver of wood thrown by the farmer that happened on its course in that slight moment of time.

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Photos

A Chinese man with his sea turtle
Friend or lunch?