19.11.09

the Buddha, ready for the road

"I wandered through the rounds of countless births, Seeking but not finding the builder of this house. Sorrowful indeed is birth again and again.  Oh, house builder! You have now been seen. You shall build the house no longer. All your rafters have been broke, Your ridgepole shattered. My mind has attained to unconditional freedom. Achieved is the end of craving"
The Buddha 
(cited in Epstein, M. (1996) Thoughts without a thinker - Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective. Duckworth Press)
What an idea, that the builder, once seen (known), falls from his broken rafters, and with him, the dweller. As if having a home is a craving one might move beyond. 
And craving to wander ceaselessly, might there also be a builder of this who might fall?  
I think the Buddha is saying so. Craving itself is what is built, the object of the craving may be broken by being seen/known, the rafters might fall, and the craving end. 
I think about the differences between the concept of craving here, and the concept of desire in Lacan. How do they converse? For the object of craving to fall, to be at the end, but not to give up on one's desire. 

No comments: