Revisitation

• Buddhism and Gestalt by Philip Brownell, 12/6/96
  
  

Philip,

I remembered your interest in "escape from suffering" and its virtual conflict with the "satisfaction of desire"; that is, the relationship of two fundamental assumptions of Gestalt theory and Buddhist practice (and I maintain that a useful distinction between the two is, indeed, that of theory and practice). For me, these two assumptions are dialectical rather than contradictory; but my thought on this matter, at this moment, is not about clarifying the argument but to state the facts of my own existence.

I have no goal to escape suffering – and I can be only somewhat less declarative about the goal of satisfying desire. If I were in another universe, perhaps, I could then be the little devil who escapes pain and satisfies all appetites. I am not; I’m in this universe. My work – both as a Gestalt theorist and as one who often sits still and does nothing (they call this zazen, don’t they?) – is to take life in and on, and on its own terms. This is not an approach or theory of life; it is – at the risk of sounding tautological – how it is. Whatever it is, it brings exquisite pain; it brings unbearable happiness.

You have provided some excitement and growth, as well as some opportunity for stillness, in these discussions.

• ten months later by Arthur Roberts, 9/18/97