Essay On Learning To Accept By Dostoyevsky
Dostoyevsky alludes to Buddhist philosophy in the ridiculous man’s dream. The ideas of everyone living happily, helping one another selflessly, and acting unattached all follow the most basic Buddhist teachings. The dream people are free from suffering because “they [desire] nothing… because their lives [are] full” (Dostoyevsky 730). They not only live without attachment, but beyond unattachment in an enlightened state of love and in “ “collective virtue…[which contributes] equally to the common good, including the happiness of all” as Mahayana Buddhism teaches according to Gordon Davis’ essay, Traces of consequentialism and non-consequentialism in bodhisattva ethics (275). The community does not feel pity for any of its members, only compassion.
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When the ridiculous man arrives to their paradise, they do not pity him, they solely “[long] to remove every trace of suffering from [his] face as quickly as possible” (Dostoyevsky 729). They know that helping each other makes everyone happier because they are all one; they are all part of the whole. The people are connected with everything around them. They talk lovingly to the trees “as though they were talking with beings like themselves” (Dostoyevsky 730). They coexist and interact with animals and the ridiculous man believes that ‘in some curious way they [commune] with the starts in the heavens, not only in thought, but in some, actual living way” (Dostoyevsky 730). The dream people “[look] at the whole of nature” with intense love and connectedness (Dostoyevsky 730). Dostoyevsky illustrates a paradise from reaching or being born into Buddhist enlightenment.
The dream people live in a way that further frees them from suffering as defined by Roger Bastick in his article Learning to Accept.
For instance, when members of the community die, there is no mourning because it seemed as though “they [communicate] with the departed after death, and that their earthly union was not cut short by death” (Dostoyevsky 731). They believe that after death, “a state of still close communion with the Universe at large”, but they do not suffer in wait of this next part of their life, “they [look] forward to this moment with joy, but without haste and without pining for it” (Dostoyevsky 731). Furthermore, they love children at birth and “[rejoice] in their new-born children as new sharers in their bliss” (Dostoyevsky 731). Additionally, there is “scarcely any illness among them” (Dostoyevsky 731). Thus, they do not find suffering in “illness, death…[or] the craving of non-being,” also known as birth, (Bastick). Buddhists consider these sufferings to be “an unavoidable part of life,” however, because the dream people live in an enlightened manner, they elude suffering (Bastick). After the ridiculous man corrupts them, they childishly “[succumb] to the desires of their hearts,” going as far as to “[build] temples and [begin] offering up prayers to their own idea, their own ‘desire,’” (Dostoyevsky 734). They desire to understand the world and the laws of happiness which they did not have before. Ironically, this brings them immense suffering. Dostoyevsky constructs a perfect world which the desire for knowledge and order disrupts the most simple and loving form of happiness. In fact, the dream people believe that their desire for happiness “[cannot] be realized and brought about” and they will not return to their previous enlightenment if given the option (Dostoyevsky 734). They have been so corrupted by desire for material goods and laws of happiness that they no longer want to live selflessly. Dostoyevsky suggests that living with
compassion would require self-discipline because the ridiculous man taught the dream people to be selfish. Compassion is no longer an inherent part of the dream people’s society.
When the ridiculous man arrives to their paradise, they do not pity him, they solely “[long] to remove every trace of suffering from [his] face as quickly as possible” (Dostoyevsky 729). They know that helping each other makes everyone happier because they are all one; they are all part of the whole. The people are connected with everything around them. They talk lovingly to the trees “as though they were talking with beings like themselves” (Dostoyevsky 730). They coexist and interact with animals and the ridiculous man believes that ‘in some curious way they [commune] with the starts in the heavens, not only in thought, but in some, actual living way” (Dostoyevsky 730). The dream people “[look] at the whole of nature” with intense love and connectedness (Dostoyevsky 730). Dostoyevsky illustrates a paradise from reaching or being born into Buddhist enlightenment.
The dream people live in a way that further frees them from suffering as defined by Roger Bastick in his article Learning to Accept.
For instance, when members of the community die, there is no mourning because it seemed as though “they [communicate] with the departed after death, and that their earthly union was not cut short by death” (Dostoyevsky 731). They believe that after death, “a state of still close communion with the Universe at large”, but they do not suffer in wait of this next part of their life, “they [look] forward to this moment with joy, but without haste and without pining for it” (Dostoyevsky 731). Furthermore, they love children at birth and “[rejoice] in their new-born children as new sharers in their bliss” (Dostoyevsky 731). Additionally, there is “scarcely any illness among them” (Dostoyevsky 731). Thus, they do not find suffering in “illness, death…[or] the craving of non-being,” also known as birth, (Bastick). Buddhists consider these sufferings to be “an unavoidable part of life,” however, because the dream people live in an enlightened manner, they elude suffering (Bastick). After the ridiculous man corrupts them, they childishly “[succumb] to the desires of their hearts,” going as far as to “[build] temples and [begin] offering up prayers to their own idea, their own ‘desire,’” (Dostoyevsky 734). They desire to understand the world and the laws of happiness which they did not have before. Ironically, this brings them immense suffering. Dostoyevsky constructs a perfect world which the desire for knowledge and order disrupts the most simple and loving form of happiness. In fact, the dream people believe that their desire for happiness “[cannot] be realized and brought about” and they will not return to their previous enlightenment if given the option (Dostoyevsky 734). They have been so corrupted by desire for material goods and laws of happiness that they no longer want to live selflessly. Dostoyevsky suggests that living with
compassion would require self-discipline because the ridiculous man taught the dream people to be selfish. Compassion is no longer an inherent part of the dream people’s society.