TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THAT IS THE BUDDHIST QUESTION

Whether or not to be engaged in the world is the perennial question for Buddhists.

The approach in Hinayana Buddhism is to not be engaged, to be the lone rhino on the plain, so-called, to be a pratyeka-buddha, one who is in it for himself alone. Seek out your own salvation with diligence, was the Buddha's call. Hinayana, called the Lesser Way, the Lesser Vehicle, or the Little Raft, claims to be the only form that follows the original teachings of the Buddha. Since Hinayana is so oriented toward the individual, it is viewed negatively by Buddhists of other schools, such as Mahayana Buddhism. Hinayana these days is termed Theravada Buddhism, meaning the Teaching of the Elders, or the Old School of Wisdom.

Called the Greater Vehicle, Mahayana Buddhism is "other oriented." Their ideal is the Bodhisattva, the buddha who refuses final nirvana in order to return to the world to teach others how to become enlightened themselves. Mahayana Buddhists offer the entire world not only salvation by knowledge but by faith and love as well.

One's temperament has something to do with which approach he or she takes, but not everything to do with it. Some of us are solitary types by nature and have followed the original teachings of the Buddha from the start. Seeking out our own salvation with diligence was, and is, what resonates the most for us.

Something, however, has changed for me at least. That I am an old man now, or am becoming one rapidly, has something to do with it. I feel that I have lived my life, have had my shot at it, and therefore I have a feeling for other people that I did not have for them in the past. In Mahayana Buddhism this is called compassion. It is a been-there-done-that, you-have-my-sympathy, view.

My increasing age, however, is not the complete explanation for this. Buddhism grew out of Hinduism and so there are aspects of the latter that still work for the former. One of these is the idea of a shared consciousness. It has been called cosmic consciousness, the concept that life exists as an interconnected network of consciousness, with each conscious being linked to every other conscious being. In Buddhism this is referred to as Indra's net, or the Net of Jewels. Another analogy is a spider's web, where every dew drop on it reflects every other dew drop on it.

Still, cosmic consciousness, or common consciousness, is only a concept, an idea. How does one know it is true? All I will say is that I no longer shun the world but embrace it. Why would I shun myself.