Buddhism and the Present World



Buddhism and the Present World

Introduction

Sisyphus is the mortal figure among several Gods in the ancient Greek myth, and the surficial meaning of this figure is to show that after a mortal disobeys the Gods, he or she will be drag down to the “Sisyphean” torture - "endless and unavailing, as labor or a task" (American Heritage Dictionary) For mortal, is there any way for getting out of pulling Sisyphus's rock, or getting out of the loop of being suffering? According to my family story, my aunt and uncle showed me two different ways to get out of torments. One was to take her life, because she believed that she could reincarnate after she had died and would not face the same difficulties in her next life; another one was to become a Buddhist monk, because he found that being isolated from the entire human society was a way to escape perpetual grief.

My aunt and uncle were the most familiar strangers to me, and I heard their story thousands of times while still child sitting at my mother's knee. To me, they were mysteries; to other family members, they were tragedies. I never met him in my first 15 years in this world, because my family told me that after his son died, his behavior forced his wife to suicide, and then he disappeared. This was the mystery of my aunt and uncle as it was originally told by my family members.

Discussion

"Our sky is imperfect now, and I cannot find something else to fill this vacancy. Sorry." This was the only sentence that he told her after the funeral. Later, he started to believe in Buddhism, and hid himself in his own room. No matter how many times that she knocked the door; he just kept silent and even ignored her. He convinced himself that if he believed in Buddha, one day he could relieve and live with his son in the paradise. What he should do at that moment was cut all his relationships and only have a relationship with Buddha (Seager, 2011). He literally dumped that woman in this world. She could not bear this sorrow, and she knew that sun had already abandoned the night, and without a star, the moon would be the only one in the dark. Sorrow, despair, loneliness swept her emotions. After six months, my aunt committed suicide by cutting her wrist. The blood on the wall was like the plum blossom blooms in the winter, so beautiful, so cruel. After three months, because of the sense of guilty, my uncle became a Buddhist monk, and started to provide tons of help to others.

According to the solar theory, Sisyphus is the disk of the sun that rises every day in the east and then sinks into the west. (Sisyphus) When the sunset means the agony, people should always remember that they have tomorrow and “tomorrow is another day” (Gone with the Wind).

At the same time, my uncle represents ...