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what size is your fun?
Nov. 1st, 2002 12:01 pmabsolutely no trick-or-treaters came up to my apartment, so i have a bowl full of those little "fun sized" snickers bars to eat now. hopefully in moderation, and not all at once. the outlook is not good. I know people have remarked about "Fun Size" before, it was even something Bart wrote on the blackboard during the Simpson's intro..."Fun does not have a size." I don't wonder how the M & M & Mars people came up with the idea of "Fun Size," probably a whole crew of creatives trying to figure out a way to make more packaging, less product, seem like a good thing. i just wonder if they knew how Buddhist they were being by making Fun's size so small?
You see, all things, including good things, are ultimately "Dukha" in buddhism. "Dukha" is most commonly translated to read "Pain" or "Suffering." All things are painful. All is suffering. This is a particularly western translation, and reflects the sort of Calvinistic bent that we automatically apply to any religion... suffering leads to salvation. The actual translation is closer to "Dissatisfying." A concept that on the surface, and to westerners trying to understand the much more forgiving tenets of buddhism, might not seem so bad, so they pressed the much more imposing "Suffering" stamp onto the philosophy, so they could relate to it.
The buddhists simply mean that all things, in the end, will cause you to be dissatisfied in some way, even if that dissatisfaction is simply because the good thing you were previously experiencing has ended.
When asked to explain relativity, Einstein once said (and i'm paraphrasing) that people will experience a minute quite differently depending upon the context of that minute. for example, those that spent it on a hot stove would find a minute far more excruciating than if they spent that same minute with marilyn monroe. (once again, a suffering metaphor! Einstein was Jewish, it seems they have a pretty unforgiving mental analogy set as well,) buddhists are more open-ended... they might say that the minutes are the same, if one takes into account the after-effects of those minutes, and the dukha involved. one might have more dissatisfaction to account for with a minute with marilyn... one could regret about what could have been accomplished... whereas, when a minute on a hot stove is over, i'm sure one only regrets climbing onto the stove,and nothing more about it. it's all a matter of perspective, at least in the short term, unless you take into account the end result... dissatisfaction. When one does this, the relative load of each experince might be ultimately, equal. a minute is a minute kharmically speaking.
so it isn't odd, at least on a buddhist level, in fact, it's quite a lesson really, to teach to us westerners with our over-commercialization of everything, and our ultimate belief that a product can give us something that will fill our basic needs and desires, for "happiness," for "security," for "fun," that upon opening the bag, and unwrapping it, and devouring it and wanting another, that we find that "fun" can be so small.
(despite the generally gloomy nature of this entry, i'm actually not depressed at all anymore. in fact, i'm pretty happy. go figure? maybe i don't want to work for someone who doesn't have the good taste to hire me?)
You see, all things, including good things, are ultimately "Dukha" in buddhism. "Dukha" is most commonly translated to read "Pain" or "Suffering." All things are painful. All is suffering. This is a particularly western translation, and reflects the sort of Calvinistic bent that we automatically apply to any religion... suffering leads to salvation. The actual translation is closer to "Dissatisfying." A concept that on the surface, and to westerners trying to understand the much more forgiving tenets of buddhism, might not seem so bad, so they pressed the much more imposing "Suffering" stamp onto the philosophy, so they could relate to it.
The buddhists simply mean that all things, in the end, will cause you to be dissatisfied in some way, even if that dissatisfaction is simply because the good thing you were previously experiencing has ended.
When asked to explain relativity, Einstein once said (and i'm paraphrasing) that people will experience a minute quite differently depending upon the context of that minute. for example, those that spent it on a hot stove would find a minute far more excruciating than if they spent that same minute with marilyn monroe. (once again, a suffering metaphor! Einstein was Jewish, it seems they have a pretty unforgiving mental analogy set as well,) buddhists are more open-ended... they might say that the minutes are the same, if one takes into account the after-effects of those minutes, and the dukha involved. one might have more dissatisfaction to account for with a minute with marilyn... one could regret about what could have been accomplished... whereas, when a minute on a hot stove is over, i'm sure one only regrets climbing onto the stove,and nothing more about it. it's all a matter of perspective, at least in the short term, unless you take into account the end result... dissatisfaction. When one does this, the relative load of each experince might be ultimately, equal. a minute is a minute kharmically speaking.
so it isn't odd, at least on a buddhist level, in fact, it's quite a lesson really, to teach to us westerners with our over-commercialization of everything, and our ultimate belief that a product can give us something that will fill our basic needs and desires, for "happiness," for "security," for "fun," that upon opening the bag, and unwrapping it, and devouring it and wanting another, that we find that "fun" can be so small.
(despite the generally gloomy nature of this entry, i'm actually not depressed at all anymore. in fact, i'm pretty happy. go figure? maybe i don't want to work for someone who doesn't have the good taste to hire me?)
