Osama bin Hydra

The other day I visited the local Borders Bookstore. Apparently I'm not the only person who uses the mega bookstore as a convenient reading room; the really industrious visitor might even utilize it as a research library. Have you noticed that the chairs that used to be found in every nook and cranny of these stores have all but disappeared? Could it be that the corporate owners don't want us, the reading public, to get too cosy in our perusals of their books and magazines? Nowadays you have to schlepp your pile of reading material to the cafe in order to find a place to sit, or else you plop your bony butt on a low, hard footstool. Very inconvenient. Anyway, I came across an article in a monthly publication of spiritual interest that explored the differences between the Eastern and Western mentalities in a striking manner. What follows is a summary of that article:

In the Tibetan tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism there exists the popular legend of Machig Labdron, a yogini who was empowered (initiated) by the Great Mother Tara herself. Machig, having attained a high state of enlightenment, perched herself in a tree overlooking a lake. Everyone around avoided that lake because demonic spirits were said to dwell in it. The resident demons challenged Machig's insolence by amassing a great army of spirits and attacking her. Because Machig was ego-less, the army could not engage her and dissolved into nothingness. The lake beings were overawed. They surrendered to Machig and became her servants in the cause of good.

There is a parallel tale that comes down to us from Ancient Greece, a tale that illustrates a decidedly different method of dealing with an enemy. One of trials of Hercules was to conquer the nine-headed monster known as the Hydra. When one of its heads was lopped off it grew back immediately. Hercules cauterized each stump (a little grizzly, isn't it?) to prevent that. And then there was the problem of the last head which was immortal: he simply buried that one under a large boulder to dispose of it (perhaps planning a barbecue later...).

These two legends say a great deal about the Eastern and Western approaches to confronting adverse forces. Machig, from a perspective that realizes that there is no 'other', that both the self (ego) and the 'enemy' are illusory, dispels adversity and transforms it into an ally. Hercules (an incarnation of male machismo if there ever was one) attacks the enemy and overcomes much of it by brute force; the last vestige of it is buried (repressed) somewhere, perhaps to rear its ugly head again in the future.

I don't personally practice Vajrayana, but I recognize wisdom when I see it. Machig is credited with developing the practice of chod, a means of confronting our own demons and transforming those energies into our allies. The essence of that teaching is in realizing the true nature of things. The Western world has consistently pursued policies of brute force and/or repression in dealing with what it perceives to be an enemy. Consider what would have happened after the trauma of 9/11, for example, if we had approached that situation differently, if we had really examined and delved into the source of world conflicts instead of lashing out in an aggressive manner and embarking on a senseless war. And where have the misnamed 'War on Terror' and the forceful occupation of Iraq brought us? Does brute force solve anything, or does it just create new problems? Haven't we, through our lack of wisdom, created Osama bin Hydra?