Teddy, reincarnation, vedantic/buddhist angles. . .

Sundeep Dougal (holden@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in)
Fri, 30 Oct 1998 14:42:13 +0500 (GMT+0500) 

I think I have rambled on this list about my rather inchoate take on Teddy
beofre, and much as the very idea of even remotely seeming pedantic pisses
me off no end (I don't mind _being_ pedantic), I think a revison to my
entry in the FAQ in progress on the "Ramakrishna Angles"

(still residing at http://members.tripod.com/~SundeepDougal/faq.html)

seems to be called for.

Teddy is supposed to "hold pretty firmly to the Vedantic theory of
reincarnation." [Or, more correctly, as Teddy holds, "it isn't a theory,
it's as much a part --"


Each Veda (literally, "knowledge") is divided into four main sections: (1)
Samhitas or mantras, (2) Brahmanas, (3) Aranyakas, and (4) Upanishads. The
Upanishads are the concluding portions of the Vedas and the teachings based
on them is called Vedanta (add "anta" meaning "end" to "knowledge" -- thus
"end of knowledge") The word "Upanishad" consists of three parts: Upa
(near), Ni (down), and Shad (sit). Thus Upanishad means "sitting near a
teacher and receiving knowledge." Technically, there isn't really a
religion named "Hinduism" as that is referred to as a way of life, but I am
digressing towards areas that this is hardly the place for. Anyway, the
theories of rebirth or reincarnation in the Vedas proper are quite
different from those in the Vedanta, the latter being considered as evolved
and later modifications.

Teddy's (and, indeed, Salinger's) interest is primarily in Advaita or
"non-dual" monistic Vedanta. For more on this, please see the entry in the
FAQ above, actually to be more precise,
http://members.tripod.com/~SundeepDougal/faq.html#Ramakrishna 

But back to Teddy. Here, I'd basically quote an old post of mine:

I [...] do not see Teddy as "Vedantist," despite the direct references. 

Sure, there are references to believing in reincarnation, the fact that
he is pre-scient and so on and

        >>*  Pouring g-d into g-d

is definitely as good an Advaitic concept as any, but then there are
more Zen references in this than in any other story per word (infact,
per se). Two haikus. Plus the allusions to the "sound of a tree
falling" and "butterfly dreaming" Zen koans. 

Sure, it is the most overtly *religious* or *mystical* story but it is
more unitary or syncretic in approach in terms of alluding to the concepts of,
atleast, Christianity, Buddism and Vedantism. [and to that an extent it
goes well with what Buddy later has to say in S:AI -- see note]

The chronology suggests
this to be soon after the time when JDS begins to attend the
Ramamkrishna Center at NY, and it seems to have all the zeal of a new
convert. Which is not to suggest that a new convert cannot be a "true"
believer, but my opinion on this is that Teddy only has the tip of the
iceberg. Vedantism really starts gushing out in Zooey, S:AI and Hapworth.
By S:AI he's ofcourse manifestly angry at the iconization of Zen by the
pop culture and is dissocaiting himself from it and
by Hapworth, Advaita Vedanta is major.

Infact, while reading Vivekananda, for which thanks are due largely to
JDS, (I only had a cursory acquaintance with his writings before I came
across JDS. I am sure my fascination with almost all the JDS work grew
because of the allusions to Vedanta and stuff, which in true
recursiveness fuelled the interest in Vednata) I was struck by the
parallels between the "pouring god into god" and how apparently
Vivekananda himself got converted to Advaita (non-duality) [from his
hitherto held beliefs in Brahmo Smaj which teaches a theistic
philosophy] while eating:

        "[...] I sat down to take my meal, but found that everthing -- the
        food, the plate, the person who served, and even myself -- was nothing
        but That [Brahman]..."

But overall, IMHO, despite Teddy bursting at the seems with more direct
Vedantic concepts, is equally influenced by Buddhism. Even the views on
education, resonate as they do with the Vedantic "Know Thyself" also
echo the "Buddha mind", which is ofcourse inevitable, considering that
Buddhist thought is an evolution of the Vedic...Heck, this post really
seems, even to me as an exercise in pedantry in its nit-picking, as all
the subsequent Glass stories also are as imbued with other religious
philosophies. But the point I wanted to highlight here was that in
Teddy, Zen thought is almost equally as predominat as Advaitic
Vedantic,

Now, for the time being, I think I'd shut up, unless I am tempted to do a
majorly didactic post on reincarnation in Vedic, Vedantic and Buddhist
thought. But, for now I think I'd rather go and watch South Africa play Sri
Lanka in that most spiritually uplifting game of cricket.

Sonny

---
* Buddy says in S:AI: (a fair usage quote, considering the length, context
and so on, so Ober& Associates should be satisfied)

 " ... because I am neither a Zen archer nor a Zen Buddhist, much less a
Zen adept. (Would it be out of order for me to say that both Seymour's
and my roots in Eastern philosophy -- if I may hesitently call them
'roots' -- were, are, planted in the New and Old Testaments, Advaita
Vedanta, and classical Taoism? I tend to regard myself, if at all by
anything as sweet as an Eastern name, as a fourth-class Karma Yogin,
with perhaps a little Jnana Yoga thrown in to spice up the pot. I am
profoundly attracted to Zen literature, I have the gall to
lecture [...] and what little I've been able to apprehend [...] of the
Zen experience has been a by-result of my own rather natural path of
extreme Zenlessness..."