Some years ago, after graduating from fashion design school and starting to work full time, I never picked up any books to read anymore. Back then I saw reading and studying only as a way for me to get a job to make money from my job and to get rich. I hated reading, so the day that I left school, I was so happy that my freedom had finally arrived. One day I realized that my life was no longer holding together because of my limited of knowledge and wisdom; I realized that I didn’t have any literature to support me and improve my life. My friend introduced me to Buddhism, and my master teacher started forcing me to read all kinds of religious and spiritual books from all different countries. This literature has broadened my narrow view of the universe. Buddhism has taught me that we must stay unprejudiced so we can receive benefit from anything we read and learn.
When I first met my master teacher I had been out of school for twelve years. I forgot what it was like to pick up the book again. At first, he asked my friend to lend me two books, and I would use the excuses that I had to work and take care of my children that I didn’t have time to read those books. My friend told me to take as long as I needed to read them and she was not in a rush to have the books back. I felt bad to hang onto the books and was afraid to lose or damage them, so I tried to read them in the subway. At first I would only read a few lines and then fall to sleep because I was tired from work and reading just so boring. Those two books took me six weeks to finish, although each book only about a half inch thick. When I called my friend to come to pick up the books I was relieved.
The day she came to pick up those two books, they were replaced with other books. Immediately my pressure came, and she would reply with the same answer. I didn’t know how to say no, and I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, because she was suffering from stage four cancer. This time I finished books in one month and I was able to read a few pages before falling to sleep in the subway. She continued to drop off more books by: The Dalai Lama, J. Krishnamurti, OSHO, A.H. Almaas, Pema Chodron, Ajahn Chah and Shunryu Suzuki, and others. A few months later after reading these books, I noticed a change.
I slowly let go of my bias and prejudice of what was good or bad for me. I started to go to a Chinese book store in Flushing to buy my own books, and even started ask my master teacher to send me books from Taiwan. The first time I went to Taiwan to visit my master teacher, he gave me nearly thirty books! They were not just Buddhism books, some were Psychology, Chinese Madison, Asterism, Gardening, how to eat healthy, etc. This was the first time in a long time I ever felt this happy as I paced my suitcase with books.
Terry Eagleton’s essay describes that in many societies, ‘literature’ has served highly practical functions such as religious one; distinguishing sharply between ‘practical’ and ‘non-practical’ may only be possible in a society like ours, where literature has ceased to have much practical function at all. (8) I was one of the person people from such a society - literature had no used for me, until religion showed me the whole word of “literature”. It felt just like a little frog move out the bottom of a well. I didn’t know the sky (literature) is that big, and there is no edge of it.
A lot of sutra and teachings from Buddhism are often used in a lot of stories as examples to help people to understand the meaning behind it. Even though this literature was written hundreds or even thousand years ago, people today might not live the same way as in old ancient times. But the way the stories were written, it’s still relevant for people today to understand and benefit from it. Many of the Buddhists writing have hidden teachings behind it, requiring us to interpret the literature for its true meaning. For example: if someone is always selfish, all he or she is thinking about himself or herself. Therefore, nobody would want to be friends with them and that person will become unhappy and lonely, because all that person thinks about is me, me, and me. But reading Buddhism books often relate examples which teach that helping other people and making other people happy can also bring happiness to oneself.
“Anything can be literature, and anything which is regarded as unalterably and unquestionably literature” (Eagleton 9) which my master has taught me well, he taught me that not only Buddhism books are beneficial but that I should read all different kinds of books. After two years of reading Chinese books at home, he gave me a new instruction – to go back to school to improve my English and to obtain a master’s degree in any subject of my choice.
It has taken five long years to finally become an actual student at Queen’s College. I was out of school for too long, and needed to get through tests such as ACT and Tofel, but still my English reading skill was still far behind everyone else, even though I had been studying a lot of books in my own language. It was extremely difficult, but I know now that any text book reading and any courses are going to benefit me. This college experience has opened my mind even further to the endless amounts and types of literature – text books, novels, essays, and so forth. “Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech” (Eagleton 2). I have grown from the idea of simply reading a book I felt was boring, to experiencing an entire world of literature.
I decided to major in Philosophy, not because this major is easy or popular. As Eagleton writes “A piece of writing may start off life as history or philosophy and then come to be ranked as literature; or it may start off as literature and then come to be valued for its archaeological significance” (7) – I want to understand more about how people think? Why do people suffer from destructive emotions? Why do people believe in weird things? Through studying the history and literature of this field, I wanted to not only understand my own life, but be able to help others.
There is so much more than I can learn out there. I found Eagleton’s essay interesting because it asks the basic question “what is Literature?” For me, reading a Sociology text book is literature, solving a math equation is literature, so is taking a Biology lab class. All this knowledge did not just appear one day when we woke up in the morning, it is gathered from so many authors who used a lot of effort to write down and pass down the information that is still so valuable to contemporary life today. Without all this literary knowledge that has been passed down through history to use as a starting point, we would not even be able to create and discover more knowledge for ourselves today.
Before, I would not say that Buddhism’s teaching is literature, because it gave me the impression that all Buddhism was just chanting and studying sutra, nothing else. After I have gotten to know them and practice them, I have found that Buddhism’s teaching is literature, the more I get to know Buddhism, the more I realize how little I am, compared to the whole world. Literature is our everyday life and life is literature, it is impossible to separate them because without life experiences, literature would not exit.
From my early narrow view of literature and how much I didn’t like to read, until today where I enjoy a wide variety of subjects, Buddhism has encouraged me to expand my horizons and real all kinds of books. Now I can appreciate many types of literature. I believe, no matter what type of literature it is, as long as we have open mind, reading any kind of literature can be a benefit to our lives.
Works Cited
Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An introduction. The University of Minnesota UP, 2003. Print.
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