{"id":2367,"date":"2013-05-09T20:27:25","date_gmt":"2013-05-09T19:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?p=2367"},"modified":"2013-05-12T09:13:10","modified_gmt":"2013-05-12T08:13:10","slug":"this-is-water-david-foster-wallace-and-buddhism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/05\/this-is-water-david-foster-wallace-and-buddhism.html","title":{"rendered":"This is Water: David Foster Wallace and Buddhism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The commencement address that David Foster Wallace<\/a> gave in 2005 at Kenyon College has just been re-posted on youtube with a little visual help from filmmakers known as\u00a0The Glossary<\/a>.<\/strong> As the filmmakers state, \u00a0\u201cthe resulting speech didn\u2019t become widely known until 3 years later, after his tragic death. It is, without a doubt, some of the best life advice we\u2019ve ever come across, and perhaps the most simple and elegant explanation of the real value of education.\u201d After 3 days it has over 1.5 million hits.<\/s> After 4 days it has over 2.5 million hits.<\/p>\n

See why:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xmpYnxlEh0c&<\/a>\n

The text (in part):<\/p>\n

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says \u201cMorning, boys. How\u2019s the water?\u201d And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes \u201cWhat the hell is water?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude, but the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance, or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

[skipping to the end]<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.<\/p>\n

I know that this stuff probably doesn\u2019t sound fun and breezy or grandly inspirational the way a commencement speech is supposed to sound. What it is, as far as I can see, is the capital-T Truth, with a whole lot of rhetorical niceties stripped away. You are, of course, free to think of it whatever you wish. But please don\u2019t just dismiss it as just some finger-wagging Dr. Laura sermon. None of this stuff is really about morality or religion or dogma or big fancy questions of life after death.<\/p>\n

The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death.<\/p>\n

It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is water.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The original speech (the above is an abridged version) made its way in to a book of the same title: This is Water:Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life<\/a>.<\/p>\n

~<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cover for \u201cEvery Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace<\/a>\u201d by D.T. Max<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After his death in 2008, many wondered about his religious beliefs. As Eric Been writes for the Atlantic<\/a>\u00a0(in an interview with D.T. Max, author of a biography of Wallace published last year<\/a>):<\/p>\n

One part of the book I found striking is when you discuss how he developed an interest in Buddhism<\/a>, but as you write, it was always hard for him to \u201cunderstand that Buddhism wasn\u2019t a course you tried to ace.\u201d He seemed to have the same issues when it came to Christianity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think some people have tried to turn David\u00a0into some kind of Thomas Merton figure, but whereas Merton found God, David found God in the form of a 12-step program. Part of the 12-step program that he found hardest to accept\u2014and therefore in my mind most exciting to think about\u2014was faith. I don\u2019t think the Judeo-Christian God ever satisfied him. I think he found it hard to put his skepticism away and feel faith.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wallace\u2019s descriptions\u00a0of the world, both the samsaric suffering, and the way to its end, seem to resonate clearly with many Buddhists today<\/strong>. As Sam Mowe wrote for Tricycle<\/a>, \u201cAwareness. Compassion. Freedom. While this speech is probably considered the most \u201cBuddhist\u201d of Wallace\u2019s work (his \u201cThis is water\u201d bit at its conclusion might as well have come straight from Dogen\u2019s mouth)\u2026\u201d And, \u201cWallace must have meditated. Those physical descriptions\u2014insects crawling over the body and shooting out of the head\u2014are just too real for him to not have. Indeed, many of Wallace\u2019s characters seem aware\u2014hyper-aware\u2014of the samsaric nature of their minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh Korda of\u00a0DarmaPunx NYC<\/a> likewise took an opportunity to meditate on the words of David Foster Wallace [DFW],<\/p>\n

While what the buddha calls \u201cour run of the mill mind\u201d or DFW \u201cdefault self-centered settings\u201d is a profoundly distorted and stress inducing creation, it nevertheless stays intact because, after all, it is the way things \u201cappear to be\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014DFW starts off his talk with the story about fish that don\u2019t know what water is<\/p>\n

\u2014the appearance that the sun revolves around the earth<\/p>\n

\u2014most of [us] live our lives without questioning all of our thoughts, views, opinions, not realizing that, as they are filtered through the prism of self, they are likely to be delusional<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But Ryan Zee of blogcritics<\/a> seems to have the best analysis of a possible (and indeed likely) influence from Buddhism on Wallace \u2013 either directly or indirectly. After discussing the overlap between Wallace\u2019s speech and Eckhart Tolle\u2019s book, The Power of Now<\/a>, Zee concludes:<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean to suggest that Tolle\u2019s book itself influenced Wallace or his speech. (Although the fact that they both use a fish metaphor at one point to characterize an absence of consciousness is definitely odd.) Buddhism seems a much more likely common influence. I\u2019ve already mentioned Tolle\u2019s interest in Buddhism, but as D.T. Max made clear in his recent biography, Wallace also became enamored with Buddhist philosophy<\/a> later in life. Future studies of Wallace\u2019s work might find Buddhist philosophy an unlikely source of insight<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And yet, as Wallace himself said, this isn\u2019t about religion, it\u2019s about the capital T-Truth we are seeking in this life<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 so perhaps those interested in Buddhism or Buddhist philosophy because of how it seems to speak clearly about the human condition should be asking themselves not only how Buddhism might have shaped Wallace, but also how Wallace\u2019s ideas and insights might help to better shape Buddhism \u2013 and non-Buddhism \u2013 in the future.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The commencement address that David Foster Wallace gave in 2005 at Kenyon College has just been re-posted on youtube with a little visual help from filmmakers known as\u00a0The Glossary. As the filmmakers state, \u00a0\u201cthe resulting speech didn\u2019t become widely known until 3 years later, after his tragic death. It is, without a doubt, some of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-buddhism","category-meditation"],"yoast_head":"\nThis is Water: David Foster Wallace and Buddhism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The commencement address that David Foster Wallace gave in 2005 at Kenyon College has just been re-posted on youtube with a little visual help from\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/05\/this-is-water-david-foster-wallace-and-buddhism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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