In the buddhist tradition, “eternalism” and “nihilism” are known as the two extreme views  •  they describe two different ways of hiding out, of removing ourselves from the rawness and intensity of immediate experience  •  eternalism is like escaping into a fantasy world where everything is OK; we choose to see only those things that make us feel secure  •  it’s kind of like living in a mental gated community where we don’t go past the gates: within the gates things are fine, and outside, who cares?  •  nihilism, on the other hand, retreats from pain by assuming nothing will work out, by not investing in or caring about anything  •  if you don’t care about anything, how can you be hurt?  •  in both cases, blindness is required  •  the path lies in facing life in all its richness and complexities without hiding out  •  we may find ourselves drawn to one extreme or the other in response to what arises, but the idea is to come back to the middle, not to hide out or be stuck in either extreme.

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