I’m posting this in the humor section although it’s more annoying than fun... Anyone else annoyed by the fact that Goethe got the whole story about Faust wrong from an awakening point of view? The devil in the story in a way offered awakening, albeit apparently without the morality training that should have been there, hence all the cruel behavior that would be an offense to the dharma. Faust got to be free from all suffering as long as he realized that everything was impermanent and did not cling to it - although there was lots of craving for new experiences and possessions and sensations, which is an important difference, so if it was awakening, it was a really distorted and greedy version of it. That’s not the awakening I would want. Still:
If Faust were to cling to a moment, he would lose his soul. Clinging is what makes us stuck with a ”soul”, though. Losing our selves is the goal, not the danger. When Faust got to that one moment that he wouldn’t want to let go of (where he said ”Bleibe doch, du bist so schön”), he was about to lose his soul. Then that innocent and compassionate girl, whatever her name was, cried for him and saved him. So the sensemoral is that clinging is a good thing and that keeping a separate self is what we should aim for. Embracing impermanence, on the other hand, is the work of the devil. Yay... How annoying is that?!
I never really liked Goethe anyway.
