Mondaugen/Bodhisattva

[Richard Romeo]

Well, maybe this is a product of my hazelnut coffee-addled brain, but seems 
to me a bodhisattva is one, yes, who has obtained enlightenment, and wishes 
to help others in the path he/she has made, i.e., they have had a 
life-transforming experience, a total reorientation as to the spin of the 
earth, the glow of its creatures, etc. This entails not only ecstasy but 
ego-defending horror, us schlubs, needing to split these conflicting 
emotions into a dichotomy, putting the stain by the name to quote Peter 
Gabriel. Now good old Moon Eyes has been through alot in Africa and with 
Weissman, he has been transformed, but his is, to us, not to him, a demonic 
enlightenment, but me thinks, Pynchon is alluding to the fact that all 
transformations share certain elements, and only the objective viewer will 
make draw a line b/w its beauty and horror--which to the subject there are 
no such distinctions. What better metaphor to use to describe such a change 
if not a religious one, one we may cringe away from.

Rich
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