I think another core aspect people often forget about Buddhism is that intent matters when practicing and understanding its concepts. From this perspective one cannot reach Nirvana without letting go of the ego self fully. Although a comedic scene, this concept is perfectly portrayed in a conversation between Clancy and the Bird: “This is the Buddhist perspective at least. So, from this perspective, let’s consider spiritual practice. Any spiritual practice thats, like, trying to get to something… “im going to become more spiritual. I am going to become more loving. And im going to make some change. Im getting points somehow. I’m changing. [Clancy] Yeah. “The Buddhist perspective is, “Dude you’re grinding World Of Warcraft” “Step the f*** away from the computer.” (“Annihilation of joy” 10:58) The idea is that we need to step away from this belief that we are going to ‘become’ something through the practice of Buddhism because that sort of defeats the whole point. Buddhist philosophy is built on this idea. In the story of the Buddha, he attempts to become spiritually enlightened through traditional methods at the time, but in the end feels no enlightenment. He then realizes that part of the problem is that we make the path to enlightenment about ourselves which still constrains us in the illusion of self. Another way to look at this is through the Buddhist idea of Duhkha. This is essentially the root of our suffering and the idea that we are consciously aware of the fact that everything is in flux. This is actually quite a scary idea. That everything will change eventually and that we will be faced with our own mortality. But it is not this idea on its own that causes us suffering. It’s also about what this idea leads us to. We want things that will fill this void and that is what causes the suffering. It is everything that we do to get away from this feeling that is the root of our suffering.
Another idea that is tackled within the episode is the topic of ‘roles’ and this is actually quite relevant in Busshist thought. The bird character implies that he is only playing a role and that we are all doing so within our regular lives. This lines up with Buddhism in a few ways. Buddhist thought on the matter is that these roles and categories we confine ourselves to is part of our inherent suffering. In modern times we ground ourselves in these categories. For example, being the type of person to own this or that car or other commercial goods. We categorize ourselves by where we live, what we eat, what games we play. This is all part of an ‘identity’ that we have of ourselves. But for Buddhism this is nothing more than a ‘role’ that we have taken on. There isn’t any inherent essence or importance in those sorts of things. If anything, our constant need to compare and categorize ourselves only leads to more suffering.
One of the most important parts of a show is its title, and Midnight Gospel nails it. Annihilation of joy refers to multiple aspects of Buddhism. When they speak about annihilation of joy, I think the main thing they are getting at is that in Buddhism there is a sort of destruction period where you have to tear down the walls of ideas you’ve had about the self and the world and that can be sort of terrifying. For example, Buddhist monasteries especially in China and Japan could be very strict about hard work and dedication. It’s not easy to leave everything behind and work to achieve enlightenment in Buddhism. So part of that is the process of tearing you down and building you back up. These ideas can be especially difficult to fully understand in a Western society to someone who isn’t necessarily used to these concepts. It can be a difficult process. Another way we can understand the title Annihilation of joy is through the idea of letting go of the sort of fake ‘joys’ that are associated with the ego self. For example, the joy of fitting in with your friends by buying the cool new thing. The sort of superficial things which we do still cling onto. These “false” connections are what Buddhism thinks of as the source of our suffering. That’s why it would make sense that we’d want to annihilate them.
Midnight Gospel is a Postmodern interpretation of ancient Buddhist practices and philosophical ideas. In the end there might be more logical sources for real deep philosophical discussions, but for someone who had no idea what Buddhism even is they might come out of this episode a little bit smarter. Buddhist philosophy and moral systems are very unique but often grounded in the idea of helping people. I like the idea of helping regular people suffer less in this crazy messed up world and I think introducing more people to these ideas will only ever be a good thing.