True to form as the Peanuts franchise’s resident philosopher, Linus accidentally stumbles on Shantideva’s philosophy and epistemic ideas in the Bodhicharyavatara (Way of the Bodhisattva) when he declares that one can not only expand one’s love and compassion to envelop all of existence (Linus’ inclusion of plants and all creation is a very Mahayanist orientation), but also do so in a way that does not even require cognition and therefore the generation of karma.
To love without the need to think is, in not a few streams of thought in the Great and Diamond Vehicles, the highest and most enlightened articulation of bodhisattva practice. I am not surprised that Linus grasps it so effortlessly and instinctively.
From Snoopygrams (Instagram)
