The Grinch Meets The Buddha

Stealing Christmas and Giving It Back

I have long loved the Dr. Seuss character, the Grinch, especially the 1966 animation narrated by Boris Karloff. The green guy seems to be very popular this year. I have seen him featured on more clothing and do-dads than on previous shopping trips. His bright, chartreuse green color is my favorite. It reminds me of new leaves in the Spring, a symbol of hope and regeneration. Perhaps that is why Dr. Seuss gave him that color, to remind us that if such a curmudgeonly character can change his ways so can we. I have been eyeing an ugly Christmas sweater at the local Walmart that is screaming green with a white and neon red, fair-isle pattern surrounding a portrait of the Grinch on the front. I never wear such things, but this year I want to. I need to remind myself that hope exists and the dark won’t last forever.

December can be dank and gloomy in the Northern Temperate Zone, where most of the world’s population congregates. The weather is not comfortable and the days are short. After the longest night of the year, winter solstice, daylight gradually increases for the next 6 months, encouraging fertility and growth.

Midwinter celebrations are a cross-cultural thing. We bring evergreen foliage into our homes and decorate it, prepare elaborate feasts, and reconnect with the people we love. We stave off the gloom and isolation as best we can because we can’t be bears and hibernate through it, although many of us may try. Ugly Christmas sweaters like the one I am attracted to have become a cultural and commercial attempt to bring humor into wintertime struggles.

Dr. Seuss’s story says that the Grinch’s heart was 3 sizes too small, and that is the reason he was so grumpy and mean.

According to the Buddha, The Three Poisons are greed, anger, and ignorance. The Grinch hated Christmas, and was extremely annoyed by all the merriment and good cheer ringing up from the valley to his cave. For whatever reasons, he was bitter and angry. I don’t think he was greedy for material objects as much as he was greedy for affection, encouragement, and reassurance that he was important to someone.

My guess is he was clinging to past wrongs, real or imagined, and ruminating about his “bad luck” and how the world had “done him wrong.” I heard someone use the phrase, “attachment to past pain”. The concept of being unable to let go of previous hurt because we are afraid of change, of what may be required of us in order to move out of familiar ruts, is a type of attachment that we may not immediately recognize. Fueling anger is an attempt to isolate ourselves from past hurts. Mr. Grinch was greedy for continual reassurance that his anger was justified.

Ignorance, especially when we are proud of it, is a way of defending our sore spots. If we reach out, try to understand and learn about why we are hurting, most often projecting it outward rather than accepting it as part of who we are, we don’t have to be accountable for our actions. We may not feel like we have the power or resources to pull off the bandages and examine the wounds, not feeling worthy of healing. Because of his nasty behavior and defensiveness, no one had connected with the Grinch in a way he could understand. His ignorance was in the unawareness of the intentions behind his actions and his refusal to be responsible for the consequences.

Then he encountered Cindy-Lou Who in the last minutes of his rampage. Intending to keep himself out of trouble, he gave her a drink of water and put her back to bed. I wonder if the simple act of kindness, no matter how it originated, planted a seed in his shrunken heart to grow and bloom the next morning.

Despite his efforts at destruction, the morning of the holiday found the residents of Whoville holding hands in the town square and singing together, the very thing that annoyed the Grinch the most. The decorations, food, and gifts he had stolen were unnecessary for their ritual. A bright light shone in the center of their circle as they sang. In the stories of Siddhartha Gautama’s enlightenment and transformation into the Buddha, a bright star shining in the East in the early morning was the impetus for his intuition and understanding of suffering. Dr. Seuss said the Grinch’s heart grew 3 sizes that day, symbolic of the impact of insight and the birth of compassion. He recognized the universal energy that animates all life.

We long for strong adult figures to intervene in our lives and solve all our problems, relieve our distress. We dodge personal responsibility for our circumstances. It’s tough to face reality and become accountable for our actions. I don’t know where the idea arose that there is “something” apart from our small selves that will wrap us in fuzzy blankets and feed us. We never forget infancy and we spend much of our time trying to replicate it.

During December in the Northern Hemisphere, the brightest star in the early morning is Jupiter. It is the largest planet in our solar system, the fifth planet from the sun, circling in its orbit between Mars and Saturn. In Roman mythology, he was the king of the gods, the Big Daddy associated with higher learning, luck, philosophy, expansiveness, generosity, and personal growth. Nice things to consider mid-winter as we make plans for the upcoming year, aren’t they? He may be said to be a progenitor of Santa Claus. It sounds as if they support the same things. I have read suggestions that the star in the east the wisemen followed to the manger could have been Jupiter.

Buddha nature? Mu? The Abyss? The Void? Christ consciousness? Herald angels? Whatever you want to call it. You may describe it as a sudden understanding of the interconnectedness of all beings and our interdependence upon each other. The realization that we are not separate entities, but part of an immense, unending whole. We have tried for centuries to name it, explain it, and drape it in mythology relevant to our social circumstances. To my knowledge, no one has ever pinned it down, although many have tried. I don’t think our mammalian brains can wrap around it on an intellectual level, which is our automatic default. Such insights are beyond intellect and rely on intuition, while our lizard brains insist on concrete evidence.

Whatever it was, whichever deity assign to it, the “click”, the insight, the realization of Grace, brought home the fact that we are not alone no matter how hard we may try to be. None of us can survive isolated from each other. Whatever we do has effects on the world and the world affects us. We may never know the results of our actions, but we don’t need to. It is enough for us to be aware of our intentions and resolve to act with as much compassion and kindness as we can muster up. It’s not always easy and our egos demand that we protect our delusions, but stories such as the Grinch’s show that it can happen to the worst of us..

Max, the Grinch’s faithful, beleaguered dog, is an example of how even such a stinky curmudgeon had to depend upon someone else. Siddhartha’s initial foray into uncharted territory (for him) was supported by Channa, his charioteer. Other teachers throughout history had accomplices and disciples, too. Max was dressed up as a faux reindeer with a horn tied to his head and pulled the Grinch’s sled down the mountain to Whoville and back up again. He is the faithful, uncomplaining sidekick and comic relief in the story, yet is the fulcrum for the action. Without him, the Grinch would not have been able to make his Santa outfit from a curtain or haul the goods back and forth to Whoville, yet the Grinch gets most of the attention and glory for being such a dramatic character.

Like Max, so much of what we do may go unnoticed and unappreciated. Max did not jump into the Grinch’s project wholeheartedly. He was anxious and reluctant, yet he is an example of faithfulness and patience. Buddha taught that in order to survive and flourish in Zen (Life) we have to have great doubt, great faith, and great determination. The Grinch and Max demonstrated those characteristics well. Cindy-Lou was the impetus, however quiet, for Mr. Grinch to reevaluate his values. He was forced to say he was taking the tree into the shop to repair a light. Perhaps he was uncomfortable lying to such a sweet innocent, who did not immediately reject him.

I think my future Christmas sweater should feature all three. Max for great doubt, Cindy-Lou for great faith, and the Grinch for great determination.

However you celebrate, may your midwinter be warm and safe, and full of good things shining in the early morning starlight. If you have enough to share with those that don’t have enough, do so quietly with grace and compassion. The Star in the East is going to shine whether we have a lot or a little. As the Grinch’s adventure taught us, it’s our need for each other that is important, not the shiny baubles.