‘This Is Water’

It just struck me that in his famous 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address, David Foster Wallace is basically teaching Vipassanā. Without the cheesy music.

*

I suspect if I bump into either Wallace or the Buddha in some afterlife, I’ll get beaten up for the above observation. ‘I’m a total non-violent kind of dude’, the Buddha will shriek as he chases me with a spectral katana, ‘but you really pushed the limit here.’ After a while, tired, I’ll stop, and he’ll swing and lop my head off. ‘Told you to be mindful,’ he’ll say.