Posted on 03/26/2008 8:45:03 AM PDT by tang0r
There is much confusion in the Western world over the basic tenants of Buddhism. Many Westerners believe that Buddhism is -- a) a religion circulating around the worship of a portly Asian sage (often gilded or bronzed and meditating near the door of your favorite Chinese restaurant holding the mints and toothpicks), b) involving a lot of sitting in uncomfortable positions, and c) coldly atheistic or fancifully pantheistic (depending on which section of Wikipedia you consult)
Of course, when inspected closer, these stereotypes and inadequate attempts of pigeonholing a religion that has neither formal creed nor “divine” teachings is absolutely useless.
At least in the Judeo-Christian sense, Buddhism is not a religion. Instead, Buddhism is more like a collection of insightful observations centered on a single principle- the study of what is. A Buddhist isn't interested in what might or what should be- he is simply interested in analyzing reality as it is, without undue romanticism or abstraction.
(Excerpt) Read more at theprometheusinstitute.org ...
What you have written is typical for new age thought. There is a difference between the Holy Spirit indwelling us, and us being god. Christians believe that we are separate from God because he is his own “entity.” We do not believe that god is in all and is all. He does not dwell in non-Christians, according to the Bible. And he is not a tree or a rock or the wind or us.
What you say about the hierarchical power structure may be true of some denominations (catholic?) but not most of them. And we believe there is only one mediator between God and man: the Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t need people to mediate for us.
I am not “afraid” of meditation any more than I am “afraid” to join a witch coven or jump off a building. It is not consistent with who I am as a Christian, and it is unbiblical.
You have just forgotten.
“Many lives have we Arjuna,
you know just one,
I remember them all.”
Krishna.
Walk with Krishna on the battlefield......of life.
Whose modern Buddhism is like that? Not mine. : )
That is an incorrect view. Nirvana is just the other side of the coin from Samsara. Realizing Nirvana is not ultimate enlightenment it is just a POV. Ultimate enlightenment is also not some kind of nothingness it is the realization of Dharmakaya which is the actual reality. The state of the unmanifested potentiality of all things. Rather than nothingness, which is another concept that creates a duality (if there is nothingness there must also be something of permanence to make that comparison), Dharmakaya is everything. She probably knows that but couldn't convey it to you in a way you could understand.
If our spiritual fulfillment depends on what WE do, then we become our own saviors.
She is wrong if she put it that way too. The real meaning is that there isn't anything to be saved from. Buddhist practice doesn't aim to change anything it leads to the realization that nothing needs to be changed. Everything is perfect as it is. The article talks about this.
Those are concepts.
When all beings are freed from desire there will be no new Buddhists. ;^)
In ten years of practicing Tibetan Buddhism I have never done that nor been instructed to do that. In fact I was told in harsh terms not to do that.
I appreciate the rest of what you have said but the part I bolded is not correct at least in the school of training I am a student of. There are many kinds of meditation but the type you are referring to does not stop thinking or turn of ego or the mind. It is simply watching thoughts, emotions...the mind... without attachment. That means that no judgment is made about anything that arises even the cessation of thoughts. One observes whatever arises in mind and then lets it go. There is nothing more to do. What one discovers inside, with diligence, is what is. What always has been.
Sarwa da mangalam. (Always auspicious.) : )
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You are also a concept..
A mental construct.. observing and being observed..
Well, what you describe would also be wrong for a Christian, because we are told to “test the spirits” to see if they are from God or from Satan. Not judging things and simply observing is, in a sense, turning off the mind. If a spirit tells you that “all is one” and that “the divine is you,” then you would not allow yourself to judge these things to determine who is speaking to you, and determine whether the ideas are true or not. You would just accept whatever came along. Essentially, you would be opening yourself up to anything.
That is exactly right. All concepts are a fabrication that creates a duality.
Not at all. Watching the mind operate without interfering with it for thirty minutes a day does not effect discernment. Part of the process of observation is to look at each thought and see it for what it is before letting it go. Dismissing it, as you suggest, is the same fault (in meditation) as attaching to it. It is making a judgment about what the thought is not what it means.
Fiction MUST make sense, reality does not have to make sense..
Buddhism makes too much sense to be real..
There are many schools of Buddhism. To dismiss what someone else has been taught as incorrect may not fairly recognize what is ‘correct’ under some spoke of the umbrella.
I didn’t dismiss what someone else was taught. I don’t even know what she was actually taught. But the difference in the various schools is primarily in approach. What I outlined may not be the approach used in Hinayana or Theravadan Buddhist schools but the principles are the same. The only “schools” of Buddhism that might differ on that would be some extremely small sects and by so doing are not teaching what the Buddha taught. From the description given above she is not with one of those fringe exceptions.
That is a thought. : )
"Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha."
Gone, gone, beyond gone, completely beyond gone, enlightenment, Hail!.
Whatever it takes one to cross the ocean of forgetfulness, this remains the unexcelled, the unequaled, the unsurpassed, the most excellent Mantra. Whatever the raft that takes one across, it will be dismantled.
Nothing is identical with itself.
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