These are some of my favorite lines--inscribed in both English and Sanskrit on the stone walls of the New Temple of Shiva in Varanasi, India:
It seems to me that the most dangerous net of illusion is self-deception.
On the other hand (I hesitate to include this just as the flames of fury are subsiding on this thread but...) this provocation was asked of me one evening at a gathering of Hindus in Georgia: "How can you learn compassion when your mouth is filled with blood?" It followed remarks I had made concerning carnivorism.
Yes--self-congratulation is a trap. It can be one of--apparently limitless--forms of snobbery. Some of the most unaware people I have met have been spiritual snobs. I'm sure you've met quite a few also.
I think there is an element of release of worldly traps in my loss of desire to kill and eat animals. It seems that the path to enlightenment may involve more release than anything else.
If my understanding is correct, at the moment of death there is a flash of brilliant light, the seizure of which, by the deceased, if he can hold on to it, will provide release from the samsara. This is described in the Tebetan Book of the Dead, if I understand correctly.
I could not hope to seize the flash of light, i.e. escape the samsara and the maya, trusting in my own personal resources (a little hint of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer there); however, the grace of God can provide infinite resources (a bit of Judeo-Christian imagery there) (it's all maya, of course), and I think that if I can release enough impediment to the reception of God's love (sin in Judeo-Christian terms), the embrace of the flash of light will come naturally--and easily.
It is my challenge to release as much resistance and impediment as possible--not for the self-serving purpose of seizing the light of maya escape (which, of course, is another illusion)--but for the purpose of opening myself as completely as possible to Him--or, in Hindu/Buddahist terms, to enlightenment.
I just finished a fascinating book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger, one of the modern world's most underrated authors. The plot turns on Christian mysticism. The theme of this excellent novel is the triumph of virtue.
The climax of the tale is a confrontation of Cesare Borgia, utterly saturated with evil and worldy desire, with a Christian saint, a nun, Sister Lucia da Narni. Both characters are expertly drawn as larger than life by Shellabarger.
The saint hears the word of God. When Borgia asks her why he doesn't hear it, she tells him that it's because he will not listen.
In the scene, Borgia has everyone and everything within his power, and he is determined to wreak evil, including revenge and cruelty. He even threatens the saint with torture and death. However, the saint proves more powerful, and on this crux the plot of the tale turns.
It is quite a fascinating work of literature, and the author's unselfconscious invocation of spirituality (it was written in the 1940s) mocks the cynical aspiritual pseudosophistication of today.
Truth can be found everywhere.
It is said that this is all an illusion created by the three poisons of the mind, ignorance, anger and desire (also translated as attachment). That is all self-deception. It is the ego-clinging that attaches to the idea that the self has some substantial existence, some kind of permanence, an existence apart from everything else.
The observation that compassion can be a trap is a good one.
The teachings say that the path itself can be the biggest trap (usually described as an obstacle, obstruction or downfall). It is not compassion but the ego-clinging of identification of self as compassionate that is the trap. If you think of yourself as special because you have developed compassion, loving kindness and other virtues you are solidifying the notion of self on the basis of those things that are supposed to help you let go of that idea. It's a sticky wicket and is said to have the potential to lead to a downfall faster and further than anything else.
"How can you learn compassion when your mouth is filled with blood?"
An interesting provocation indeed. I'll bet they were drinking tea when they made that challenge. ; )
Having very little PCness left in me I might have responded "How can you learn compassion believing you exist apart from Samsara?"
It seems that the path to enlightenment may involve more release than anything else.
"Letting go" is how it has been presented to me. Same thing. Letting go of ego-clinging, letting go of conceptualization.
If my understanding is correct, at the moment of death there is a flash of brilliant light, the seizure of which, by the deceased, if he can hold on to it, will provide release from the samsara.
That is close but not exactly correct in my understanding. I don't know if that's really important to you or for you right now but if you want my thoughts on that FReep-mail me and I will try to describe it as taught in Tibetan Buddhism.
Truth can be found everywhere.
Truth is truth. It has no brand name on it, no one has cornered the market. It is right in front of our noses and always has been. Yet almost no one grasps it. I am as certain of that as I have ever been of anything yet I still haven't been able to put my finger on it. When I am able to let go of trying to put my finger on it another obstacle will dissolve.
I found more than I expected to when I poked you with a stick. Whatever you are doing it seems to be working so keep doing it. If I drew you into revealing more than you wanted to I'm sorry about that but if flames arise let them and let them dissolve back into the vast expanse of mind they came from. They have no more substantial existence than the reflection of the moon on water.
Excellent post - I’ll remember to read your posts in the future.