Fwd: Re:to Dilip - about a few points on Buddhism

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Dear Dilip

Namaskar

First of all I´d like to thanks for your guidance in this matter because

I humble recognize that I don´t have the necessary knowledge to argue

with you. I´m very impressed with your logic and wise. You are a great

thinker.

But , without polemicize , because I respect all religions and

don´t like to discuss the belief of the others , I tried to explain that

I follow de buddhism, because there are no dogmas that you have to

accept as a true and without any contest ( these I call

"blind faith").

Buddha said: We must not accept anything , only for

hearing these things from others.Neither because the traditions or in the

reason of its antiquity:neither in rumors:neither in the reason of being

written for wise men, priests, etc; neither in fantasies like that were

we suspect that had been inspired by a Devas(spiritual

inspirations)etc.

But we must accept the doctrine and oral or written teachings when

corroborated with our reason and

consciousness.

Buddha said: I don´t teach you to believe only because you hear,

or I said , or anyone else said. I teach you to believe only when the

belief has some roots in your own inner self, then you must

proceed in conformity with your inner self, without any reserve.

Like you said, faith come from the heart , but depends on the discernment

and the development of the individual, to

follow the faith in a blind way or with consciousness.

But I´m according with

you; faith must exist, because there is no true without faith and

vice versa.

About reaching the perfect wisdom through reason, I think you need

both, the reason (Mind)and the heart.

WE must fuse both to develop the GREAT COMPASSION.

We use the mind to cultivate The Seven Links of Enlightenment that

begin with

MINDFULNESS, contemplating body and feelings, mind and mental states,

thought

and ideas, ardent, clearly conscious of them and mindful of them so as to

control the covetousness and dejection common in the world; followed by

INVESTIGATION of the Dharma, learning and remembering the doctrine that

leads to

True Reality, the Uncreated; followed by ENERGY of effort; followed by

ZEST;

then TRANQUILITY; then CONCENTRATION; and finally EQUANIMITY.

The Five Controlling Factors are: The Power of Faith, the Power

of Energy, the Power of Mindfulness, the Power of Concentration, and the

Power

of Insight.

The Basis of Psychic Power are the features of Desire, Energy,

Thought and Investigation, together with the co-factors of Concentration

and

Struggle, with the focus of will: "I WILL win, attain, realize and

abide in

Nirvana, the Deathless, the Unborn, True Permanent Absolute Reality

Realized,

right here and right now." And the practice that leads to the

cultivation of

Psychic Power to win the goal is the Eightfold Noble Path.

According to Buddhism, any "Being" that does not resolve to

attain Self-Enlightenment and True Reality will continue to

"reform" these constructed fabricated realities of sense

desire, form and formlessness.

Continuous future rebirth will be and each "life" will be good

or bad, happiness

or unhappiness, pleasure or pain, or a combination of the two, all

according to

the good or evil PAST deeds done of act, speech and thought, with MIND

being the

forerunner of all manifestations of constructed realities and created

fabricated

individual entity within such conditioned, made states of existence.

To awake from the fantasy, the first step is for the Self to investigate,

analyze and reflect on what is really going on around here, and thus see,

that ALL IS IMPERMANENT, and then to see and know that what is

impermanent, fleeting and subject to change is inherently ILL, ANGUISH

and UNHAPPINESS.

All craving, all addictions, all fetters MUST ultimately be renounced,

destroyed, ended, forsaken and abandoned in order to end all rebirth, to

end all renewal of false manufactured realities, and to win Nirvana, the

Deathless, the true permanent state THAT IS IN FACT THE ONLY TRUE

REALITY.

With the HEART we must develop the GREAT COMPASSION (BODHICITTA).

Geshe Chekhawa who lived in XI century ,was a great Master and wise,

extremely instructed and with a great experience in any forms of

MEDITATION. One day he saw the folowing lines in a book:

"GIVE TO THE OTHERS ALL YOUR PROFITS AND GAINS

TAKE TO YOUR SELF ALL LOSSES AND FAILURES FROM THE OTHERS".

The vast and almost unimagined compassion he saw in these lines,let

him stupefied and then, for 14 years he study a method to develop the

compassion, because to attain Self-Enlightenment we must practice the

compassion, not only in theory, through meditation, but in real life

acting in favor of the others, increasing our sensitivity toward other´s

suffering.

I think the big example in this century is Madre Tereza de Calcuta.

With regards

Yours sincerely

Virgilio

At 23:03 30/11/01 -0800, you wrote:

OM SRI GURAVE NAMAH

_______________________

Dear Virgilio

Namaskaraaith

 

After reading your letter , few

questions cropped up in my mind . These questions are about Buddhism ,

about which you have written in details. The questions are--

 

1. You wrote

I follow the Tibetan Buddhism

..

In fundamental Buddhism, the emphasis is on seeing Truth, on knowing it,

and on understanding it. The emphasis is NOT on BLIND faith.

You have written about Truth . Is it

not true that the concept of Truth about which you have written and has

accepted as something to search about, starts with a so called

"blind faith" ? If your heart seeks something to exists ,

then only you can follow it . You know that there exists what is known as

Truth . You know it with your heart first , which knows no reason but

something in you moves it , and you follow it . If you please allow me ,

I shall call it faith , faith in something which I know to be true , but

the existence of it is not firmly established in my consciousness . To

make it established in my consciousness , I follow the path of Sadhana-

the Spiritual Practice . So , your acceptance of the existence of Truth

starts with a faith in the belief of the existence of Truth.Without your

belief in it , how can you start your journey to it? This 'faith' , to

the reasoning mind is always 'blind' .

 

2. You wrote

 

Buddhism is

rational and requires personal effort, stating that by only one s own

efforts can Perfect Wisdom be realized

What do you mean by rational? Do you

follow the Path of Bhagavan Buddha with reason? Do you believe that you

arrive at Nirvana with your reasoning mind ?" Mind is an

ignorance-consciousness and its perceptions cannot be anything else than

either false , mixed and imperfect -- even when true , a partial

reflection of the Truth and not the very body of Truth itself " .

And to arrive at it , to arrive at Perfect Wisdom of which you have

written about , one has to reject the mind and make it quiet ,

either by observing the process of breathing as is taught in Vipassana

Meditation , or , by following the path of Sankhya Yoga where the

movement of the mind( in fact , the whole movement of nature is simply

observed) is observed by the sadhaka( spiritual practitioner) , and the

process of simple observation brings in the realization of the higher

consciousness called the Purusha - the whole process is the separation of

purusha and prakriti(nature) . This also gives the realisation of

Nirvana, the Buddhistic Nirvana-the realisation of an infinite zero

without a form or, the Adwaita Nirvana --the realisation of only One Vast

Existence without any separate being discernible anywhere .'Mind is

silent , thought has ceased.' "There is consciousness but only a

formless elemental consciousness without limits. "

Do you think you arrive at it with

reason ?

 

With regards

Yours sincerely

Dilip.

 

-- Original Message -----

Virgilio Victor

sjvc Thursday, November 29, 2001 3:43 PM Re: [sjvc] Lesson 2

Namaste all

My attempt to answer the assignments in SJVC Lesson 2.

1) Try to define the role of God in your life. I think , God doesn´t play any

role in my life, but he gave me the

big opportunity to live and evolve as a soul than, I´m very gratful for

this and in my humble condition, I´m doing my best to learn, to be a good

player in his drama ,that is life on Earth. I follow the Tibetan Buddhism . In

fundamental Buddhism, the emphasis is on seeing Truth, on knowing

it, and on understanding it. The emphasis is NOT on BLIND faith. The

teaching of Buddhism is on "come and see" but never on come and

believe. Buddhism is rational and requires personal effort, stating that by only

one s own efforts can Perfect Wisdom be realized. Each individual is

responsible for his or her own emancipation from anguish and suffering. Buddhism

allows each individual to study and observe Truth internally

and requires no blind faith before acceptance. Buddhism advocates no

dogmas, no creeds, no rites, no ceremonies, no sacrifices, no penances, all of

which must usually be accepted on blind faith. Buddhism is not a system of

faith and worship but rather it is merely a Path to Supreme Enlightenment. The

Buddha referred to his teaching as simply a raft to leave this

shore of suffering and impermanence, and to get to the other shore of bliss

and safety, True Permanent Reality, Nirvana. Upon realization of Nirvana,

the raft is no longer needed. The Buddha referred to his teaching as the Middle Path, called this

because it avoids the extremes of both self-indulgence in the world and the

self-mortification of strict asceticism. The path he taught

incorporates both intellectual progress plus spiritual progress with practice

that reflects compassion, morality, wisdom and concentration while at the

same time seeing and understanding the world of existence as it truly is. 2)

What have you done in the past one year to come closer to God? I´ve been

trying, to understand and practice the Eightfold Noble Path

of Buddhism, besides as a businessman I created jobs, helping people to

survive.

3) Which statement is more relevant: Both are relevant and mean the same.

4) How is a role of a Jyotish different from a priest? I think the role is the

some but with different methods.

Thanks

Virgilio Victor

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