Re:to Dilip - about a few points on Buddhism

[Guest guest]

Dear Dilip

Namaskar

 

Thanks for your reply. I loved the way you answered me, because you enrich

the matter with your profound knowledge and sincerity.

 

With regards

Yours sincerely

 

Virgilio

[Guest guest]

OM SRI GURAVE NAMAH

--

Dear Virgilio

Namaskar

 

Your reply has touched me greatly, my friend. Before writing anything let me

inform you , that from my early childhood I have great love and respect for

Bhagavan Buddha because of His Compassion . In my childhood , I had read a

story about the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore on his admiration , love

and profound respect for Buddha, and that was the starting point of my love and

respect for Buddhism.

 

 

You wrote about a teaching of Buddha : . 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.

Dilip:Yes , this is the source of faith, our inner self, which knows that Truth

exists, God exists, there exists a Supreme Being , there exists The Divine

Mother , and your reasoning mind do not know why Truth or God or The Supreme

Being or The Divine Mother exists. Because the inner being do not follow any

reason , it has in it the certitude of what exists beyond the mind , the

intellect. We both are agreed at this point , as you wrote ; faith must

exist, because there is no true without faith and vice versa.

You wrote about Seven Links of enlightenment which starts with MINDFULNESS. Many

years ago ,I read a commentary on DHAMMAPADA by the MOTHER of Sri Aurobindo

Ashram. That book had moved me so greatly that at that time I always kept that

book with me to read it again and again. What you have written about

mindfulness is there in the Dhammapada in a chapter named Vigilance.This part ,

I think is the foundation of every spiritual discipline . There it is written ,

Vigilance is the way that leads to immortality (or Nirvana). Negligence is the

way that leads to death. Those who are vigilant do not die. Those who are

negligent are dead already. At one time, I meditated for many many days on

these lines.

 

I am writing all these , because I believe that the quest for truth is there in

every religion , in every path of spiritual discipline, if true aspiration is

there.

 

You have written in detail about Buddhism , mainly on Tibetan Buddhism, which is

enlightening. I am grateful to you , and I believe many persons in SJVC has been

delighted to read your letter on Buddhism.

 

At the end I express my heartfelt gratitude to Gurudev Sri Sanjayji to infuse

spiritual discussion in the list.

 

With Warm Regards

Sincerely Yours

Dilip.

 

P.S. You have written about Mother Teresa . I had the great fortune of seeing

her from very close in1982 when she came to our hospital to inaugurate

Neonatology unit.

-

Virgilio Victor

sjvc

Monday, December 10, 2001 4:18 PM

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

Dear DilipNamaskarFirst 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

GAINSTAKE 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 regardsYours sincerelyVirgilioAt 23:03 30/11/01

-0800, you wrote:

OM SRI GURAVE NAMAH_______________________Dear VirgilioNamaskaraaith 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 realizedWhat 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 regardsYours sincerelyDilip. --

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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