Introduction. Part Two.

[Guest guest]

The aspect of Buddhism that attracted me so intensely was its crystal clear logic, its ability to explain everything in such simplicity – and more importantly, the choice to focus on certain questions and to see the unimportance of other questions as relevant to one's happiness.

 

I suppose at this stage I will explain Buddhism as I see it in order to lay some groundwork for what's to come.

 

What is often misunderstood in Buddhism is the notion that there is no God.

 

As explained in the texts of Vikramaditya and the Vampire, there are three definitions of an atheist:

 

1. One who believes that there is no God or Gods.

2. One who believes that God/s may exist, but doesn't really

care about our welfare.

3. One who believes that God/s may exist, but isn't really

important in the whole scheme of things.

 

The Buddhist view of God/s falls into the third definition. There are 84,000 different paths within Buddhism, and some use diety worship as a tool to be harnessed upto a certain point of realisation. Some use the path of a hermit. Some use a meditation of daily action – no matter where you are or what you are doing: weather it be cleaning dogshit or having sex. And some – very few, but some – use EVERYTHING

as a means to realisation.

 

It is this great open mindedness that truly appealed to me. At first I didn't realise the nature of this objective clarity, but I could literally feel a hint of the wisdom yet to be realised simply because the words and meanings offered within Buddhism seemed to come from a source completely free from restriction – Even the restriction of

Godhood.

 

But of course, for the first year I lapped up everything Buddhism could offer to recreate a new mental picture of how the Universe worked. By the end of it, I could argue and debate Buddhism with the best of them – yet there was nothing there that was spoken from experience.

 

The notion of complete liberation seemed far more challenging, and far more frightening than the deepest pits of magick. The topic of which questions the Buddha considered important, and which he considered useless, can help in explaining this clearly:

 

As we all know, Man is in suffering. Most of us never seem to be able to keep our fleeting happiness… it comes and goes, and for many of us there is so much suffering that happiness could almost sound foreign. In the midst of this, a depressed scientist may try to find a temporary peace by involving himself in a new discovery. When the discovery is finally made, after a few moments of exhaltation he

returns to his melancholy. Men and women consistently ask questions about the universe, about purpose, about how everything works, if God exists, if we have a soul, what our purpose is, etc etc. It becomes an entertainment of sorts for most, and for others these questions take a far more serious purpose.

 

Yet, here's the clincher. What if you knew the answer to all these questions? Then what? You'd probably go, "Ah, that's what it is." And return to a life of frustration, imprisonment, habit, reaction – the fight or flight instinct, moments of great joy, clinging, betrayal..

etc etc. Knowing your purpose doesn't make your path any easier. So you know that today you are going to fall into a ditch and break your arm.. but it has a devine purpose.. yet it doesn't make the falling any easier. It was during this period that I meet a guy who lives halfway across

the world, who claims to be my teacher from many previous lifetimes – thousands infact – and tells me that he is here now to reawaken me.

 

The only thing that convinced me that he may be genuine was the wisdom of his words whenever he explained Buddhism, or anything about the nature of things, for that matter. It is the same with all things, and my first lesson in realising that it doesn't matter WHO tells you something – it doesn't matter how many people think highly of him/her – what matters is WHAT they say. How close it rings to your own truth. It is as the Buddha says: Don't take my word for

anything – investigate the truth for yourself, and when you have experienced that what I say is true, then, it will be your truth.

 

So, once again, curiousity gets the better of me, so I pack my bags and catch a plane to England. And there begins my training in the Highest Tantra. Yet, from the moment go every single preconception I had of Buddhism was ripped away. Every concept about the way the universe worked – all shred to pieces. They were concepts, after all. The Truth isn't in the concepts. It's like the difference between

reading the menu and eating the meal.

 

There I went, thinking of what Buddhism is, what Hinduism is, what Paganism is, what Magick is, what Christianity is.. each in its own little stereotypical box. And BOOM, suddenly, the whole thing was shown to be one and the same – only varying in levels of depth and nothing more. The Highest Tantra is a complete integration of mind –

negating nothing, throwing nothing aside. I realised that there are four secret lineages of Buddhism, each which is a Coven in its own right. Yet the number of miracles I witnessed in the time I was there remarkably only managed to tear wide open that little doubt I had in me before that something was "missing." Because now I knew that I truly knew nothing. The members of the Coven were such pure vessels of channelling that I had the fortune to speak to Krishna, Diana, celestial beings from the Astral world, Buddhas, and on one occasion, Bob Marley, etc. Each with their own lesson to impart – their very own blessing to bestow. Despite the proof of such things, given in

more ways than one, what defeated me was the training itself.

 

Once again, even if you knew all the answers to the Universe, jumping of a cliff is still a scary thing, even if a Dragon promises you he'll catch you.

 

What I will not share here is the amount of information I received in terms of the nature of celestial beings, the relationships of the Gods, the gems within the Astral Planes, the true potential of channeling. Not only are these things not relevant here, but to share them would simply be a means of speculation. If you had told me of

such things and I had not experienced them myself, I would not believe it. So, I don't expect you to either.

 

That, however, was not the lessons I learnt from my teacher. So, let's continue:

 

While I was there, being shown exactly how much of the world I had assumed to be factual and real, and how illusionary that truly was, I had more than a million questions. As one would. Most of the questions were egoistic dribble – theoretical, philosophical, and

utterly unproductive to my own well-being. So, after a while my teacher made a rule that I was only allowed to ask one question a day.

 

This was the teaching of learning to ask the right question. Because if you had a million questions, and you knew that you could only ever ask one, you will learn to discern which one is most important to you – even if you learn the hard way.

 

Which leads to the skilfulness of knowing the RIGHT questions to ask. The ones that can actually help you in some way or form. There are three important questions within Buddhism:

 

1. What is the origin of Suffering?

2. What is the origin of Ignorance?

3. What is the meaning of Creation?

 

I'll explain how this pertains to me. More than anything, the intention for Buddhism is to eliminate suffering. It is to eradicate it, to trancend it, to overcome it. To become liberated from the nature of cycles, of Birth and Death. Most people only truly turn to meditation when their suffering becomes so unbearable that their madness frightens them. Until then, people make all sorts of excuses

to keep living life the way they are. And that's fine.

 

So, the most important question for Buddhism, to alleviate all ignorance of WHY you are imprisoned by the Universe, by Time and Space, by Matter, is what is the ORIGIN of suffering. Knowing the answer to this is far more beneficial, because it can change you as a person. It's like suddenly seeing for the first time exactly what

material your prison is made of.

 

1. The Origin of Suffering is Self-Grasping.

 

The Revolution has Begun: revolution_magick

To be Continued...

[theist]

My conversations with Buddhists have generally focused on their denial of a true self, a conscious I that lies beyond all the illusion.

 

How do you deal with that?

[gHari]

At least that is what the name conveyed to me. What was the two-part article about? I was not able to read it.

 

[dianicdreams]

Theist,

 

Only self-proclaimed "buddhists" who don't understand the context of their own religion rant on about no-self. The Buddha makes it very clear that to think about Self OR No-Self is both poisonous thought-frames. It is not helpful, and it is best to focus on qualities and paradigms that ARE helpful. in Part three of the Introduction I'll say more on this.

[Guest guest]

what's the use of this explanation? the truth is verified in the battlefield, so give answers to the many questions of people on spiritual life made in this forum and use your theories and techniques.. then we will see, approve, discuss etc.

[Guest guest]

I love this statement: "the truth is verified in the battlefield".

 

Would you please expound on your beliefs on this, because it holds much hidden meaning.

[Guest guest]

religion is solution to problems... i will see if your religion, your school, your sect and yourself as a coherent and competent practitioneer ,is nice and factual if you give me good answers to my questions on birth, death, pain, sorrow and so on

 

to say "i am buddhist", "i am hindu", " i am christian" means almost nothing

 

it is very much like to say "i am an F1 pilot"... if i do not demonstrate to take the car and win the race, all my definitions are useless

 

so, many people come to this forum asking important questions for their lifes (true battlefields, like kuruksetra!!). let us (hindu, christians, vaishnavas, advaitin, shaivites, buddhists and so on) try to answer, this is the real way to show the power of our doctrine

[Guest guest]

Fair Enough.

 

What are you questions?

 

But most importantly, are you asking with an open mind, or with a personal bias? /images/graemlins/laugh.gif