Sunday, August 12, 2007
At the Brink
The History Channel had a show on this morning about Buddhism. The narrator who seems to be a Professor stated that Buddhism flourishes in every Asian country except the one it was born in, India. He thought that Hinduism adopting Buddha as an aspect of one of the Hindu Gods might have had something to do with that. He also stated that Buddhism has two paradoxes. It is a religion, but it teaches people not to believe in religions. It has a "god" named Buddha, but it teaches that there is no "God" as religions define them. He didn't understand that these two paradoxes arose from people's desires to be led and to have an anthropomorphic "god" to worship and their minds' inability to comprehend the Buddha's teachings.
People desire to learn many things the easiest way possible. They desire the condensed version of learning. Usually, this entails the form of a teacher. At the heart of Buddhism and Christianity, is self discovery or self realization which really can't be taught. Self discovery or realization can only be experienced to be known. When Jesus says to go within when you pray, he's telling people to look within themselves for the answers or solutions they seek. Even such men as Jesus or the Buddha could only guide their followers to look within themselves, they couldn't teach them the last step which comes down to individual choice and experience. You can't teach someone to walk. Everyone has to walk by themselves and experience walking to be able to walk. So, likely the state of bliss called Enlightenment is inherent within the human brain and nervous system. Whether it emerges or not depends upon whether people wish to experience it for themselves. There may also be an emergent aspect of it. If people see that more than one person can be in that state at the same time, then they may realize that it isn't as rare a condition they believe it to be. So, likely people are on the brink of Enlightenment all the time and they never realize it. Some may need a slight nudge, while others may need a shove to "go over the edge" and attain that state.
When they say you must kill the Buddha to be the Buddha, it means that you have to kill your desire to have any form of God, even "you" as God, for in the end, you can only depend upon your own consciousness in order to exist and your own senses in order to perceive. So, we are all at the brink of selfless perception. It's just that last step before the plunge that "scares" us?!
People desire to learn many things the easiest way possible. They desire the condensed version of learning. Usually, this entails the form of a teacher. At the heart of Buddhism and Christianity, is self discovery or self realization which really can't be taught. Self discovery or realization can only be experienced to be known. When Jesus says to go within when you pray, he's telling people to look within themselves for the answers or solutions they seek. Even such men as Jesus or the Buddha could only guide their followers to look within themselves, they couldn't teach them the last step which comes down to individual choice and experience. You can't teach someone to walk. Everyone has to walk by themselves and experience walking to be able to walk. So, likely the state of bliss called Enlightenment is inherent within the human brain and nervous system. Whether it emerges or not depends upon whether people wish to experience it for themselves. There may also be an emergent aspect of it. If people see that more than one person can be in that state at the same time, then they may realize that it isn't as rare a condition they believe it to be. So, likely people are on the brink of Enlightenment all the time and they never realize it. Some may need a slight nudge, while others may need a shove to "go over the edge" and attain that state.
When they say you must kill the Buddha to be the Buddha, it means that you have to kill your desire to have any form of God, even "you" as God, for in the end, you can only depend upon your own consciousness in order to exist and your own senses in order to perceive. So, we are all at the brink of selfless perception. It's just that last step before the plunge that "scares" us?!
Labels: selfless perception
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Isn't it odd that TV presents us, as a learning experience, someone who seems to be something they usually aren't, like the star trek dude for instance?
Kind of like Buddha, seems to be a god but isn't, maybe TV is actually Buddhist, I thought it was Christian.
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Kind of like Buddha, seems to be a god but isn't, maybe TV is actually Buddhist, I thought it was Christian.
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