.
The End of an Aura
So England have won back The Ashes. Is this important? No.
Was it enjoyable? YES!
And there's no question that the retirement of Australia's two outstanding bowlers – Warne and McGrath - brought about the end of an era, as well as an aura. [This is a kind of in-joke for cricket-loving anoraks and saddos.]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/aug/23/andrew-flintoff-ashes-test-farewell
--------------------------------------------
Auras
“The Buddhist flag, first hoisted in 1885 in Sri Lanka, is a symbol of faith and peace used throughout the world to represent the Buddhist faith.
The six colours of the flag represent the colours of the aura that emanated from the body of the Buddha when He attained Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree. The horizontal stripes represent the races of the world living in harmony and the vertical stripes represent eternal world peace.
The colours symbolise the perfection of Buddhahood and the Dharma.
The Blue light that radiated from the Buddha's hair symbolises the spirit of Universal Compassion for all beings.
The Yellow light that radiated from the Buddha's epidermis symbolises the Middle Way which avoids all extremes and brings balance and liberation.
The Red light that radiated from the Buddha's flesh symbolises the blessings that the practice of the Buddha's Teaching brings.
The White light that radiated from the Buddha's bones and teeth symbolises the purity of the Buddha's Teaching and the liberation it brings.
The Orange light that radiated from the Buddha's palms, heels and lips symbolises the unshakable Wisdom of the Buddha's Teaching.
The Combination Colour symbolises the universality of the Truth of the Buddha's Teaching.
Therefore, the overall flag represents that regardless of race, nationality, division or colour, all sentient beings possess the potential of Buddhahood.”
The flag was invented in 1880 by an American journalist, Colonel Henry Steele Olcott. Olcott was a fascinating character. A former soldier and lawyer, he set up the Theosophical Society of New York. He arrived in Sri Lanka with the renowned spiritualist Madame Blavatsky on 17 February 1880 - a day which was subsequently celebrated as Olcott Day in independent Sri Lanka. He founded the Buddhist Theosophical Society, devised a Buddhist catechism, encouraged Buddhist versions of Christmas carols and cards, and inspired the founding of Buddhist schools and and the YMBA - the Young Mens Buddhist Association. There are six colours in the flag, but the human eye can see only five. They are described in the Scriptures as emanating from the aura around the Buddha's head.
Olcott felt that local Buddhists in Sri Lanka needed a symbol to rally around. His flag acheived that: it became the emblem of the international Buddhist movement and is flown today worldwide in Buddhist buildings and at Buddhist celebrations.
http://flagspot.net/flags/buddhism.html
------------------------------------------------
Theosophy
Theosophy is a doctrine of religious philosophy and metaphysics originating with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–91). In this context, theosophy holds that all religions are attempts by the " Spiritual Hierarchy" to help humanity in evolving to greater perfection, and that each religion therefore has a portion of the truth. Together with Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge, and others, Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophy
As far as I can see Theosophy tried to be a movement whose aim was to show that all religions were basically attempts to say something important about the metaphysical aspects of the human condition, in terms of the existence of spiritual intelligence, as I'd call it.
Obviously they were on to something, but created a rod for their own backs by proclaiming their beliefs as some sort of a new pseudo-science, and making the whole thing over-complicated and untenable for people of either a) a religious persuasion, or b) a complete lack of interest in such obscurantist and esoteric views. Keep it simple, dudes!
“Rudolf Steiner created a successful branch of the Theosophical Society in Germany. He focused on a Western esoteric path that incorporated the influences of Christianity and natural science, resulting in tensions with Annie Besant (cf. Rudolf Steiner and the Theosophical Society); these were seriously exacerbated by Steiner refusing members of the Order of the Star of the East membership in the Theosophical Society's German Section. Steiner was vehemently opposed to The Order of the Star of the East's proclamation that the young boy, Jiddu Krishnamurti, was the incarnation of Maitreya (who was believed to have "over-shadowed" Jesus Christ).
(Krishnamurti later repudiated this role and left the Society to pursue an independent career of spiritual teaching.) In 1913 Steiner founded his own Anthroposophical Society; the great majority of German-speaking theosophists joined the new society, which grew rapidly. Steiner later became most famous for his ideas about education, resulting in an international network of " Steiner Schools," also known as Waldorf schools. Other influences of anthroposophical thought include biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophic medicine and the acting techniques of Michael Chekhov.
Theosophy was closely linked to the Indian independence movement: the Indian National Congress was founded during a Theosophical conference, and many of its leaders, including M. K. Gandhi were associated with theosophy.
The present-day New Age movement is to a considerable extent based on the teachings of Blavatsky, though some writers have described Alice Bailey as the founder of the "New Age movement". However, the term was used prior to Bailey; a weekly Journal of Christian liberalism and Socialism called The New Age was published as early as 1894. James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton, in Perspectives on the New Age wrote, "The most important - though certainly not the only - source of this transformative metaphor, as well as the term "New Age," was Theosophy, particularly as the Theosophical perspective was mediated to the movement by the works of Alice Bailey."
Mahatma Gandhi met Madame Blavatsky and Annie Besant in India in about 1889, shortly after Besant had joined the Society. He declined invitations to join, but said the meeting induced him to study his own background in Hinduism. He mentions this, and his further study of Theosophy during 1903 as published in his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth (1927–29).
L. Frank Baum , a notable member of the Theosophical Society, wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), which some see as an allegory of theosophical tenets. Many of the story's oft-cited parallels to mysticism—the rainbow and the ruby slippers, for example - actually originated with the 1939 MGM musical adaptation. There are Theosophical elements in all fourteen Oz books, with Tik-Tok of Oz (1914) particularly strong in Theosophist symbolism.
Van Morrison's song "Dweller on the Threshold," has Theosophy concepts at its core. He also mentions Theosophy in the song "Rave On, John Donne".
Artists and authors who investigated Theosophy, aside from the musicians listed below, include Aldous Huxley, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Franz Kafka, William Butler Yeats, George William Russell (Æ), Owen Barfield, and T. S. Eliot.
Steiner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Steiner
Rudolf Steiner (25 or 27 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian philosopher, literary scholar, educator, architect, social thinker, playwright and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded a new spiritual movement, Anthroposophy, as an esoteric philosophy growing out of European transcendentalist roots with links to Theosophy.
Steiner led this movement through several phases. In the first, more philosophically-oriented phase, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and mysticism; his philosophical work of these years, which he termed spiritual science, sought to provide a connection between the cognitive path of Western philosophy and the inner and spiritual needs of the human being. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, the movement arts (developing a new artistic form, Eurythmy) and architecture, culminating in the building of a cultural center to house all the arts, the Goetheanum. After the First World War, Steiner worked with educators, farmers, doctors, and other professionals to develop Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophical medicine as well as new directions in numerous other areas.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual component. He derived his epistemology from Johann Wolfgang Goethe's world view, where “Thinking… is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas.” A consistent thread that runs from his earliest philosophical phase through his later spiritual orientation is the goal of demonstrating that there are no essential limits to human knowledge.
Krishnamurti
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiddu_Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti or J. Krishnamurti (Tamil: கிருஃசுணமூர்த்தி ) , (May 12, 1895–February 17, 1986) was a renowned writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and how to enact positive change in society. He constantly stressed the need for a revolution in the psyche of every human being and emphasized that such a revolution cannot be brought about by any external entity whether religious, political or social.
---------------------------------------------
Phew!!!
Well – you have to do something whilst listening to TMS and the climax of the 2009 Ashes.
-----------------------------------------------
School of Rock
This feel-good little gem of a movie was repeated last night. The review of it in Wikipedia really fails to get to grips with it or to do it justice.
For a start, Jack Black is wonderful. As are the kids.
And it says important things about the purpose of schools, about approaches to teaching and learning, about motivation for learning, about art and creativity, about respect for children, about the attitude of fee-paying parents, about pressures on school management, about having reasons and real purposes for learning, and developing every aspect of the self. It says things about the power of collaboration, and teamwork, and cooperation instead of competition, where each one uses their special gifts and talents for the good of the group.
In a moment of triumph Jack tells the swatty girl that she can have 8 gold stars, and she replies, “ I didn't do it for the grades!”
The scene where Jack takes the head of the school to a bar and she gets somewhat sozzed on half a glass of beer is excellent. She says, “I've never been to this side of town before”, and you can feel something awakening, or re-awakening, in her. She says, with real feeling, “I wasn't always like this, you know. There was a time when I was fun! I was funny! Those parents! That pressure! I can't afford to make a mistake!”
Jack puts a song on the jukebox - “Edge of Seventeen”, by Stevie Nicks, which he knows is going to do things to her, and for her. It's a rocking song, great rhythm, and she goes with it, back in time to when she was young, and real, and passionate, and she sings along . . . connecting with something buried deep within . . .
Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song . . .
The music there it was hauntingly familiar
And I see you doing what I try to do for me
With the words from a poet and the voice from a choir
And a melody . . .
Nothing else mattered
And the days go by...
Like a strand in the wind...
In the web that is my own...
Can she change herself? Can she change her school? Can she change the parents?
Right at the end, the little band they've created is getting ready to rock, and Jack tells them which song he thinks they should perform – one that the kid who's the guitarist has written. And then he says, “But that's just my opinion. This isn't my band. This is OUR band”.
The kids have a right to their opinions, and to adults' respect for their opinions. Learning and creating together – they all have a voice, and a say in what they do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_rock
.
Showing posts with label philosphy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label philosphy. Show all posts
Monday, August 24, 2009
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Layer 13 More Thoughts On Buddhism
It now seems incredible to me that our education system does not insist that we all need a thorough understanding of Buddhism - its ideas, beliefs and practices. It seems self-evident that we should all be able to benefit from its philosophy, psychology and day to day practices, especially meditation.
As an educationalist I take a different approach to learning about Buddhism, and especially Zen, than that normally taken by religious ‘believers’. Young people in particular should not be subjected to any form of indoctrination by adherents to a particular faith. In any case they don’t in general have any inclination to sit for long hours of ‘instruction’, and they don’t have the time or inclination to read complicated textbooks on what appear to be esoteric matters beyond their own experience or interest.
What I see the need for is initially some sort of concise overview of the key ideas of Zen or Buddhism in general, which ought to stimulate the novice to undertake further enquiries and studies. If the summary or overview fails to do this, then clearly the reader is not ready for further exploration. But we do need to provide short, stimulating texts that will hopefully whet the appetite to find out more.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
To begin with, we need to understand the role of intuition, using processes of direct experience and meditation, in developing and expanding metaphysical or spiritual intelligence.
What Buddhists call Buddhi is a faculty - call it intuition - that has the power of direct dynamic spiritual awareness [or metaphysical intelligence], unfiltered by the intellect and its bewildering myriad of helpful and unhelpful words and concepts. Ultimately words, as human constructs, can mean whatever we want them to mean. Wisdom and enlightenment, which are eternal and immutable and lie beyond the intellect, are acquired from Buddhi.
Where is the opportunity to acquire wisdom and enlightenment in our schools and colleges?
To be a Buddha is to be Awakened, Enlightened, made Aware. Which of us wouldn’t aspire to this, or aspire to even a small degree of spiritual awareness, wisdom or intelligence? But how many are fortunate enough to have spiritual intelligence as part of their school or college curricula? Is learning ‘about’ morality and religion actually contributing to the development of “direct dynamic spiritual awareness”? Of course not.
Satori (the Zen word for spiritual experience), and Samadhi (the last step on the Noble Eightfold Path) are steps on the way to enlightenment and wisdom. Nirvana (or Nibbana) is its human goal.
“Yet beyond [Nirvana] lies Parinirvana, for Buddhism is a process of becoming, and admits no conceivable end.” (Humphries)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
More quotes from Christmas Humphries:
It is the criterion of all Buddhist teaching that it conduces to the achievement of Enlightenment.
Bodhi, supreme Wisdom (Maha Bodhi), is the purpose of all study, of all morality, of all attempts at self-development. It is for this that the false and separative self is slain and the true Self steadily developed; it is the sole end of all progress on the Eightfold Path; it is the Buddh in Buddhism.
In the end each living thing will achieve Enlightenment. This is the hope and the promise of Buddhism. All study and attempted practice that loses sight of this ultimate, supreme experience may be useful, but it is not Buddhism.
‘Our essence of mind is intrinsically pure’, according to the Patriarch Hui-neng. ‘All things are only its manifestations, and good deeds and evil deeds are only the result of good thoughts and evil thoughts respectively.’ Imagination, thought and willpower make deeds, and by our deeds we make ourselves. ‘All that we are is the result of our thoughts; it is founded on our thoughts, and is made up of them.’
To Buddhists, therefore, all weight and emphasis is on the mind, and none on circumstance. ‘Our mind should stand aloof from circumstances, and on no account should we allow circumstances to influence the function of our mind.’ All value lies in the mind.
To the Buddhist the moment alone is of supreme importance; all speculation and all conceptual belief are therefore valueless until made real.
[We should be valued by others and learn to value ourselves for our day to day actions and deeds. There is no point in dwelling upon or speculating about the past or the future. Only in the Now can we find joy and satori, and contribute to the joy and satori of others.]
Now is the moment of salvation, of the making an end of suffering. ‘Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof’, and its undoing.
Life is a bridge - build no house upon it; it is a river - cling not to its banks; a gymnasium - use it to develop the mind on the apparatus of circumstance; a journey - take it and walk on!
It is hard indeed to focus on infinity, and all men have at times preferred to focus on something just so much ahead of them, and not too far. Hence thoughts of Gods and gods, Saints and Saviours.
And yet, the Void is already full. It is filled with Tao or Zen or Life or Light. These names are man-made noises for the Infinite. ‘The Light is within thee’, said the Egyptian Hierophants; ‘Let the Light shine’.
The Mahayana stands upon the twin pillars of Wisdom and Compassion, of Law which manifests as justice, and Love which proves as mercy. Yet ‘Love is the fulfilling of the Law’, and like light and darkness, male and female, life and form, the two are ultimately and immediately One. [Yin & Yang. Justice is the dark side of love. Those who fail to love, those who hurt others, can expect to reap what they sow. Karma will return to them their lack of Loving-kindness, manifesting as some kind of self-punishment, as it were.]
Cause and effect are one, though we see the two sides of the coin in the relative illusion of time. For causation is only interrelation expanded into the ‘past’, ‘present’, and ‘future’ for convenience of our understanding.
Each must perfect himself, his own brief vortex in the flow of life; each is responsible for the changing complex of attributes called Self which grows only as the craving ‘ego’ dies.
‘Work out your own salvation with diligence’, said the Buddha. How? It is immaterial. The mountain peak is indifferent to the path by which men climb.
[As is the peak of Maslow’s pyramid!]
There is the soft way of Shin Buddhism. There is the harder road of the Theravada, with its Right Understanding and Right Action. Then there is the hardest (because the straightest) road of Zen - the direct road up the mountain-side. Meanwhile, for the vast majority of men, there is no road at all, only the drift of suffering minds.
The implications of the doctrine of Karma (Cause-Effect) are vast, and frightening to all but the strongest mind. If all that we are is the result of what we have thought [and done], then all that we shall be is the result of what we are thinking now [and what we do].
We are building now our tomorrow, creating hour by hour our heaven or hell. There is no such thing as luck or chance, and no such thing as fate. We are predestined now by the previous exercise of our own freewill. The world of time and space is seen as the workshop of an individual character.
[The so-called self] contains no single permanent factor, nor anything resembling a changeless and immortal ‘soul’. The evolving consciousness achieves successive states of spiritual development [or intelligence].
The Four Noble Truths concern the omnipresence of suffering; its cause (selfish desire); its cure (elimination of that separative desire); and the way to this removal. ‘Cease to do evil; learn to do good; cleanse your own heart’ - this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
There is no word of faith [in Buddhism], save that which a man has in a guide who tells him of a journey and a goal and a way to it; no word of a Saviour who will make that journey for him. Each must develop his own mind. There is no instrument yet invented that can do more than the mind of man can do when its powers are fully developed.
The purpose of Buddhism is to attain enlightenment, and in the lower stages of the climb all means and devices are legitimate, to be discarded when their use is ended. (Like a raft after crossing a river on it, to mix the metaphor.)
There comes a time, however, when all devices are seen as hindrances, and even the Scriptures are fetters about the awakening mind. Authority is a term which daily lessens in meaning, and the sole criterion of all value passes within. The faculty of Buddhi (intuition) slowly but steadily awakens, and the world of discrimination, which lives by the dreary comparison of opposites, is steadily left behind.
Tolerance widens, compassion deepens, serenity becomes a constant companion which neither the passions nor the problems of the human mind disturb. Certainty comes with intuitive awareness, and though sorrow still be the portion of the ever-returning night, joy as certainly comes with the morning.
The developed will begins to take the hill straight. The veils fall steadily and there comes an increasing awareness of that which lies beyond all veils. The ‘three fires’of greed, anger and illusion begin to die for want of fuelling. The stream is entered and all effort becomes increasingly ‘right’ effort.
In brief, the faculty of Buddhi [spiritual intelligence] is awakening, and the fact that it dwells in all [of us] and needs but awakening is cardinal to Buddhism. ‘So far as Buddha-nature is concerned, there is no difference between an enlightened man and an ignorant one. What makes the difference is that one realises it while the other is ignorant of it.’ (The Sutra of Wei Lang.)
In the words of The Voice of the Silence, ‘ Seek in the impersonal for the eternal man, and having sought him out, look inward - thou art Buddha!’
The process of becoming is a circle; the process of becoming more, of growth, is a spiral, either up or down according as the growth is towards or away from wholeness. Buddhism begins with the Buddha’s Enlightenment and ends with man’s.
And the final goal? We know not, nor is it yet, or likely to be for aeons to come, our immediate concern. The faint of heart will ever seek some resting-place, some weak finality; for the strong, the first and the last word is and ever more will be - Walk On!
As an educationalist I take a different approach to learning about Buddhism, and especially Zen, than that normally taken by religious ‘believers’. Young people in particular should not be subjected to any form of indoctrination by adherents to a particular faith. In any case they don’t in general have any inclination to sit for long hours of ‘instruction’, and they don’t have the time or inclination to read complicated textbooks on what appear to be esoteric matters beyond their own experience or interest.
What I see the need for is initially some sort of concise overview of the key ideas of Zen or Buddhism in general, which ought to stimulate the novice to undertake further enquiries and studies. If the summary or overview fails to do this, then clearly the reader is not ready for further exploration. But we do need to provide short, stimulating texts that will hopefully whet the appetite to find out more.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
To begin with, we need to understand the role of intuition, using processes of direct experience and meditation, in developing and expanding metaphysical or spiritual intelligence.
What Buddhists call Buddhi is a faculty - call it intuition - that has the power of direct dynamic spiritual awareness [or metaphysical intelligence], unfiltered by the intellect and its bewildering myriad of helpful and unhelpful words and concepts. Ultimately words, as human constructs, can mean whatever we want them to mean. Wisdom and enlightenment, which are eternal and immutable and lie beyond the intellect, are acquired from Buddhi.
Where is the opportunity to acquire wisdom and enlightenment in our schools and colleges?
To be a Buddha is to be Awakened, Enlightened, made Aware. Which of us wouldn’t aspire to this, or aspire to even a small degree of spiritual awareness, wisdom or intelligence? But how many are fortunate enough to have spiritual intelligence as part of their school or college curricula? Is learning ‘about’ morality and religion actually contributing to the development of “direct dynamic spiritual awareness”? Of course not.
Satori (the Zen word for spiritual experience), and Samadhi (the last step on the Noble Eightfold Path) are steps on the way to enlightenment and wisdom. Nirvana (or Nibbana) is its human goal.
“Yet beyond [Nirvana] lies Parinirvana, for Buddhism is a process of becoming, and admits no conceivable end.” (Humphries)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
More quotes from Christmas Humphries:
It is the criterion of all Buddhist teaching that it conduces to the achievement of Enlightenment.
Bodhi, supreme Wisdom (Maha Bodhi), is the purpose of all study, of all morality, of all attempts at self-development. It is for this that the false and separative self is slain and the true Self steadily developed; it is the sole end of all progress on the Eightfold Path; it is the Buddh in Buddhism.
In the end each living thing will achieve Enlightenment. This is the hope and the promise of Buddhism. All study and attempted practice that loses sight of this ultimate, supreme experience may be useful, but it is not Buddhism.
‘Our essence of mind is intrinsically pure’, according to the Patriarch Hui-neng. ‘All things are only its manifestations, and good deeds and evil deeds are only the result of good thoughts and evil thoughts respectively.’ Imagination, thought and willpower make deeds, and by our deeds we make ourselves. ‘All that we are is the result of our thoughts; it is founded on our thoughts, and is made up of them.’
To Buddhists, therefore, all weight and emphasis is on the mind, and none on circumstance. ‘Our mind should stand aloof from circumstances, and on no account should we allow circumstances to influence the function of our mind.’ All value lies in the mind.
To the Buddhist the moment alone is of supreme importance; all speculation and all conceptual belief are therefore valueless until made real.
[We should be valued by others and learn to value ourselves for our day to day actions and deeds. There is no point in dwelling upon or speculating about the past or the future. Only in the Now can we find joy and satori, and contribute to the joy and satori of others.]
Now is the moment of salvation, of the making an end of suffering. ‘Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof’, and its undoing.
Life is a bridge - build no house upon it; it is a river - cling not to its banks; a gymnasium - use it to develop the mind on the apparatus of circumstance; a journey - take it and walk on!
It is hard indeed to focus on infinity, and all men have at times preferred to focus on something just so much ahead of them, and not too far. Hence thoughts of Gods and gods, Saints and Saviours.
And yet, the Void is already full. It is filled with Tao or Zen or Life or Light. These names are man-made noises for the Infinite. ‘The Light is within thee’, said the Egyptian Hierophants; ‘Let the Light shine’.
The Mahayana stands upon the twin pillars of Wisdom and Compassion, of Law which manifests as justice, and Love which proves as mercy. Yet ‘Love is the fulfilling of the Law’, and like light and darkness, male and female, life and form, the two are ultimately and immediately One. [Yin & Yang. Justice is the dark side of love. Those who fail to love, those who hurt others, can expect to reap what they sow. Karma will return to them their lack of Loving-kindness, manifesting as some kind of self-punishment, as it were.]
Cause and effect are one, though we see the two sides of the coin in the relative illusion of time. For causation is only interrelation expanded into the ‘past’, ‘present’, and ‘future’ for convenience of our understanding.
Each must perfect himself, his own brief vortex in the flow of life; each is responsible for the changing complex of attributes called Self which grows only as the craving ‘ego’ dies.
‘Work out your own salvation with diligence’, said the Buddha. How? It is immaterial. The mountain peak is indifferent to the path by which men climb.
[As is the peak of Maslow’s pyramid!]
There is the soft way of Shin Buddhism. There is the harder road of the Theravada, with its Right Understanding and Right Action. Then there is the hardest (because the straightest) road of Zen - the direct road up the mountain-side. Meanwhile, for the vast majority of men, there is no road at all, only the drift of suffering minds.
The implications of the doctrine of Karma (Cause-Effect) are vast, and frightening to all but the strongest mind. If all that we are is the result of what we have thought [and done], then all that we shall be is the result of what we are thinking now [and what we do].
We are building now our tomorrow, creating hour by hour our heaven or hell. There is no such thing as luck or chance, and no such thing as fate. We are predestined now by the previous exercise of our own freewill. The world of time and space is seen as the workshop of an individual character.
[The so-called self] contains no single permanent factor, nor anything resembling a changeless and immortal ‘soul’. The evolving consciousness achieves successive states of spiritual development [or intelligence].
The Four Noble Truths concern the omnipresence of suffering; its cause (selfish desire); its cure (elimination of that separative desire); and the way to this removal. ‘Cease to do evil; learn to do good; cleanse your own heart’ - this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
There is no word of faith [in Buddhism], save that which a man has in a guide who tells him of a journey and a goal and a way to it; no word of a Saviour who will make that journey for him. Each must develop his own mind. There is no instrument yet invented that can do more than the mind of man can do when its powers are fully developed.
The purpose of Buddhism is to attain enlightenment, and in the lower stages of the climb all means and devices are legitimate, to be discarded when their use is ended. (Like a raft after crossing a river on it, to mix the metaphor.)
There comes a time, however, when all devices are seen as hindrances, and even the Scriptures are fetters about the awakening mind. Authority is a term which daily lessens in meaning, and the sole criterion of all value passes within. The faculty of Buddhi (intuition) slowly but steadily awakens, and the world of discrimination, which lives by the dreary comparison of opposites, is steadily left behind.
Tolerance widens, compassion deepens, serenity becomes a constant companion which neither the passions nor the problems of the human mind disturb. Certainty comes with intuitive awareness, and though sorrow still be the portion of the ever-returning night, joy as certainly comes with the morning.
The developed will begins to take the hill straight. The veils fall steadily and there comes an increasing awareness of that which lies beyond all veils. The ‘three fires’of greed, anger and illusion begin to die for want of fuelling. The stream is entered and all effort becomes increasingly ‘right’ effort.
In brief, the faculty of Buddhi [spiritual intelligence] is awakening, and the fact that it dwells in all [of us] and needs but awakening is cardinal to Buddhism. ‘So far as Buddha-nature is concerned, there is no difference between an enlightened man and an ignorant one. What makes the difference is that one realises it while the other is ignorant of it.’ (The Sutra of Wei Lang.)
In the words of The Voice of the Silence, ‘ Seek in the impersonal for the eternal man, and having sought him out, look inward - thou art Buddha!’
The process of becoming is a circle; the process of becoming more, of growth, is a spiral, either up or down according as the growth is towards or away from wholeness. Buddhism begins with the Buddha’s Enlightenment and ends with man’s.
And the final goal? We know not, nor is it yet, or likely to be for aeons to come, our immediate concern. The faint of heart will ever seek some resting-place, some weak finality; for the strong, the first and the last word is and ever more will be - Walk On!
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