A Buddhist smorgasbord
A few here are keen to propagate their own brand of what could be called "religion" so I am emboldened to begin a thread on the Dharma, AKA Buddhism.
Made up of bits and pieces drawn from my own long journey through the "way of the Buddha". One guy, seeing the Buddha hold up a flower, "got it" straight away (whatever "it" is) but others like me need more time.
Anyway, whatever, a few brief words from one modern Dharma teacher:-
[i] The Buddha did not teach Buddhism. He taught the Dharma, the law. He did not teach a set of beliefs or dogmas, or systems that have arbitrarily to be accepted. Through his own experience of enlightenment, he pointed the way for each of us to experience the truth within ourselves. During the forty years of his teaching, he used many different words and concepts to point to the truth. The words or concepts are not the truth itself; they are merely a pointing to a certain kind of experience. In the Buddha's time, because of the force of his wisdom and skill, generally people did not confuse the words for the experience. They heard what the Buddha had to say, looked within, and experienced the truth in their own minds and bodies.
As time went on and people started to practice less, they began to mistake the words for the experience. Different schools arose, arguing over concepts. It is as if in attempting to explain the light on a full moon night one points up at the moon. To look at the finger, rather than the moon, is to misunderstand the pointing. We should not confuse the finger for the moon, nor confuse the words pointing to the truth for the experience itself.
[/i]
That is enough for now. No posts will be deleted, however negative.
Thank you
Made up of bits and pieces drawn from my own long journey through the "way of the Buddha". One guy, seeing the Buddha hold up a flower, "got it" straight away (whatever "it" is) but others like me need more time.
Anyway, whatever, a few brief words from one modern Dharma teacher:-
[i] The Buddha did not teach Buddhism. He taught the Dharma, the law. He did not teach a set of beliefs or dogmas, or systems that have arbitrarily to be accepted. Through his own experience of enlightenment, he pointed the way for each of us to experience the truth within ourselves. During the forty years of his teaching, he used many different words and concepts to point to the truth. The words or concepts are not the truth itself; they are merely a pointing to a certain kind of experience. In the Buddha's time, because of the force of his wisdom and skill, generally people did not confuse the words for the experience. They heard what the Buddha had to say, looked within, and experienced the truth in their own minds and bodies.
As time went on and people started to practice less, they began to mistake the words for the experience. Different schools arose, arguing over concepts. It is as if in attempting to explain the light on a full moon night one points up at the moon. To look at the finger, rather than the moon, is to misunderstand the pointing. We should not confuse the finger for the moon, nor confuse the words pointing to the truth for the experience itself.
[/i]
That is enough for now. No posts will be deleted, however negative.
Thank you
