The Buddhist Exorcist
RinchenRimmon
New
Understanding Christianity through Buddhist view is actually simple.
In Buddhism we realize our innate goodness by sitting. We sit and we watch the mind. Sometimes the mind is full of ideas. Sometimes the mind is not full of ideas. When we watch ideas, we notice that they come and go. We also notice that some of those ideas carry a lot of emotional baggage. Open the right bag and out pops happiness, sadness, hatred, or fear.
As Buddhist we learn to let those ideas go. We let them be, realizing that we have been daydreaming, and we come back or return to this moment. According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, we practice meditation and so we prepare the mind to meet "angels and demons" in the Bardo. These "angels and demons" are made from the "mind stuff" of good and bad memories, impressions, and experiences (next time someone close to you dies, just watch those "angels-and-demons" memories comfort and torture you). We are instructed not to allow ourselves to be distracted by these "angels or demons," but to go towards the pure light of our own consciousness. Our meditation gives us proper view of mind to follow this path.
"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."-Romans 12:22 King James Bible
The Orthodoxly Minded Christian uses interesting variations of same practices as the Buddhist to get different flavors of the same results: salvation/enlightenment.
First and most obvious is meditation.
Both Catholic and Orthodox Christians use rosary beads and prayer ropes to count their mantra. The Orthodox use a particularly famous and effective mantra called "the Jesus prayer." Protestant and Evangelical Christians meditate on scripture verses and are particularly fond of meditating on the Psalms. All mantra meditation has the same effect of calming the mind and easing thought production.
The problems of "original sin," and the "sins of commission and omission" are taken care of by the meritorious act of the Guru and Bodhisattva Jesus Christ. But, it remains the responsibility of the Christian to "work out" her salvation through acts of altruism and compassion. And so discover and develop her innate goodness. Christians call this "fruit of the Spirit."
So, what is demonic possession? It's when the mind can not let go of an emotionally charged thought that keeps repeating itself over and over again, like a bad song. Demons are the bad things we or others do to us. If we can't forgive them or ourselves this remain as thoughts that frighten and torture us. To "forgive" here means to "let go" or forget the "idea." A human being, possessed by the stress of unresolved emotional trauma attached to an idea, is going to act in frighteningly bizarre, possibly violent ways. Add to this the wild varieties in which the body and mind can become imbalanced and/or polluted and you get folks acting out.
Exorcism? Both Buddhist and Christians cast demons/ideas from out of their lives. Though, it seems that even Jesus practiced compassion on demons when he conversed with them and cast them into a herd of pigs, who drowned themselves into the sea. (Remember the allegorical nature of scripture and do not take things literally!) Jesus is teaching us to have compassion on minds filled with bad ideas because that's all they are. The practitioner who's mind is calm, and knows how the mind works, is able to empathize with the tortured soul and explain/teach the Dharma gospel, and so expel the idea, or make peace with it. All others will have too much conditioning to see nothing more than a devil.
As Jesus was able to tame the demoniac, so Buddha was able to tame the wild men of his time.
Is something as simple as an "idea" enough to drive someone crazy and act "demon possessed?" Yes. Yes, it is. Why do think Jesus voiced as he was being murdered, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do?" The practice of sharing our peace with others is the point and goal of our religious inclinations.
Peace is the greatest spiritual achievement and the greatest gift a practitioner can share. Fully intentionally matured internal peace is not subject to environmental conditions or preferences. Peace that has been purposefully cultivated on a meditation cushion or in prayer closet is solid like granite.
Hollywood style demons don't frighten me, they are the result of extreme stress, and an opportunity for me to exercise compassion. Look at all the people, dogmatically possessed with ideas. Not thrashing about or foaming at the mouth, just not speaking up against bullies or worse, being bullies themselves. Unaware. Unawake. Just slightly demon possessed, not realizing that an emotionally charged thought has earwormed itself into their minds, and now they are yelling at the check-out girl, or gunning down their classmates.
That scares the shit out of me.
Let it go.
Let it be.
It's a simple thing.
Now, let's stop fighting and be friends.
namaste
Comments
One: Buddhism has no concept of sin.
Two: not everyone practises Tibetan Buddhism, so this demon stuff means nothing.
Three: a lot of people here are completely neutral or turned off by Christianity and its implications of punishment and reward.
Four: hello! :wave: .
Who is fighting who again? I don't get it?
But Ayobowan all the same.
/Victor
The thing is, despite well-meaning people's attempts at bridging religions by reading stuff allegorically, there are plenty more people (also well-meaning) that believe in the actual existence of demons, heaven, hell, etc.
Not allegorically/metaphorically (whatever the difference is).
From my experience, if you talked to most mainstream Christians and tried to meet them in the middle based on your allegorical reading of the Bible, the reaction would be more or less "Well... not exactly..."
Nice post. I like the comparison between Buddhism and Christianity, as well as between demons and bad thoughts (reminds me of Dostoyevsky's book of the same name, which I recently finished).
We needz better Christians and better Buddhists. We iz The Plan.
Where do I sign up for exorcism exercise? :wave: .
Somewhere on this site I found a discussion where former Christians/now Buddhists were talking about demonic possession. Unfortunately, after signing up for the forum, I couldn't find the discussion.
FYI: my Teacher is non-monastic Tibetan-Budhism in the lineage of Padmasambava and Yeshe-Tsogyal, and has a major focus on Dzochen.
I definitely wrote this from the point of view of an ex-Christian coming to grips with with the idea of demonic possession. I understand that Christian orthodoxy would probably classify this as heresy. No offense meant.
Scientifically speaking, I am interested in what is happening. The idea that the life force of one entity could inhabit an already occupied body is interesting. Also interesting is the notion that an idea could literally take on a "life if it's own." I don't have all the answers. But I do have tons of questions.
I don't think anyone is offended, and I'm not sure it'd be considered "heresy" (who even uses that term nowadays in the mainstream Christian church?), but it's just that I think many Christians won't necessarily see eye-to-eye with an allegorical interpretation of their faith.
@RinchenRimmon,
I find your attempt to establish bridges interesting and while I would not call them heresy I must confess I fail to see some paralels you mention. Jesus is in Christianity the divine Logos by which the universe was created. He is hardly a Boddhisattva. The closest entity to Jesus I find in eastern philosophies is the Dao, the principle by which everything was created.
I also don't see in your arguments an explanation for what would be the original sin in Buddhism? Takuan Soho claims we are a body of desire, and in this you might see a paralel to Augustine's concupiscence, and the idea that because we were formed from human seed and pleasure we are inherently predisposed to sin. However while they might be different interpretations of the same thing I am not sure the concepts are exactly the same.
I do not believe Jesus was a bodhisattva. He had lots compassion as bodhisattvas do, but he did not have wisdom of bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas have gained the realization of emptiness. He believed in independently existent creator God, which shows his lack of wisdom on emptiness. I think he was a good hearted man who cared about others.