Best Of

It's a tough question. People have different goals, different aspirations, and stop at different places along the way for different reasons.
Meditative living, a relatable community, a loving family, an ethical career, is more than enough for some people to find that peace they're seeking.
For some others the search continues where more letting go might be necessary.
I believe I may end up falling into the latter camp as much as I'd prefer to be of the former.
Pulling apart the magic trick may spoil the illusion but that's precisely the way some become magicians.

The Rhinoceros sutra
https://accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.1.03.than.html

Thanks for your input @person there is a lot there that I sympathise with. Luckily there are a lot of individual teachers in the US now so that you don’t have to associate with a community if you find you don’t connect with the culture.

In a way spiritual seeking is kind of connected to culture, it depends a lot with what kind of people you feel at home. If you feel deep down that the Sangha you are trying to be part of is too different from you it’s hard to see yourself making a home there permanently.

If you listen to a lot of these teachers stories like Jack Kornfield, you hear that they went to a Theravada community to study, and in a way brought what they had learnt back to the American culture. Some people are going to find it difficult to connect to a Thai forest monastery which has been transplanted to California, but may still get something out of Jack Kornfields teachings, who actually studied under Ajahn Chah in Thailand.

The past decade or so I've had a hard time finding role models that speak to me. The early part of my Buddhist life I was a pretty devoted Tibetan Buddhist. I didn't really examine and question things the way I do now, it was pretty easy to eat it all up and immerse myself.

Since, I've become disillusioned with some of what I've come to see there and moved away looking for a new home. I went to a modern Theravada sangha and I found much of that sort of western skeptical, pragmatic attitude missing in TB. But the broader culture became off putting to me, ultimately they weren't my people either.

I don't really feel much at home with most teachers and teachings, there's always something that feels off, from my perspective. I kind of have the Rhinoceros mentality at the moment and am trying to muddle my way through a mish mash of various teachers that each speak to a part of me. I like Gil Fronsdale, Dan Harris, Joseph Goldstein, Josh Korda (Dharma punx NYC), as well as the psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman.

In terms of finding a way out of samsara, I think Osho’s discourses are an interesting pointer. For many years he spoke on many different traditions — Zen, sufism, hinduism, the Tao, and so on. When asked why he did this, he said that different people among his followers would resonate with the traditions and get something from it.

So relateability extends not just to different Buddhist teachers, but to the ‘flavour’ of entire spiritual traditions. A seeker may find himself wandering for years, searching among the different traditions for something that would resonate with him.

Progress along the way is a slippery concept. More often than not it is a gradual unfolding within until you are ripe for whatever existence has in store for you.

Doing some reflecting (inspired by Rixh's post "How to practise"), I think beings are in-part made of a unique identifying mixture of kusala(wholesome) and akusala(unwholesome) causes and conditions giving rise to an identity or ego. Determining the way out of samsara often takes different early forms for different beings due in part to this mixture. A simple example could be relating to role-models. Why one person listens to one role-model and not another is often because of relateability. If two beings look for escape from samsara they may have different role-models which they will be more or less attentive to due to likes and dislikes. Having a number of role-models reflecting different mixtures presents opportunity for the being to find the one they identify with best and follow until they can seat themselves on the way. (The sutta where monks go from one teacher to another until they find the one that speaks the message in a way which is right for that group.)

As beings in-part made up of kusala and akusala causes and conditions, volitions are also a mix of kusala and akusala when aggregates are still clung to as an identity. If such a being were to look for escape from samsara, what originates from them would also be a mixture, and a changing one at that as attempts to understand lead to change. It's my current theory that searching for progress along the way causes volitions which provide great opportunity when angle of volition meets angle of reflection in a relatable way such as a multifaceted gem reflects the sun into your eyes(or doesn't) as all the components move around in space.

It makes sense to me, but a lot of things make sense to me that sometimes don't make sense.
Is this view worth examining further? If it is, are any of you examining it? If so, in what ways? Thoughts welcome.