Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Staying rooted in your tradition
The Dali Larma and Thich Nhat Hanh both call
on westerners to stay rooted in their own
traditions. They both feel if one travels deeply
into all paths there is a rich contemplative
river where all paths converge.
I was curious as to how many of us can actually
manage this?
As a quaker it's very easy, as we have no creed
and celebrate difference and new light from
wherever it may come and our meetings are
deeply rooted in silence.
Wishing you all well from a snowy London.
on westerners to stay rooted in their own
traditions. They both feel if one travels deeply
into all paths there is a rich contemplative
river where all paths converge.
I was curious as to how many of us can actually
manage this?
As a quaker it's very easy, as we have no creed
and celebrate difference and new light from
wherever it may come and our meetings are
deeply rooted in silence.
Wishing you all well from a snowy London.
1
Comments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics
usually enslaves rather than frees us.
There is convergence, those wishing to order their mind to new baggage, go one way. Those wishing to widen their mind find their space too . . .
As the Dali Lama has said, Buddhism can be added to anyones' daily practice/life.
It is really just the right way to live and to be mindful of our actions and the result of them.
I'm not saying to stick with what ever beliefs you don't believe are helping you. But Buddhism is a path that can be incorperated into any "set of beliefs, or lack there of"
Where's the edit function... can't seem to find it?
As for not converting, I suppose that one could stay within whatever religious tradition they were born into and still practice aspects of Buddhism or achieve inner peace through their own traditional religious practices without an sort of formal conversion to Buddhism. I've found a substantial number of similarities between various religious traditions, and I know many who seem to be quite happy without being Buddhist, or even necessarily religious. But for me, Buddhism has everything I need, so I don't see any reason to sit on the fence, figuratively speaking, or adopt a more 'Western' spiritual path just because that's what's expected of me. I'm a citizen of the world, after all.
I like to think that I seek wisdom, rather than dogma. I attempt to strip away the magic of both Christianity and Buddhism religions and try to look simply at the wisdom of the teachings. And I find much wisdom in many of the teachings of both Buddha and Jesus. I guess some would call that (gasp!) "cherry picking". But you know, partaking in cherries can be very fulfilling...but I want to taste apples and raspberries and antelope, too.
Sorry, has different connotations in Australia then elsewhere.
Just because something is traditional, that does not make it useful, especially where religion and culture are concerned.
Indeed, some like myself have no fixed tradition with which to travel deeply into. I can see how such an idea may be beneficial for someone who is identified with a particular Western tradition, but beyond that I fail to see how useful this is, and perhaps just perpetuates boundaries and division.
I can see perhaps why such advice is offered, but I think it misses the mark when it comes to the reality of many people's religious lives and upbringing. Another thing to consider is the time we live in -- now with such access to information as well as more freedom to deviate from the community norm in terms of religion, naturally there will be more people seeking alternatives when what they grew up with doesn't suffice.
I believe that all religions have things in common and their own beauty. However, I'm not an 'all roads lead to the same thing' kind of person. There are plenty of differences as well as similarities -- some that do not mesh well with each other. This is not always a bad thing -- as long as people can be respectful of each other, it can lend a great deal of vibrancy to the religious landscape. For me Buddhism resonates in ways that other religious paths have not because not all religious paths are the same, and being a Westerner doesn't mean that I am automatically more suited to something else.
A presbyterian church, grey, conservative, opposing rights for women. Dreary "worship", dreary academic approach... not a spark of spirit or inspiration.
alongside my commitment to Buddhist
practice I feel the above statement does
not address me.
However, in my Christian days, I took
their message seriously and found
great nourishment in the contemplative
tradition within Christianity which was so
removed from the mainstream church
experience which always left me cold
and feeling alienated.
I was, for example, brought up with the religion of the intellect. Very smart, very savvy, very well-read ... and couldn't find my ass with both hands. Buddhism, or more specifically, the Zen practice I latched onto, seemed to beckon with its apparently-anti-intellectual nostrums: If I could just get a little dumber, maybe I'd be happier.
Naturally, my high hopes were not realized because I had missed the point: Being dumber or throwing all my possessions away and living a 'simple' life or getting hip to all the verbal approaches in Buddhism was not the point. The point was to investigate the mind that clung to improvement and belief. Not bad-mouth it -- just investigate it. Investigate THIS tradition.
I knew what I knew and was whoever the hell I was. Trying to unknow it or bury it was not going to work. But the attitude and appreciation for what I knew and who I was was open to revision -- a revision that asserted itself in practice.
And I imagine the same might be true for someone who was brought up in a hell-bent-for-leather Christian household or a give-me-money-or-give-me-death environment. When such things sink in, well, they have just sunk in. And when they have sunk in, when tradition simply lives at your house or mine, then the question is not how to get rid of them, but how to resee them ... and more important how to revise (if desired) what anyone might have learned to rely on. Is this tradition reliable? Not, is it good or bad or elevated or ugly, just, is it reliable? Is it reliable or does it seem to throw up brick walls? And if it throws up brick walls, whose responsibility is that? Etc.
Probably the best way to understand all this (if "understanding" is the right word) is to heed the bumper sticker that advises, "Don't believe everything you think." It's a bumper sticker that might just as easily say, "Don't believe everything you believe."
Practice provides the investigative tools. Use 'em, don't use 'em -- your life, your tradition.
He said that switching religions often leaves people alienated from their own community..which rather misses the point of spiritual practice...which should ground us.
Although its less well known Ajahn Chah says the same thing. He was very concerned about people turning to Buddhism in a negative reaction to something else.
It was never for me.
I love both H.H. the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh but this seems to me one of those things that is easy for them to say never having to try to believe in a vengeful, jealous and all powerful creator deity.
"Don't use Buddhism to become a Buddhist... Use Buddhism to become a better whatever you already are"
-- Dalai Lama
What if you've always been rather Buddhist even before hearing about Buddhism?
But I will give you an example of how I stay associated with western ideals (you denizens of newbuddhist). I used to pray to Jesus. I used to pray to the Gods in JR Tolkiens Silmarillion. It was an alive prayer. And so it's no problem for me to ask Gods and so forth to help me. I also ask Buddhas help. I have a terrible suffering with my mental illness and whatever support I can get from my youthful non-intellectual prayers is fine by me.
But as I understand it, Buddhism isn't a religion.
Buddhism is an awareness of life and the actions we make.
Ask yourself this, "are the actions I make wholesome?"
"do my actions benefit other living beings?"
Sit with that and REALLY look into yourself and the things you think say or do.
Each morning I ask the help of the Buddhas, Bodhisatvas and the Universe to help me to find the strength, wisdom and compassion to be aware of these three things and to make each of them benefit all living beings.
Sure I don't always "make the mark" but I do my best.
Not saying it isn't possible to understand without a teacher, just that it is easier to avoid those conflicts if you have one, and easier to avoid latching on to an incorrect understanding.
I was raised Lutheran, and from a very early age I did not believe in the stuff I was told. Staying in my tradition wasn't going to happen to matter what. But it most certainly has not alienated me. Quite the opposite.