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Barking up the wrong tree?
RichardH
Veteran
Practicing without the structure and guidance of Sangha is a bad idea if you have choice. It is easy to get lost by just meditating alone and reading books. It is easy to have all kinds of insights and get carried away by them. Sangha completely takes away the specialness of our insights and experiences and places them within a context of broadbased oversight rooted in hundreds of years of experience.
Some people do not practice in Sangha because one is not available, and this is what you have to work with. Its a challenge.
Other people have access to teachers and Sangha but choose to go it alone.
For those who have chosen to never practiced in Sangha, can I ask why? and what do you see as the advantage of this? Is it not possible that you are barking up the wrong tree? or inventing your own Dharma? How would you know? Thanks
Some people do not practice in Sangha because one is not available, and this is what you have to work with. Its a challenge.
Other people have access to teachers and Sangha but choose to go it alone.
For those who have chosen to never practiced in Sangha, can I ask why? and what do you see as the advantage of this? Is it not possible that you are barking up the wrong tree? or inventing your own Dharma? How would you know? Thanks
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Comments
I miss out on some checks and balances of seeing other practitioners. On the other hand I have a lot of great support. In my area it is very conservative and traditional although it is a religious area, Grand Rapids, MI. I have a mental disorder which has made me more reluctant to drive 45 minutes to practice with a sangha, well its a pain in any case and the sangha is nearby me is no lineage, just some dudes/dudettes studying together.
I think without my teacher I wouldn't have persisted with meditation. Initially meditation caused me a lot of suffering because the motivation to practice was to relieve the mental disorder and that just wasn't happening. I continue to get a better idea of what my teacher is talking about. And how that happens is by working with my own negativity that comes up.
I thought about that, being a loner myself
We all know we are flawed in such and such aspects, but the years go by and, buddhist or not, we find ourselves with the same shitty self. So what is wrong? Why am I not evolving? Why these ideas of self-improvement fall to the ground? Seriously, I ask myself that sometimes, and I think that is the biggest indicative something is wrong with the Tree you are barking at.
The problem is that we have this idea of immediate relief, that Buddhism is gonna throw a magic solution at us. Well, sometimes it is sweet medicine, but on what matters the most, it hurts. The beliefs, the anger, the attachment sometimes cover up a lot more anger and confusion, and we don't want to break the bubble. That leads to wrong view.
The most important thing we have to do is to learn to work with our feelings, because they are the very thing that trap you to your s***** self: "I feel bad, I will listen to a Dharma talk. Now I feel good and motivated, I will clean up my act. Lost motivation, now I am bored, old patterns arise again. Now I feel guilty, more Dharma talk please!" They are objects of our perception, like a flower, they are not the subject. They are not you. We usually give them such a BIG dimension, like we are engulfed by them and we have no choice but to follow them.
I will elaborate. Think of someone you are angry at, than someone you love or like, and then a neutral person. Why is that? You might think that the first one is a bad person, the second one is good, and the third one, well she didn't do anything. Truly, the basis of you judgment will probably be: the first person did something TO ME, the second person is good TO ME, the third one didn't do anything TO ME. Your feeling of anger, love and indifference in your head turn your subjective idea of them into an objective reality. The very same thing happens to wrong ideas about the Dharma, in a subtler way perhaps.
The best way of self assessment in this matter is ethics, because the feelings that propels us can be so subtle. It is easy to mistake compassion with pity, 'feeding our own ego' with wisdom, so let's just observe our behavior. If we are not able pull off the ethics, if we are not maintaining our vows, than something is wrong.
Yes, it is possible I am venturing up a different path than others have taken, but it's my path, and it may not necessarily be wrong.
I haven't practised with a Sanga (Quelle surprise?!;p) mainly because one isnt accessible to me. I would like to be part of one, so long as they showed tolerance to non traditional and were questioning.
It is very very possible that i am barking up the wrong tree.... but this is a condition of all buddhists, to think otherwise strikes me as very misplaced certainty:)
As to inventing Dharma, I just dont see how that would be possible. Dharma is foundational and indubitable, asking this is like asking about inventing ones own gravity or electricty.
I imagine for the mystical buddhist these questions are not so easy to answer, but to those who belive the buddha was not a mystic the simple path to dharma is clearly laid out.
Forget the Dharma the sutras tell us about and find the Dharma the budda found. Unlike The Buddha we have an imeasurable headstart on him, in that he has shown the way. But the way should be doubted so the path can be sound.
Doubt everything, be your own light, as the Buddha may or may not have said:)
The local scene in town has Buddhist Sanghas, but it also has a large new-age mix of Theosophy, Vedanta, Experimental therapy, Wilber, and Tolle which is commonly called "Buddhism". I'm not knocking these things on their own merit, but it does give pause. This one guy, who is big on Wilber and with a bit of Yoga under his belt, went to a "Big Mind" weekend workshop at the integral institute. After being talked out of his thinking mind and having a glimpse of "Big Mind", He came back and set himself up as a Buddhist teacher. Typical of this scene he equated "Emptiness" with God. Buddhism for him is a path to God by another name. In and of itself what he is doing is harmless enough, but he has students who are perpetuating this misrepresentation of the Dharma. Buddhism does not need Defenders of the Faith, but there is something to be said for the quality control of lineage. I would still be fixated on Jhana and calling it Godhead if it wasnt for teachers. Others may be smarter.
I've never had the opportunity myself but I would go. I think we should experience both. The Sangha can help show more doors but the seeker must experience these things alone. We can only figure things out alone. There is also the problem of someone elses point of view. We cannot live through someone elses eyes.