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Is there a limit to the knowledge I can obtain for the right path?
banned_crab
Veteran
When I feel I am making no progress on the path I begin to seek more knowledge. But sometimes I feel like I am running out of spiritual things to learn about or I am just taking the knowledge in intellectually instead of actually feeling it. What shall we do when one seeks more knowledge but cannot find it? shall I create my own knowledge? Will information even bring me closer to the right path?
0
Comments
There are three things in Buddhism (another list :hair: ):
hearing (knowledge)
contemplating
meditating
In the contemplation stage you try to see how all of the teachings are found in your experience. In the meditation stage you 'become' the knowledge in a deep way.
The thought that you are making no progress is just a thought. You don't have to empower it. Look at all your Buddhist companions who are in the same boat. We can all do this and we should be friends so we can help each other.
Have you considered what part of you is looking for this progress?
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. . . if you want to accumulate 'spiritual materialism' to coin a phrase from a garbage collector, find virtues to be inspired and live by . . . oops may have spoken a little more truth than required . . .
Though @how and others are right to 'drop' the 'virtuous' and other preferences, doing this prematurely is like giving away all ones belongings and then going out thieving.
When you say information you really mean knowledge, I think you know what I mean. When I say knowledge, I really mean wisdom. To become wise one must be patient . . . maybe I'll start soon enough . . .
All the information is more like a description explaining how to get to the station. First of all you can get there in hundreds of ways and we all start on a different place. Second of all, the information is not the thing it's about, it's about actually going there. And most important of all, once you are there the information is obsolete. It still is correct, but there is no need for it anymore. The Buddha compared it to carrying a raft along after already having crossed the river.
In the end the Buddha's path is all about non-attachment. Realizing our attachments and let them be taken away, that's all. An existing trap is getting attached to information and intellectual knowledge, so it can potentially even stand in your way instead of helping you.
Also I think in everybody's practice there has to come a point they stop reading/listening and just have the courage to venture out alone.
But if you want to really understand the teachings, commit to the sit.
Regarding the similie of the raft - it may be stated on this site somewhere else but this has become my take on it:
To travel from one mountain (samsara) to another (full awakening - I don't like the word enlightenment, there is too much to get attached to hiding within it !) with a seemingly unfordable river in between, a raft (the teachings of the buddha) is extremely helpful for this part of your journey but it does nothing but hinder your progress to the top if you try to take it to the end of your journey!
There are many paths to the top - I know now that I am on the path of no path, which is really quite interesting, although no-one else ever seems interested in it as there is no reward so I just go on with my little monkey mind accompanying me for my amusement. I've been slashing my way without map or compass through an endless jungle with a blunt instrument but recently found the river and fortunately in this lifetime. To my amazement there, by the side of the river a most generous man (he was just a man remember) had gone before me and knowing I would be following had provided a sturdy c(raft) with a nice little 50cc motor and some useful navigational instruments on board and that craft helped me cross the river.
Now I stand on the other side I see the opposite side of the river is littered with plenty more of these useful crafts (and in all different shape, sizes, colours and engines), just waiting for someone else to hop on to enable them to ford the river and finish their quest i.e. climb the other mountain. But what is the point of trying to take that beautiful craft with me, it had one purpose only, and it has served it. When I reach the top of the mountain I aim to come back down and return it. I know there will be plenty of passengers who might want to cross the river, and maybe they will start coming in their droves if they know that there are some pretty cool ways of getting across the river; well I hope and pray that is the case. I pray that they will be just as pleased as I was to take the ride, but taking the craft to the top of the mountain - that's just too much like hard work. I'm going to leave it behind for now. If I get lost I might need to return to it, as some of the instruments on board may turn out to be more useful than I had previously imagined, or perhaps as I wander on this path and become lost again I may just stumble upon it or another one like it again, and marvel at it.
I don't have doubt about the teachings anymore, but I still have to climb that bloody mountain, and no one left any sharp instruments to cut through that dense foliage that seems to go all the way to the top! Looks like I'll need some courage, a bit of effort and my monkey mind to keep me company, it doesn't seem to want to leave me anyway and it can be amusing at times.
Maybe I'll stop seeking something and return to these shores and become a ferryman after this expedition?
Sorry to go on but my monkey mind is misbehaving at the moment and my favourite quote is relevant here (I sometimes use it when I have discussions with people who don't really get spiritualism or buddhism, but am fascinated to watch the effect of these words and the calmness that can arise in them (eyes may glaze over, lips sometimes curl in a gentle smile or the conversation pauses silently (and often thankfully) for a brief moment as they consider and realise, even if it is only for a moment, the significance of it). It is by William Blake, and although he was a British Mystic, it was introduced to me by Sogyal Rinpoche in his book, the 'Tibetan Book of Living and Dying', and I would like to offer it to this community, especially with those who may not have read the book or be familiar with either of them. My teachers have never been there in person, but I know they know or knew I would be here, or why else would they write all this stuff down that has such significance and meaning for me:
'He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy.
He who kisses the joy as it flies,
Lives in eternity's sunrise.'
;-)
For my amusement (I no longer try to take things too seriously) I also offer this to you all - it comes from 'Charlie and the Chocolate factory' at the end of the film where Charlie returns the everlasting gobstopper he is supposed to give to the evil Slugworth - hopefully you have seen the original film:
Wonka: [puts his hand on the Gobstopper, while writing] "So shines a good deed in a weary world." [looks up] Charlie? My boy. You've won! You did it! You did it! I knew you would! I just knew you would! Oh, Charlie, forgive me for putting you through this.
Wilkinson: Pleasure!
Charlie: Slugworth!
Wonka: No, no! That's not Slugworth. He works for me!
Charlie: For you?
Wonka: I had to test you, Charlie. And you passed the test! You won!
Grandpa Joe: Won what?!
Wonka: The jackpot, my dear sir! The grand and glorious jackpot!
Charlie: The chocolate?
Wonka: The chocolate, yes! The chocolate, but that's just the beginning! We hafta get on! We hafta get on! We have so much time, and so little to do! Strike that. Reverse it. This way, please!
Wonka: But, Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted.
Charlie: What happened?
Wonka: He lived happily ever after.
This posting has brought me nothing, but pleasure, I hope it has not annoyed you! And I would like to raise my hands in applause and graciously thank my monkey mind for its contribution, but enough is enough, be still monkey mind, please, you've been given enough time, let your thoughts not disturb me as I rest quietly in the happiness and comfort that escorts you
Never abandon the Buddhas Chocolate Factory . . . :clap:
One of the best spiritual lessons I learned was from reading a few Zen books, sitting a lot and not reading very much, and then coming back to the same books. I felt like I "got it" at a much deeper level than before.
(So he must have had an even harder time than we do!