Are you able to look through traditions?

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muni
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Are you able to look through traditions?

Post by muni »

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Example. "The Buddha did not say to dance like that".

Careful with own limited interpretations; conditioned by preferences, I think.

The path and all its' colorful expressions.


Are you able to look through traditions, through cultures?
Anders
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Re: Are you able to look through traditions?

Post by Anders »

I think it's worthwhile to try, but equally dangerous think it is truly possible.
"Even if my body should be burnt to death in the fires of hell
I would endure it for myriad lifetimes
As your companion in practice"

--- Gandavyuha Sutra
muni
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Re: Are you able to look through traditions?

Post by muni »

Anders Honore wrote:I think it's worthwhile to try, but equally dangerous think it is truly possible.
The danger to get completely lost in own created network of interpretations? Yes, careful!
To see own mind's creations is crushing the danger.
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BFS
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Re: Are you able to look through traditions?

Post by BFS »

The danger to get completely lost in own created network of interpretations? Yes, careful!
To see own mind's creations is crushing the danger.
Hard to see in oneself sometimes, so yes, important to be careful, to check up. Spiritual Materialism in it's subtlest form happens when Dharma is twisted and used to reinforce our own interpretations and views.
One of my teachers said to be careful because we have a cultural heritage of good and bad without any gray inbetween. I guess that heritage of wanting things to be perfect in an absolute way can cause us to become more closed minded.
Thanks, muni.
:)
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mudra
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Re: Are you able to look through traditions?

Post by mudra »

It's kind of like learning to drive. At first it's better to stick to one type of car until one masters the basics, and is able to handle oneself in various situations. Once one really has got a good sense etc, then it is not confusing to step into another model.

In the meantime while you are driving along learning, looking over at someone else going in the same direction in another car you would be silly not to recognize that they are headed the same way, just in a different kind of vehicle!
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mindyourmind
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Re: Are you able to look through traditions?

Post by mindyourmind »

I just love experiencing other traditions, in whatever format. When I started out it caused a fair amount of tension at times, but now I just like to learn, to take in more information. And that can happen from taking in the good and the bad.
Dualism is the real root of our suffering and all of our conflicts.

Namkhai Norbu
muni
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Re: Are you able to look through traditions?

Post by muni »

Thank you for the inspiring answers.
Last edited by muni on Thu Aug 11, 2011 7:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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conebeckham
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Re: Are you able to look through traditions?

Post by conebeckham »

The Dharma is not a cultural phenomenon, nor a set of conditioned circumstances, or even concepts in one's own mind.

Neither is it different from those.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
muni
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Re: Are you able to look through traditions?

Post by muni »

conebeckham wrote:The Dharma is not a cultural phenomenon, nor a set of conditioned circumstances, or even concepts in one's own mind.

Neither is it different from those.
We cannot say their is no cultural background in expression of the teachings, the "paths". The problem is that we often don't take the effort to inform about what is the meaning of another expression.

Of course non fabricated Dharma.
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Astus
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Re: Are you able to look through traditions?

Post by Astus »

I think in the following way: the Buddha's teaching can be categorised in three parts: ethics, meditation, insight. Things like dances, rituals, songs, ornaments, etc. fall under the category of ethics. Some of them can be considered bad behaviour and some good behaviour, partially dependent upon precepts and mostly on social norms. This way there is virtually no need to think in terms of culture but rather the Dharma.
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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Javierfv1212
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Re: Are you able to look through traditions?

Post by Javierfv1212 »

I am trying. I used to mostly just focus on Theravada, though I practiced with a Zen sangha. Recently though I've been going to Nyingma and Kagyu groups, reading on Tantra (both Buddhist and Hindu) and trying to expand my horizons.

I have met new friends who are inspiring and am working on new practices. It's a work in progress but I think I have a much more positive view of Vajrayana now than before.
It is quite impossible to find the Buddha anywhere other than in one's own mind.
A person who is ignorant of this may seek externally,
but how is it possible to find oneself through seeking anywhere other than in oneself?
Someone who seeks their own nature externally is like a fool who, giving a performance in the middle of a crowd, forgets who he is and then seeks everywhere else to find himself.
— Padmasambhava

Visit my site: https://sites.google.com/view/abhayajana/
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