To Question Old Answers

     "Many people think that it is the function of a spiritual teaching to provide answers to life’s biggest questions, but actually the opposite is true. The primary task of any good spiritual teaching is not to answer your questions, but to question your answers. For it is your conscious and unconscious assumptions and beliefs that distort your perception and cause you to see separation and division where there is actually only unity and completeness."

        Adyashanti "The Way of Liberation" 2012 ebook,

        which may be downloaded: http://www.adyashanti.org/library/The_Way_of_Liberation_Ebook.pdf

Public Gardens, Halifax, NS

Religious Orthodoxy, Creative Spirituality - the Archetypal Dilemma

      How many times has an individual enthusiastically suggested a progressive idea to an established institution only to be brushed off, or worse? Likewise, to what degree are we, as individuals, disengaged from institutions - even those to which we voluntarily belong - considering them irrelevant? Respectful communication, in both directions, clearly needs to be optimized. Constant input of energy from creative individuals is essential to keep institutions vital, relevant. Vital, relevant institutions can be healthy hatcheries for vibrant creative individuals.

     "Developing spiritual practice within an organisation can give an important foundation of understanding. As an 'apprentice' it can provide a structured, disciplined and contained environment in which to learn and practice. As we become more in touch with, listen to and trust our own inner truth as to our spiritual path, it may deviate from or become incompatible with the organization we have grown up in."

     Preece concludes: "Our spiritual journey is personal and individual. As we awaken our innate Buddha potential, it is for each of us to take responsibility for how this may be expressed creatively in the world for the welfare of others. The Bodhisattva is perhaps the perfect example of one whose determination in life is not to avoid incarnation but takes responsibility through compassion to individuate and become a vehicle for ultimate wisdom to be brought into the world."

     The archetypal duality of form & emptiness is beautifully discussed by Rob Preece in his excellent book:
       Preece R. "The Wisdom of Imperfection. The Challenge of Individuation in Buddhist Life." Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca NY, 2006.
     and summarized: www.mudra.co.uk/individuation

lem12   www.dpreview.com

How Best to Mine Diamonds

     "my goal is to pluck the diamond from the dunghill of esoteric religion. There is a diamond there, and I have devoted a fair amount of my life to contemplating it, but getting it in hand requires that we remain true to the deepest principles of scientific skepticism and make no obeisance to tradition."
       Sam Harris. "Waking Up. A Guide to Spirituality without Religion." Simon & Schuster, 2014.

     The general idea of the above statement resonates. Harris would, of course, ridicule a religious person examining science WHILE remaining true to the deepest principles of her religion. 
     From my understanding, to plumb the depths of any discipline, one must completely immerse oneself in that discipline "with an open mind" - be it learning to speak French, play the piano, or pharmacology. Each discipline has its own internal logic and set of rules. This can, and should be done, without "parking your brains at the door before you enter". There's far greater clarity with direct perception than in today's "gold standard" of scientific skepticism.
     Immersive learning does call for psychological flexibility ie letting go of, if only temporarily, dogmatic rigidity (a psychological affliction in its own right). Huston Smith studied several of the world's major spiritual traditions (Buddhism, Islam, and others) by immersing himself in each for years at a time. Perhaps most inspiring are clergy, like Sister Elaine MacInnes, who while remaining a Catholic nun, is also a Zen Buddhist roshi (master), the highest level of teacher in Zen Buddhism.

Peter Essick, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com

Orthodoxy - an Instrument Tuned Too Tight

     "A Zen teacher ... needs long patience, deep forbearance and forgiveness, and a healthy sense of the immense tragedy and beauty of human life. The more the teacher has an idea of 'Zen' that students must conform to, the more everyone (teacher included) will suffer, if not at first, then later on as people who were initially inspired by that idea come to feel oppressed or even betrayed by it."

       Norman Fischer. "No Teacher of Zen." Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, Spring 2014. p51

Tuscan Rainbow, June 2014

Exclusivism & Growing Up

     We have a huge proclivity to think - to be certain - that our current perspective is correct, true & accurate. This is so, even though most of us can recall how we felt the same certainty earlier in life, but now with 20:20 hindsight, realize how immature & silly we were.
     Personal pride & certainty is usually misguided at best. But when pride & certainty join forces with the momentum of "group think", all hell often breaks loose - mob violence against "competing religions", cult suicides, genocides, ... world wars. If my group is right, others must be wrong AND must be corrected, if not eliminated - this is 'mob mentality'.
     Mercifully, (some) people can & do outgrow this adolescent, rigid, black-and-white phase, realizing that they have many, many higher levels of self-concepts & worldviews to evolve through.
     Sadly, fear of leaving the group, fear of being shunned, fear of leaving behind the comfortable pretense of certainty, keep many otherwise intelligent, educated people stuck in such groups - even if it means having to park their minds & hearts at the door.
     Aging, especially wisely, isn't for sissies. See: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/03/aging-wisely.html

 

Brian Castellanos, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com

Fear-driven Orthodoxy vs Responsibility for Being a Light Unto Ourselves

     "Every religion, at least sometimes, claims that its forms - its literature, its doctrines, its practices - derive from a source of unimpeachable authority. This includes Buddhism. ... Many times I have heard teachers say that since masters of the past were more accomplished than we are and knew what they were doing, we can't tamper with established forms. That even a nontheist religion like Buddhism tends so often to rely on an inflexible source for its forms indicates how desperately many humans long to deflect responsibility for shaping their religious lives." 

       Rita Gross, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, Summer 2013

'no mud, no lotus' necklace from: http://www.buddhagroove.com