All general categories of religions have various traditions and denominations which present their particular perspective
in a way that makes sense to them.
Whatever religion you are in
If you are satisfied with the general nieve and limited concepts and are not in a mental capacity
to seek any other form of worship or Spiritual growth…
Then perhaps within that religion, seek a denomination that holds water and makes sense as compared with
the deep end of all other reasonable spiritual traditions.
Even Christianity, when it’s presented in a non-dogmatic way that speaks to the true metaphorical meanings of the
myths, magic, and miracles can deliver a certain depth of ‘peace of mind’ to an aspirant of True Divinity.
I have looked deeply with earnest as many of these traditions as I could over my lifetime.
For example,
Even though I resonate deeply with Buddhism, there are many Buddhist traditions that do not hold water
or make sense after embracing the deep end of so many traditions.
Particularly the most popular version called The Pure Land.
It was developed about 1800 years after the Buddha created his nearly flawless teachings
which included his Noble Eight-Fold Path.
Note: his teachings were flawless…
their various interpretations vary which sometimes contradict the Buddha’s original Wisdoms.
However all that is presented and taught…
the most important part about practicing Buddhism is one must put the various teaches to heart,
then drop them and find the ineffable Wisdoms through their own earnest efforts.
The Pure Land tradition seems to ignore most of what the Buddha taught in favor of a really simple form of worship
that is easy to do for anyone, not just dedicated aspirants and celibate monks.
Like Christianity and unlike what the Buddha taught,
they are not so much interested in gaining liberation in this life but rather,
it is a Devotional cult of the buddha Amitabha in which they pray, meditate and devote themselves to the notation that
this god Amitabha will hear their petitionary prayers and bless them with a rebirth into a Pure Land that then,
they can start a practice to do what the Buddha describes in his Noble Eight-Fold Path that ends pain & suffering
and brings one’s perspective to abide in Nirvana.
With all due respect
I feel this tradition falls into a chapter of the book series called:
Buddhism for Dummies.
(No joke, there really is a book called this)
~ ~ ~
There are no short cuts to the Absolute, and anyone that earnestly devoted themselves with the Right Effort
can achieve this final goal and enjoy an ever-increasing depth of Bliss with each focused step along this Path.
But,
there are countless diversions, misinformation, and roadblocks that other traditions lay out
that sadly keeps a lot of seekers from ever even starting a reasonable Path towards the ultimate goal of
living a life free of the inherent ignorance, confusion, pain & suffering that most of us unnecessarily endure our entire life,
and
To become Enlightened to our True Nature of Being and thus
Know unshakably the True Nature of Reality.
~
Most Christians seem very afraid of dying.
Even though they are promised they will get to meet their maker
They seem very dreadful of being judged, on judgment day of death.
And the poor Catholics that have been deceived and already lived in fear of demons under their beds and in their closets
add to the dread of being judged after death is too much for most to feel good about whatever it is that comes after this
here & now.
Oddly,
True Buddhists don’t fear dying
They fear the dread of being born again and again
into this crazy life of Samsara…
At the deep end of Buddhism:
The Buddha’s most profound philosophies have taught
the concept of Anatta – No self.
Anatta – No self, is part of the starting point towards taking up a Buddhist practice, similar to the
Advaita Vedanta’s contemplation of finding one’s True Self.
or in Tibetan Dzogchen – to abide in Rigpa.
Self-inquiry is contemplated deeply to get a feeling of who are we?
Self-Realization is part of the inquiry one naturally and essentially must deeply contemplate.
With the Hindu/Buddhist technique of Neti Neti one can use negative deduction to help reveal our True Nature
not this – not that
We all know we can’t take our money with us,
and
I’m not my body, it dies while
my True Nature is never born, nor never dies.
I’m not any of my body parts ether.
Although metaphorically
my heart metaphorically represents my love and compassion
it is just a body part, like my brain.
The thoughts that our mind generates are too
just functions of the body
they are not an everlasting eternal me.
This Spiritual Self inquiry can take a few minutes
or
the rest of one’s life. But
All inquiries wade into the deep end of
Awareness.
The aspects of a non-dual unified consciousness is simply
Awareness.
In the deepest sitting meditation,
once the universal focus on breath is focused,
abiding in the awareness of Awareness in the higher states of consciousness
is about as close as we can become Aware of our True Nature.
Tibetan Bon Buddhist practice of Great Perfection – Dzogchen –
calls this Rigpa.
Many traditions refer to it as the Ground of our Being… Our True Self.
Christ Conscious. God Nature. Buddha Nature.
~ ~ ~
There is much written about the philosophical wisdoms that expands upon this Ultimate-Self understanding.
But simply reading about these wisdoms will not bring a profound understanding of our True Nature.
That which can be read or written is not the Tao
the Great Mystery or the Flow of Life,
nor can it lead to understanding our True Nature.
All religions and spiritual traditions today were created at a time when the world view was generally accepted that:
Women had no rights.
Slavery was perfectly normal.
The earth was flat.
The flat earth was the center of the universe filled with round planets. huh ? :-O
The sun revolved around the earth.
And many other un-evolved concepts.
Tibetan Bon tradition is the oldest spiritual tradition with un-broken lineage of over 18,000 years.
That is indeed impressive, but one really must take into account what the world view was that long ago.
As humanity slowly evolved, so did the more mindful traditions that transcend along with time as well.
In the Tantric tradition, it is assumed that once a new paradigm of teaching the wisdoms of Tantric was discovered
the old out dated teachings are to be literally thrown out.
All traditions should embrace this Transcend & Include methodology.
After all this effort the Buddha laid out to describe our True Self as having no individuality;
there is no separation between who we take ourselves to be and all that is
Then,
The conundrum with contemporary Buddhism is:
Who is it that will be burdened by being reborn
In my humble opinion:
The fear of being born again & again provides a false sense of inspiration to really work hard to achieve
full enlightenment in this life or else!…
Those pesky rebirths!
Here the process of putting down in words what the Buddha had taught 400 years after he transcended,
would require a bit of filling in the blanks so to speak.
All religions and even this spiritual tradition seems to require a Divine reason to do good and have a dedicated practice or else!
However,
the Buddha’s Noble Eight-Fold Path clearly outlines how to ‘Unconditionally’ do good
without attachment for any praise…
~
There is enough benefits right now in this here & Now earthly reality,
to find liberation from the pain & suffering we inherently push through in our lives.
That’s why psychologists have busy careers!
There are many profound benefits to be experienced from integrating
the Buddha’s Noble Eight-Fold Path into one’s daily flow.
You don’t need to accept the burden of being reborn over & over again
With a Truly Non-Dual unified conscious perspective,
There really is no me or you, an us or we
There is just
Unity.
This is the non-dual unified conscious perspective.
One big difference from what is projected as heaven is that
Nirvanais not a place that an individual goes to after this life
it is a recognition of the ârue reality, Awareness of one’s True Self, that is beyond conscious, beyond our mind and
the ego most mistake as their identity and
way beyond what we once naively imagined was God.
~ ~ ~
When ‘you’ are at one with it all…
there can be no you over here… and this one-ness over there.
It’s just inseparable Unity.
It’s not a place… yet it is everything that is.
There is nothing in this life that can come close to explain the ineffable nature of
the timeless wonder of it all and what’s before & beyond this life
Except for very deep stages of higher consciousness found in Jana meditation or
the deep end of the Buddha’s Noble Eight-Fold Path,
which will offer this experience to the ones that put in the Right Effort
But to adequately teach this experience to another would take many years of focused practice and then,
it can’t really be ‘taught’ so to speak…
one can only point out the direction one should take along their own Path.
In Christianity, an individual must postpone the gratification of ending pain & suffering
until they die, get judged, go to the higher hierarchies of mythic made up heaven… then
they will be in a dualistic version of heaven as some place out there
that our individual self goes to and gets a Heavenly body
that looks just like the one youre in right now:-O!
It gets more complicated with all the man made up projections of a heavenly hierarchy.
So many distractions to the individual seeking the Absolute Higher Truths.
But when you allow yourself to let go of everything you’ve been told and
everything you think you know and start your Path with a beginner’s mind
Take in as much as you can.
When you learn from different perspectives that are pointing towards the same ineffable Absolute truths
Then you’ll know you’re on the right Path.
Namaste ~ Amen ~ Peace Peace Peace
