Interesting rap, s3raphita. I think it's a valid description of two spiritual
paths we find on planet Earth -- self-powered vs. outer-powered. Me, I consider
myself fortunate that I have never even been tempted to follow the other-power
path. It just never did anything for me, in any form in which I ever
encountered it. And even when I found myself sharing spiritual paths with those
of the bhakti/devotional/other-power bent (for example, those who got all
bhakti-d out over Maharishi or Rama), I was never tempted to focus on those
teachers as savior-figures of any kind.
The closest I ever got was along the lines of a metaphor that Rama used. Yes,
he considered himself enlightened. Occasionally he got downright
narcissistically crazy behind it. :-) But other times he seemed to have genuine
insights, such as the time he described the task of the student as NOT being
the ability to focus ON a teacher (via devotion or bhakti). That, in his view,
just kept the student in a constant state of duality -- there is the teacher
and then there is me, and never the twain shall meet.
In his good moments, he preferred to describe the teacher-student relationship
he hoped to embody as him being a kind of doorway or viewer, through which it
is easier to catch glimpses of the infinite. You don't focus ON the teacher but
THROUGH them, to infinity. That's your real teacher, not the human person in
front of you. (I won't include the whole Rama rap from the desert here, but if
you're interested I taped it and used it as the basis of a story.)
Anyway, that resonated with me, because that's how I always approached the
teachers I worked with. They really weren't the point. Infinity was the point.
From: "s3raph...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]"
<FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2015 2:01 AM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Could it be...Satan?
Re "acceptance of Jesus as Savior immediately - then and there - wipes out
all of one's "sins".":
Have you ever glanced into the literature on Pure Land Buddhism? It
differentiates between an *other-power* in the spiritual life, in which we
respond to a source outside ourselves, and a *self-power*. Most Buddhist
teachings rely on self-power - we have to work out our own salvation through
meditation and right practice.
In Pure Land teachings (an other-directed form of Buddhism) Amida Buddha is
seen as a saviour figure - the source of compassion. In some versions it is
only necessary to repeat the Nembutsu once (yep - just the once) to be
guaranteed a rebirth in the Pure Lands. Nirvana is then a short hop away.
The Nembutsu - saying "Namu-amida-butsu" - means "Adoration for Amida Buddha."
This whole other-power attitude is uncannily close to the Christian approach we
are used to. In fact, when I first heard of it I assumed the Japanese Buddhists
must have been influenced by Christian missionaries to Japan. Not so - it arose
independently. Doesn't that suggest it taps in to a common religious stream
that makes a powerful appeal to some people?
Which people? It's tempting at first (at least it was to me) to see those drawn
to such a path as lazy sods not prepared to do the hard work of sitting for ten
years in a cave gazing at a blank wall. But there's real insight also. Any
self-power way inevitably activates our ego - our willfulness. The very thing
we're trying to transcend. The other-power way (you'll notice the parallels to
bhakti yoga teaching) gets you out of yourself from the get-go. Setting aside
its caressingly reassuring theology, Pure Land maybe has a psychological truth
to it that doubtless has proved effective to many people. And surely some
Christians who have "confessed" Jesus have trod the same route. (Precious few
no doubt!)
Alan Watts wrote a lucid essay on the topic - "The Problem of Faith and Works
in Buddhism".
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <yifuxero@...> wrote :
I like your logic, Turq, and agree with it: That's a prevalent problem with
all fundamentalist religions and cults....as soon as one spells out "the truth"
in a limited set of dogmatic statements; there are most often errors that crop
up once the reader is boxed into such belief systems....Once boxed in, the
flaws become more apparent and problematic over time; and this could take
centuries.For example, let's take Fundamentalist (Evangelical) Christianity.
and mention a few of the major premises:.1. You can only be "saved" as long as
you accept Jesus as your Savior. OK, this one sounds rather simplistic and
easy to follow but it boxes the believer into concluding that if one does NOT
accept Jesus as a Savior, there are dreaded consequences: namely you are
doomed to Hell forever This goes for humanitarians and philanthropists who
have helped countless people. Such good behavior means nothing insofar as
evading Hell. (so they say)..On the other hand, the worst criminal supposedly
can get into Heaven if in the last few minutes of his life, accepts Jesus as
Savior..There's no way I can disprove such claims, but on the surface, such
beliefs appear to be illogical and counterintuitive, at least to me.Another
dogmatic assertion by both Evangelicals and Catholics is that of Atonement:
that acceptance of Jesus as Savior immediately - then and there - wipes out all
of one's "sins". Again, this can't be falsified, but I'd say it defies logic
and doesn't match reality. Even if it did wipe out "sins" (whatever that
implies); it certainly doesn't wipe out the conquences of bad karma. That will
probably follow you wherever you go, until it's somehow eradicated or worked
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