The Spirituality of Buddhism

 It must be the Libran influence in me. Every time I write a post emphasising a certain aspect of a particular subject I feel obliged to look at the opposing side of the question. This only applies to matters that contain a large element of truth to begin with. In much of today's world the corruption, of institutions, of philosophies, of art, of politics etc, has totally overcome any initial kernel of of truth and to seek balance in these cases is to justify and rationalise falsehood.

So, with that in mind, let me say that in one sense Buddhism is the purest of religions for it strips away everything except naked spirit. All the extraneous elements of the spiritual search were seen by the Buddha as obscuring the central reality of existence, the underlying causeless cause of the countless worlds of phenomenal manifestation. He realised that the world was in a condition of constant decay and sought the pristine state of incorruptible being that could never be violated by change or loss or evil. By sheer force of spiritual will coupled with absolute purity of motive and integrity of mind he broke through the many veils overlaying consciousness and entered into the innermost sanctuary of life where darkness and light have not yet been divided. He attained the perfect knowledge that comes from merging individual being with the universal  I AM. His supreme achievement opened a door between the created and uncreated worlds allowing others who were spiritually developed enough to follow in his footsteps. But he was the first to scale this spiritual Everest.

Those who have been to a South Indian temple will know that the outer sections contain halls and courts with carved pillars and statues in which all the important elements of life are represented, both material and spiritual. The decoration is elaborate and profuse showing the almost profligate abundance of life, every aspect of which is celebrated to the consternation of some early European visitors. But in the innermost part of the temple there is a sparsely decorated or even bare cell-like chamber without window or light. This is called the womb chamber and is where the image of the presiding deity stands. There the Murti or earthly embodiment of the god or goddess (Christians would call it an idol forgetting that there are representations of Jesus, Mary and the saints in Christianity too) is tended by the priests and worshipped by the faithful. However,  what many of the ordinary worshippers might not be aware of is that this dark and empty space, void of decoration and without form of any kind, that houses the deity and from which the deity might be said to take its rise represents Purusa which in the Hindu tradition is pure spirit, the essential reality of all things. The Buddha focussed his attention entirely on this, going beyond all the paraphenalia of the temple, all the ritual, even beyond the deity itself, to the very ground that gives birth to creation.

The Buddha was the apostle of enlightenment which is the perfection of wisdom. He introduced this wisdom into the oversoul of humanity, its collective superconsciousness, enabling those who followed him and who were responsive enough to build it into their own minds. When Christ came he introduced humanity to the spiritual quality of love allowing those who attuned themselves to his divine nature to partake of this love themselves. Christ went further than the Buddha because he sanctified matter, including the human self, and original Buddhism did not do this. It left it behind as corrupt. But this is in no way to denigrate Buddhism since the Buddha was the one who struck the first blow against the corruption inherent in the material world since the Fall, opening up a path out of matter into spirit. Christ then came to heal the sickness in matter so it could be reunited with spirit but it is possible that he might not have been able to do this without the Buddha's initial opening of the way to spirit. Might one even see these two great beings working in tandem for the upliftment of humanity? This is not to deny Christ's uniqueness as the Son of God but in order to do his work he needed the spiritual ground to be prepared and this it was not just by the teachings of the Hebrew prophets from the Old Testament but by all the spiritual endeavours of humanity up to that point, the greatest of which was that of the Buddha.