tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1513199068907090344.post7320676436841852368..comments2024-03-26T16:24:34.218+00:00Comments on Meeting The Masters: Two Questions on SalvationWilliam Wildbloodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13231219533755925897noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1513199068907090344.post-85931864949974032922017-01-12T03:33:47.908+00:002017-01-12T03:33:47.908+00:00Each and every siddhanta or Theory has to explain ...Each and every siddhanta or Theory has to explain the Universe in which we live and experience, whether it be Physics or Metaphysics.<br />quantum Physics teaches that there is nothing g but Energy in this Universe and matter is only a form of Energy. E is equal to mC2, sums it all. Today in quantum physics, it is accepted the world we live is only our EXPERIENCE achieved by our senses which are very defective tools at best. They do not see or hear or sense anything in their reality. as observation is just an interaction between the observed and the Observer, each observation remains relative and is entangled with the characteristics of the observer. Reality, Or What is THERE, can be sensed or realised only if we transcend our senses. When that happens, we see there is no difference anywhere around us and it is simply Energy or Chaitanya .Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1513199068907090344.post-40215652087771743862016-05-12T09:28:39.518+00:002016-05-12T09:28:39.518+00:00The gap between theory and practice is something t...The gap between theory and practice is something that exists for all of us. But it seems to me that you have taken a big step in recognising that gap exists. Many people are content with intellectual insight alone and think that because they understand, they are. No such luck. As you rightly say understanding is only the beginning of a long path. But that's only to be expected if you set your sights high. The transformation of human nature is the most fundamental and most important thing anyone can ever do. But if you seek help through prayer and use your imagination to visualise your spiritual helpers loving you and guiding you (and they are there, it's not just 'imagination') then you will find support on your journey.<br />God knows and understands all our weaknesses. All he requires is that we sincerely try to walk in the path of truth and don't give up even when that path gets thorny and no end seems to be in sight. As I was often told we can't see the wood for the trees down here so don't realise we might be making progress when in fact we are.<br /><br />I know exactly what you mean about breaking promises made to your higher self but it shows you're not making excuses for yourself and that's the main thing. It doesn't matter if you fall as long as you get up again but I'm sure you know all that already. You've very wisely pointed to the emptiness of pop psychology which often seems just to pander to the ego. We have to be hard on ourselves but at the same time be able to accept God's forgiveness when we have made a mistake and then move on.William Wildbloodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13231219533755925897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1513199068907090344.post-4944326508082099282016-05-12T04:47:52.927+00:002016-05-12T04:47:52.927+00:00Once one has intellectually understood the picture...Once one has intellectually understood the picture as being and becoming in harmony, the journey does not stop there, it only begins. What I am finding is that whilst i may have intellectual insight my practical spiritual ability to control my lower self lags behind the intellect. For example, I am often ruled by passionate emotions and feelings of a baser more animalistic nature: pride, lust, greed, self-centredness, etc. This is the universal situation for us all, more or less. But how to stop sinning?! Now that is something i cannot do and would seek to achieve. How does one do *that*? Yes, I repent and yes I try again with a contrite spirit when I inevitably fail (and I always do without exception, every day!) but sometimes, despite my best efforts (or are they really my best efforts? Normally with the benefit of hindsight one can identify a zone of potential for ground that could have been gained that had been conceded too easily) I feel disgusted with myself and a perpetual 'breaker of promises to my higher self.' The peril then becomes either despair on the one hand or the overcompensation of being too lenient with oneself on the other as modern self-compassionate practices or pop psychology would likely advocate to an extreme which is also to go too far the other way. Finding a balance is hard! The difference between theory and practice is enormous! I feel like a man who has learned to swim from a book and then easily begins to drown as soon as he is even remotely out of shallow waters.David Balfourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12099160562774064281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1513199068907090344.post-25551935020689848432016-05-12T04:30:21.471+00:002016-05-12T04:30:21.471+00:00I think your explanations and distinctions are beg...I think your explanations and distinctions are beginning to sink in and make more sense to me. It is hard to overcome habitual patterns of thinking and perception. Its a bit like staring at one of the visual illusions of a jar that is also two faces depending on which adpects of the picture one focuses on: being or becoming. The picture flits between the two and the viewer struggles to see the Gestalt. Sometimes one becomes so identified with looking at the jar (Advaita/Buddhism) that they can no longer see the faces of individuality that are equally real (theosis and sanctification but retention of becoming or individuality).David Balfourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12099160562774064281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1513199068907090344.post-29570127119614904842016-04-26T17:53:45.546+00:002016-04-26T17:53:45.546+00:00You are not retaining ego in following the path of...You are not retaining ego in following the path of Christ. Ego is not your individuality as "I'. It is more the sense of me and mine, the I that sees itself as separate from other Is. The Buddhist does not distinguish between the two but they are not the same. God wants you to be an individual. Where is love without that? How can there be any personal flavour in the universe without that? And it is precisely the personal that gives the universe its flavour. The Buddhist is wrong! It is not individuality itself which is an illusion, sin or whatever. It is attachment to individuality that blinds you to the reality of God.William Wildbloodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13231219533755925897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1513199068907090344.post-69226479972217236982016-04-26T17:48:40.515+00:002016-04-26T17:48:40.515+00:00I have thought like this too, David, and found it ...I have thought like this too, David, and found it hard to understand how to reconcile the sense of the individual with idea of being fully one with universal being which I think is what you are saying. But now I see that the Buddhist point of view might be right on its own terms but leaves something important out. For Buddhism sees the self only as the fallen self or separate self or ego. It doesn't see that the self is actually good. It's only when it becomes corrupt that it's bad. But it's always corrupt now!<br /><br />The way to resolve this problem is not to look at it in terms of individuality but of in terms of identification with individuality. The enlightened person still has his individuality but that is not the centre of his being any more. he is one with universal life or pure being and that is his centre. Even the Buddha was still an individual but his consciousness was not centred on himself as an individual. Nevertheless I think the teaching of Christ goes further than that of the Buddha for it reconciles and integrates being and becoming instead of renouncing the latter for the former.In Christ the individual soul is not rejected but sanctified and this has implications for ideas of love, beauty and goodness all of which are given up in Nirvana for just pure truth in the absolute sense. You still have that in Christ but you have something more as well.<br /><br />And by the way gods in Buddhism are not gods as I understand them. They are more like superhuman beings still tied to identification with themselves as separate personalities. Ditto for the Buddhist heavens which are still planes in the phenomenal universe, by no means heaven in a Christian sense. You can't always equate ideas from one religious framework with another just because the same words are used in translation.<br /><br />William Wildbloodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13231219533755925897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1513199068907090344.post-20263815077789771802016-04-26T16:33:34.648+00:002016-04-26T16:33:34.648+00:00Importantly when I became a Christian I realised t...Importantly when I became a Christian I realised that the individual identity seems too beautiful to discard and I came to realise I actually believe I have an immortal soul (At least according the the versions of Christianity I have been exposed to in my searchings) and that getting rid of my identity was missing the point. This lead me eventually, to make a long story short, to embracing many of the ideas and beliefs of Mormonism, which makes a great deal of sense to me. In such a vision I imagined I would ideally be resurrected in a perfected body, having accepted Christ and that I would live in a perfected Earth, in which Earthly suffering has been transcended permanently and I would live with my loved ones, family and ancestors in harmony with creation and with God. Stopping there seems good enough to me and I am not tempted to strive for anymore than this. I even quite preferred this idea to exultation which is the highest path in Mormon theology. Long walks holding hands with my partner watching the sun rise, playing and creating and exploring with friends, this all sounds better than Nirvana to me. I think perhaps the visions of William Arkle of the Gift are my absolute favourite vision of what is possible in my imagination. Nirvana or oneness sounds quite dull and static in comparison. So if it is a *choice* I would chose that over Buddhism. But then they would say I am deluded and Mara has tricked me once again to fall for thus vision!David Balfourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12099160562774064281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1513199068907090344.post-63506879373097155302016-04-26T15:44:36.934+00:002016-04-26T15:44:36.934+00:00I am really struggling to imagine how individual i...I am really struggling to imagine how individual identity is conserved at the higher spiritual levels. I suppose this is understandable given the severely limited capacity I must have in comparison to what I am trying to understand, like a tiny ant attempting to understand the immense forest in finds itself within. <br /><br />In my mind, and perhaps this is because I was essentially a Buddhist for a few years before re-evaluating Christianity with fresh eyes, the self IS the ego, the false identity or whatever you wish to call it, and so I could imagine pursuing a transcendence of the ego and even experienced beginners glimpses of a pure, impersonal white light and infinite space when I began meditating with some earnestness. This was, as you say in your book, like showing a bee some colourful flowers and I wanted more or imagined I might just be able to 'check out' of hotel Samsara with a bit of work. This ides was reinforced by my forays into Zen and the notions of Satori, piercing insightful Koan's or similar things perhaps pointing the way out of a world of suffering. But then this would mean that all of the beauty of creation is just a snare and something which should be renounced as 'attachment' and this never made sense to me. Not really. Buddha implored his followers to focus on removing the poison arrow without asking who fired it or where it came from. So the idea of deity and of souls and individuality makes sense to me. BUT some Buddhist traditions do clearly acknowledge that there are different heavens and hell and also it can be possible to be a God even. But even the God's are born, live and die in the highest heavens and their karma will carry them on. The difficulty of living in heaven though is that opportunities to learn more deeply are less common because of the higher baseline nature of love, beauty and peace. Far better, according to this view, to live in a place like Earth where real suffering and loss is the furnace for spiritual growth and a catalyst for the renunciation of ego and self-hood. This seems to me consistent with your idea that Jesus renounced his self - hood on the cross as the penultimate act of the path. Is this not the same thing as what an altruistic Boddhisatva might not be argued to do when he allows himself to be eaten by a lion to feed it and it's cubs or similar selfless act? Importantly, I imagine Buddhists from this school of thought would see your view as a clever intellectual trap to move the focus from enlightenment and onto a subtle retention of ego in the form of an individual identity. In this view they would argue aspiring to be a God in heaven may work but it is still another way of perpetuating dharma instead of distinguishing it. Put another way if you see the Buddha on the road, you should slay him!<br /><br />If I try and imagine Jesus living 'eternal life' as you describe I can see something like a ball of light living in orbit around God but I struggle to see how an entity without ego at all can remain an individual. I can only see oneness with the divine or Nirvana.<br /><br />Just a few thoughts that I would be interested to hear your perspective on. Thanks :-)<br /><br />David Balfourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12099160562774064281noreply@blogger.com