If you guys are interested and get a chance to, check out “The Buddha” on PBS. It’s a documentary on the life and experiences of the Buddha in his pursuit of spiritual enlightenment. Buddhism is an ancient eastern philosophy or religion. It’s ancient relative to the more recent Christian theology, which those of us in western culture and civilization are more familiar with. It’s beautifully presented and quite moving. As I have discussed before, my area of study is with “The Ageless Wisdom Teachings”. It’s a body of work that incorporates much of the older eastern philosophies in terms of substance. Interestingly, the western type of mind is quite new and can therefore be considered still in development to a certain extent – new within the context of cosmic time anyway! We could certainly benefit from what has been developed in our past for sure as it is a foundation to the present. The Ageless Wisdom Teachings is an attempt by the spiritual masters to bridge the older, more established eastern philosophies and culture to the newer western culture and way of living. At least this is how I understand it from my perspective. The advent of the Christ and his teachings is a somewhat newer presentation, with an important focus on the development of the heart. This of course involves our understanding of love and compassion, which is at the core of the Buddha’s teachings as well. There are some differences in these two presentations or philosophies, but these differences are relatively unimportant within the context of our current understanding. Humanity’s focus in the present time is the development of love and wisdom, which we’ll be getting into with our discussion of the 2nd Ray. Without getting too esoteric, the Christ is more representative of the love aspect while the Buddha is more representative of the wisdom aspect, generally speaking. It’s important for us to understand that these two great spiritual teachers together bring to us an inclusive presentation of our spiritual purpose, that of oneness. An in-depth analysis of these two types of teaching reveals more similarity in their substance than we might realize. It’s all one thing! I thought we would take a little time today and consider a couple of the principles or concepts within Buddhism and see how they are still relevant, important, and applicable in our current experience. This is true for all of humanity, whether it be in the East or the West. Let’s take a look.
The Problem of Desire
In the Buddha’s journey toward spiritual understanding, he basically wanted to know the cause of human suffering. What he noticed is that suffering is most certainly uncomfortable and also seemed unnecessary. The problem he had, and we all currently have, is that we attempt to achieve our spiritual enlightenment by escaping the suffering rather than understanding it. He proceeded to engage in some very questionable “spiritual practices” such as denying the physical body sustenance, denying all of his wants and needs such as temporal power, wealth, and material things. What he discovered in these practices is that although he fervently pursued them, he still had not attained the spiritual awareness he was looking for, nor did he understand the cause of suffering any more than he did before. What he in fact realized is that he was denying the reality in which he existed entirely. His desire for spiritual understanding outweighed the need to pay attention to his physical life and the physical world in which he lived. This is not the way. He realized there was a reason he was here in physical life, and this had equal relevance and importance to the pursuit of higher levels of spiritual awareness. What is implied here is that in order to truly understand the purpose of our existence, we must accept what is. We cannot know more through the denial of anything. The problem of desire is not about the idea that wanting things and needing things is wrong, but rather, our level of attachment to them is what creates the suffering we experience. In other words, we need to realize that we could exist without many of them, but not all of them. It’s a matter of discerning between what we truly need for our physical survival, and even spiritual sustenance to a certain extent, and discarding that which is unnecessary.
Participating in the Human Experience
It’s ok to be here. It’s ok to be the person we are. It’s ok to be human. To feel ok, we must accept ourselves as we are, and we must accept the world as it is today. The only thing we can know for sure is that things will change. Our world and our universe are in a constant state of movement and transformation. When we include ourselves in this simple reality, we can be more comfortable. When we find ourselves in a state of struggle and difficulty, we can be ok with it because we realize that balance and a sense of peace will return once again. We cannot fully participate in our human experience by denying anything about ourselves. Now, this doesn’t mean that we need to participate or engage with every part of ourselves, we just need to acknowledge that these parts are there and be ok with it. We feel, and we desire, because it’s part of who we are. The attainment of spiritual understanding is also based on desire, you see. We need to also recognize that when we have to have things a certain way or things have to be a certain way, that’s when we run into problems. When we want something so bad, we create the idea that we cannot live without it. We have therefore become attached. This is the cause of our suffering. The most important thing we can do for ourselves is to be ok with things and cooperate with our own process, knowing that one day we will find a better way. This is how we overcome the very uncomfortable feeling of limitation. We will learn and grow, this is a guarantee. We gain freedom from suffering, not by pushing it away, but by accepting it as a part of our human experience and realizing it’s not a forever thing.
The Middle Way
The teachings of the Buddha are all about finding the middle way. So, what is he referring to? The spiritual masters and all the various religions have provided us with guideposts or parameters to help us out in our experience here. They are presented to us so that we don’t get into too much trouble or veer off our path too far. When we go outside these guidelines is when danger becomes a real possibility for us. The problem we have as human beings is that we attach a sense of “right and wrong” to these guideposts. We misunderstand their purpose by having them be absolute. The feeling of right and wrong is simply an indication that we have reached an extreme within our experience. It’s very important for us to understand that most of our experience and reality exist between these two. An appropriate analogy would be to consider our reality as the gray area most of the time. This is the middle way. When we remove the idea and feeling of absoluteness, we alleviate the pressure you see and are freer and more available to understand what we are experiencing. We are able to learn more easily. Within this “gray” area is where we find ourselves. Having said that, let’s remember that the human experience is highly unique for everyone and not everyone is at the same level of understanding, so we must allow others the opportunity to find their own way. Another way for us to understand the value of the middle way is when we are confronted with choices and decisions. The two extremes have been presented to us, and we must then enter that gray area. We need to make a selection, if you will, from a multitude of possibilities, not knowing where we’ll end up. The masters have always said that, when in doubt, choose something somewhere in the middle. This is our safest bet. This is the middle way. The ultimate spiritual goal for all of us is to find this middle ground and remain there consistently. Is there an exact middle point between the two extremes of our experience? There is, but I have not arrived there yet! Our journey is long, but we’re getting there.
The Reality of Oneness
To sum up our discussion today, we can take a look at the idea of oneness within the Buddha’s teachings. What is really meant by oneness is for us to simply recognize and then accept that we are all things. Whatever exists is part of us. Don’t resist, don’t deny. We are this and that, here and there, in and out, up and down and all the rest of it. The Buddha and the Christ have said that we are even much more than this. They both remind us not to get too attached to anything because nothing is permanent. A good rule of thumb is to try to be a little of this and a bit of that, but not too much of anything. We can all recognize that the intense experience of extremes within our emotional life is exhausting indeed. The Buddha says, “find a place somewhere in the middle, sit down and relax”. There can be found a state of acceptance and simple being. This is peace.
Take it easy, everyone, and don’t take yourself so seriously! There is nothing in life that is so important that it threatens our peace of mind. See you next time.
All my love and support, stay safe and be well