The Answer to The Lama (1)

In response to a question about the difference between saying “God created the world” and “the world is the playful expression of the Lama/Buddha”, a prominent Buddhist teacher gave this answer:

Rinpoche (the Eminent Lama that is): “It is exactly the opposite, because assuming a god created the world presupposes the existence of a god who creates. The statement that the world is the playful expression of the Lama clarifies that there is nobody who makes the world appear and nothing that appears. Everything is beyond such categories, because the Lama is ultimately beyond creation and cessation, beyond any extremes. He is the dharmakaya that permeates samsara and nirvana. There is nothing not permeated by the dharmakaya. The world of appearances is empty of inherent existence and is therefore the unimpeded manifestation of emptiness.”

Before writing further, I must emphasise that by critiquing the Lama’s answer I’m not dismissing it outright as false,

In fact, I find it bearing the same degree of truth, as the statement that he attempted to answer, viz.: God created the world,

At a Tawheedic level (as in Union), COB can’t find any difference between the two, one brief and one elaborately expanded statement, “exactly opposing” one another,

And at an intellectual level, however: an impartial reader will find the same philosophic gaps in both,

So let’s start with the intellectual essences:

When we say God created the world: we presuppose that the world couldn’t have conjured itself from nothing,

And because our minds as humans are familiar only with a linear progression of time, we can only envisage that the existence of the Creator has to precede the existence of the world,

The Lama’s response is that, there’s no start and end of the world as such, but rather a continuous process,

What is “Existent” – and the Lama might have an issue with this word, but I have to use it because it fits best in this context -: is the Mind of the Lama, as an enlightened human, who has reached or approached the true nature of the Mind,

Such a Spirit/Self/Atman/Dharmakaya is beyond beginning and ending, while permeating every temporal, i.e. none existent thing,

To the inquisitive reader, without bias to either view:

The statement that “God created the world” presupposes the existence of God,

The statement “the Lama is ultimately beyond creation and cessation, beyond any extremes. He is the dharmakaya that permeates samsara (manifestation and activity) and nirvana”: presupposes the said attributes of the Lama

The Answer to The Lama (2)

The Hikmah of the Druze kind of bypasses both presuppositions by saying the Mind was “begun”, and in further statements, that the world is being created and ended continually by the Mind in all its Dimensions, as is indeed also said in the Qur’an and the Gospel of John, albeit in a highly esoteric manner,

The Hikmah avoids the frequent use of the Arabic word “Allah” - which came in the Qur’an, but taken by interpreters to mean a local god supporting each group of Muslims against their Muslim rivals and against non-Muslims -: by using a Pronounal Reference, and by allusion to “The Cause of the Cause of all the causes”,

And goes on to warn strongly against trivial discussions about The Cause, as It is beyond human imagination, language and thought, and sense perception, as indeed The Ten Commandments, the Gospels and the Qur’an have also very emphatically taught,

Every Book of Abrahamic religion has come to correct the misconception that god created the world in order to be worshipped, and that favours can be bought from him by the practice of rituals that he prescribed, and by the abidance by his supposed laws: all of which was the influence of the pagan beliefs and practices of before, one can argue,

The essence of the teaching of those Books is hence one, expressed in the language of the place and the time, to express a Tawheedic state of awareness,

Thus, one doesn’t have to presuppose the existence of a god, or indeed nihil, if one wants to tread a philosophic road to Tawheed,

But indeed, one has to develop oneself intellectually, morally, mindfully, spiritually … in order for one to expand one’s awareness and tame one’s ego … until it starts to approach Union with Existence, which is often referred to as the return to Him, content in Contentment (راضية مرضية),

The Way to Union has been prescribed in all Abrahamic religions, but it has been the religious authorities and schools of thought that have reduced it to a set of laws and rituals, and political alliances and rivalries, and constant strife and war strategy …, and a god who created all this chaos to exercise his power of reward and punishment,

As for Buddhism, and indeed Hinduism – if one can make such a generalisation -: it has been the revelations of Buddhas and Avatars and highly achieving ascetics that have been trivialised, and vision or “witness” – if a Hikmah and Qur’anic term is to be used -: have been taken to an intellectual level: where, by the laws of nature: they have their opposites, and indeed their own illogicalnesses,

Indeed, the intellectualisation and trivial descriptions of stations of awareness which overlook and preexist sense and existence: are bound for misconception and hence a rival existence

Answer to The Lama (3)

If one takes the modern scientific approach to knowledge, one would say: I don’t know what there was before the Big Bang,

However, upon taking a rational approach to understanding human existence, one can still reach high standards of self-conduct, and in relation to human interaction, as pantheist philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment in Europe all did,

Thus, reason becomes the main guide of morality, and hence in politics and indeed spirituality …

Spinoza and Descartes both demonstrated that at an abstract level of thought The Cause of the Cause of the causes is in one’s own awareness, while the empirical approach “alone” cannot deny or confirm the existence of a creator,

“We don’t know” is sciences best answer,

The danger in the scientific approach, however, is that by the sideway, it condones vanity and encourages belief in the purposelessness of life, when circumstances so suggest …

The human psyche is innately fearful of such a stance, because something deep inside itself tells it of far-reaching past memories, and indeed, of connection with something universal …

But individuals with a strong love of their existence, with a mind well-trained in materialistic reasoning: are happy to go down such tracks of thought, to satisfy an immediate need,

The danger is that the unruly circumstances of their lives, and old age and sickness … will soon catch up with them, and they dwindle in depression perhaps leading to suicidal thoughts …

Not to mention that in the peak of their lives, their self-conceit might develop into an illusion of almightiness counteracting a self-denied sense of helplessness, and they thus embark on a self-appointed mission of self-glorification, with complete disregard to the world and other beings …

Buddhism comes as a good rescue for such people,

But although Buddhist interpretations deny linguistically the existence of a creator or a self: they admit reincarnation and the Buddha nature,

If people are happy with such starting points: it’s fine,

“Religion is not compellable”, as the Qur’an truthfully said,

People should be free to choose their spiritual premises, without the anxiety of being looked down on as less intelligent, or indeed without the pride in being exclusively righteous and good people …

Religions’ race to prove themselves, each, as the sole representative of “truth”: is vain,

It will only lead to more of the same rivalry and competition,

All Books and religious teaching can lead to freedom and enlightenment, if followed sincerely, rationally and compassionately,

Bigotry and self-selection have had their go: the state the world is in today is the result of their all missing or misunderstanding one point or another of their own teaching, and hence the teaching of others,

The focus today should be on cooperation, for the purpose of alleviating suffering from all people’s lives, for the purpose of removing enmities and barriers,

And cultural differences, diversity of languages, nuances of beliefs and practices, political, social and economic systems …: can be things to celebrate, rather than a target of destruction

The Answer to The Lama (4)

It becomes certain to them who have witnessed or experienced Absoluteness/Emptiness: that every expression of it: be it verbal or other: is samsara: as in: witness and witness,

Therefore, those are happy to listen, and indeed try to relive others’ expressions of experiences,

In the total re-Union of duality, even for short moments: there’s none of this,

Hence, if, due to their linguistic or cultural background, people are more comfortable with one expression than another: they are free to have that comfort,

No one can judge them, except their own Self, although this might be said not to exist: in Absoluteness/Emptiness …

The perplexity of any verbal expression: should never be a point of contention or competition, nor should it be a subject of frivolous discussion,

People who want to tread such ways: will inquire, and people of experience have a duty to guide and answer them: but such activity, that is Samsara indeed, is not everyone’s choice of purpose of life, and it shouldn’t be enforced as such …

The wording, however, of any experience of Union: will be intellectualised, and will be usurped by religions, business, academia and politics: as a means of control and competition, and self-glorification and nonself-vilification,

In our turbulent times, the focus should be on easing the suffering resulting from such confusions: which god? and how to make him happy?

Or indeed, which nihil, and how to get rid of him?

All such activities are in COB’s view: totally futile, and indeed pouring oil on the fire of hell,

The love of others some beliefs claim to have: is not different from the hate of others other beliefs are proud to have: as long as both are making every effort to antagonise someone: and thus everyone is being antagonised,

Is there a way for the many beliefs to co-exist?

No, if the belief to have found all answers is still strong in everyone’s mind,

No answers have been found yet: as long as there’s disaccord,

The disaccord, the wrath of nature, the agony people go through: tell that there’s still a very long way to go …

Perhaps if there’s harmony and total agreement on difference: the purpose of a cycle of cycles of duality/samsara: has been fulfilled: and the duality is no more,

But don’t bet on that, the layman says,

This is just frivolous talk,

Many forms of dualities are in the queue, waiting to materialise,

Perhaps if we learn to admire, rather than complain about the inconvenience of suffering of need: we also fulfil a purpose of samsara,

Admiration is not attachment, but the pushback is a form of repudiation, and indeed an attachment to nonattachment

The Answer to The Lama (5)

Religions’ main concern shouldn’t be to prove their religion “better” in any way than other religions,

The “holy scriptures”, from the Far East to the Middle East, cannot be taken by their millennia old interpretations any longer,

Human intellect has developed significantly in the last few centuries …, exposing the irrationality of such interpretations, relative to the present intellectual standing,

Religious authorities’ response to logical and intellectual scrutiny of their beliefs should be one of welcomeness and openness,

To use moral codes, such as “don’t criticise”, or “don’t cause harm”, as a protection from such scrutiny is counterproductive,

Because: religions should be able to catch-up with the march of time, for them to be able to continue their mission of guidance.

We can only imagine what people “thought” hundreds of years ago, let alone millennia …

If one of us who have lived a long life, tries to remember the thoughts or the mode of consciousness they had fifty years ago …: they get a hint of how consciousness and the thoughts which cross it vary constantly in time …

Except if they have deliberately encased themselves in some past, by exercising deliberate intellectual and social isolation …

But being in a time capsule can’t be argued as a virtuous action, aimed at conservation of belief and traditions, and the protection of them,

Because: in the case of religions in particular: those should be able to guide all, and hence should always live in the present, on the backdrop of the past …

If, for example, using old arguments, we argue that the whole world doesn’t have a real existence, and that the way to freedom from suffering is to reach such realisation …:

One can answer: if nothing has a real existence, this should, paradoxically, include the argument that the world has no real existence …

Thus, religious teaching itself loses its attribute of existence, and indeed doubt is cast on its value …

So, if we answer: only religious teaching has an existence because it points to truth,

We get ourselves once again in a logical trap:

That some arguments are true, and others aren’t,

Hence, we are back to square one:

What is existent and what is not?

The answer to which is very relative …!

Not surprisingly …

All religious teachings have taught the reality of impermanence and the suffering caused by an attachment to impermanent things,

The concept of infidelity to god in monotheist religions is premised on that only god is eternal, and hence being attached by love or need or loyalty to anyone or anything …: constitutes infidelity.

While dealing with concepts, whether believed to exist or not, we have to provide more concepts,

Is this samsara?

Yes, for sure,

But as we posited on this Page before: all religious practices, and indeed theory …: is samsara,

So, let’s not pick and choose, activity that is good bad samsara, and activity which is bad bad samsara …

This is the old school religious theory …

If religions do not wish to get involved in the political and ideological argumentation that is going on in the world, yes, their best option is impartiality,

This should at least help them formulate pointers to reconciliation, mutual understanding and cooperation, without taking sides, and certainly: without pretending to know on whose side god or karma are,

Sitting aside and pretending that it is all pointless, and that the best thing that can be done is to practise their religious teaching and rituals …: is not going to help anyone out of their suffering

The Answer to The Lama (6)

By continuing to answer the Lama, the address has now become metaphorical, and the answer doesn’t relay resentment or anger …

These are serious issues lamas and laypeople should be thinking about, and some are already,

As has been said herein, it’s up to the people of all the walks of life, to think about how they want the future world to be …

The present world has exhausted its potentials of projecting challenges resulting in questions and answers, need and satisfaction, want and happiness …

The exhaustion can be felt at every level: religious, ideological, political and economic, social and personal …, when things do not make sense at all, and solutions turn into problems …

So, by sticking to our guns: we’re trying to hold the march of time back, in the belief that our spot is the best …

There’s no such a thing as the best spot,

Every spot has a potential to be good, if people learn how to live in it, in harmony with its geography and position …

Sometimes the layman thinks I’m stubborn like the rest of humans, maybe I should join the stubbornness of another group, rather than quit all the stampedes …

But as soon as this idea is remotely contemplated … shivers run down one’s spine, of the fear of a tamas state of mind …

Religions, or other groups for that matter, can’t see it if they are in it,

The total trust in their methods and traditions …, as if it is Mind, holds them back,

This is tamas, according to the Ghita,

Tamas is not only about eating stale food and worshipping ghosts, as described in the Ghita,

This was perhaps its manifestation at that time in that world,

Tamas today is the inability to see the ineffectiveness of millennia old methods and techniques of liberation and knowledge accumulation …

The advice religions give to their followers today will turn those followers into a new generation of the same old religions …!

And when one watches their reactions, reads their advice, listens to their sermons …: one can often sense that they are themselves still trapped each in their own trap …

Except that the walls of their traps have been nicely decorated by the approved decorations …

Of course, some seem to have been able to take a peek at the horizons of freedom,

But perhaps their traditions hold them back,

If they expressed free views, they’ll be seen rebellious, and risk their reputation …

Frustration and disappointment … are the bread and butter of everyday living …

They can be used to rejuvenate one’s determination on the way …

If they amount to anger, however, anger as a human emotion is bad only if its energy is not employed in constructive and helpful purposes …

The layman will not learn the techniques of the self-proclaimed experts in anger management,

Because they all experience it …, but have learned to embellish its manifestation …

With his simple mind, the layman takes a dive in the ocean, to hear the water hush,

And as he bumps into Serendip, they laugh of joy of the marvels of inexistence …

When the layman likes what religious teachers say, they seem to take it as solicitation of mutual approval, and hence an attempt of control,

So they hold back, to reaffirm their positions of advice providers and pontificators!

All this is being said with humour,

At least with the humour, the laughs and smiles are genuinely goodhearted …

COB stands by its faith in some of them, but COB is also too aware of the traps of a tamas existence, expressed in the Ghita as the nature that every human and deity will have to experience …

The Answer to The Lama (7)

Vision suggests strongly that Trinley Thaye Dorje is actually the incarnation of the 16th Karmapa,

This wasn’t a planned inquest, but a total suddenness,

Such events happen after a gush of brightness in wakefulness alerting, then the suggestion then upon looking inwardly the purposeful look,

Total confirmation though is yet to occur,

Perhaps physical evidence from the 17th Karmapa will emerge as a final confirmation,

But as COB has posited before, the titles given to Buddhist teachers are worldly responsibilities, although based on spiritual titles of grand souls, which Buddhist teachers would call deity,

Those do not reincarnate to Buddhists only, as many Buddhists would like to believe,

The spiritual title of Ogyen Trinley Dorje should be solely “Karmapa”, without the numeration, for he is the incarnation of Ishwar, and the title points to the Karma of all Karmas,

Buddhist teachers will not swallow these suggestions easily, but COB has to say it,

But until each one of them has lived up to his responsibility, the titles remain adjacent

The Answer to The Lama ( 8 )

As long as spirit is not known, religions will be different to the eyes of the onlookers,

Sometimes it feels like quotations or paraphrases from the Books are taken as an invitation to lean towards a certain religion, or away from another …

This dual mode of thinking that embraces one thing and relinquishes another, is dictated by natural laws,

And natural laws are not the spirit per se,

But it is the Law unmanifest that is spirit,

This one, although intangible, is not a ghostly thing …

It is real existence …

But how can there be real existence if the true nature of the mind is emptiness, and the entire physical experience is a mere illusion of mind …?

It is the million-dollar question …

Emptiness is not physical void, as the vision can be trained to experience it …

And many lamas now have expressed their vision of Emptiness that is not nothingness, although it’s “no thing” in itself,

Language gets crippled at this point …

It’s the intellectualisation of spirit: that turns religions into difference …

Because the languages of religions are different, and the intellect thrives on difference and particularness …

In our times, there’s no substitute for logical reasoning to overcome such artificial distances, widened over time by dictionaries and religious academia, and of course, political ambition …

While intuition plays a major role in one’s mind, and should be seriously listened to: intuition remains a personal kind of guide: because its offers are untransferable,

Whereas the offers of a reasoning mind are very transferrable, when the mind they are offered to is adequately educated and sufficiently trained in abstract thinking …

Reason remains the universal bridge between religions and the umpire in every philosophic debate …

Respect of belief and religious practice cannot translate to favouring one track of thought or belief over another …

The lack of reason in all religious teaching today is behind the rejection of spirituality and the precipitation in materialistic beliefs, which measure by money and destructive power …

And however convincing an argument a religious teaching can offer: it will be subjected to logical scrutiny by the believers themselves, and indeed the would-be believers …

There’s no substitute for reason in our times …

And often, people who follow one religious track or another: are driven by intuition and irrationality: those can communicate with like-minded people: following a particular track of feelings and spirituality,

So, although meditation techniques in Buddhism are more appealing to the rational mind than plain belief: the degree of belief and faith that they afford or pre-require: can potentially counter their universality, and make them precipitate again in blind faith, to follow the destiny of other religions,

Meditation nowadays should itself be freed from religion, to be a mind activity/inactivity, personal, while universal …

The Answer to The Lama (9)

If one follows the way to knowledge, as pointed to in the Books of Abrahamic religions, the Ghita and the Dharma, sincerely and wholeheartedly, one would approach the doorsteps of the limitless realm of knowledge, ultimately,

This is where the dictionaries and explanations, now behind, become redundant,

And all the roads meet in one point,

If one word is to point to this, it is Compassion,

Compassion engulfs all cosmic manifestation, and human perception of it and intellectualisation,

Time is testing everyone: have they really approached that point?

If they have, they wouldn’t be differing on expressions and definitions, titles and attires, divisions and political alliances …

If they haven’t, a new level of intellectualisation is now needed, in the light of which the many ways to knowledge are acknowledged and respected, regardless of their theory and tradition,

This will shift the focus from names and appearance to essence,

Which, in turn, will remove interfaith barriers,

The journeyers should be able to ultimately say: it doesn’t matter,

The prescribed methods of reaching, and the described reach: are one, when freed from prescription and description,

If this is kept in mind: the new level of intellectualisation can be envisaged

The Answer to The Lama (10)

It is obvious that the adherence to religious tradition and an in-depth study of it: do not make people necessarily wiser and more cooperative,

If anything, it polishes their outside and embellishes their behaviour,

This is not being said to slander anyone or any group,

But indeed, for all to start examining the effectiveness of their methods of self-development as well as their intellectual and spiritual convictions …

Heads of religions should welcome a probe that critiques and examines,

This helps them retreat from a self-assumed sense of impeccableness, for the sake of their own self-improvement,

There is no substitute for dialogue and logical reasoning,

For the sake of the continuity and advance of their own theory and tradition: religions have now to look in the mirror,

This can be done only when they have followed the commandments of selflessness: which came in all religions …

The world of religions will perhaps never be able to live without religions …

And that’s not a bad thing, unless religion is taken above the realm of worldly affairs solely: disregarding the Spirit that has projected everything …

Perhaps the secular ideologies of the West have fallen short of pointing to the Spirit, in the belief that religions have taken care of it …

But religions haven’t been looking at the Spirit, but rather have each invented a fairytale …

And spirit has thus become a ghost that lurks in graveyards, or indeed inexistent …

A leap into Reality is now more than ever needed …

Religions should be the champions and forerunners to it …

Not the obstructors,

Fearful of losing their destiny of holy titles and attires, and life in luxurious monasteries and the associated fame of isolation …

Answer to The Lama (11)

Ever since the beginning, there have been those who want independence, so they can be forever dwelling in a dual,

In their eclipsed vision, they think it is possible, but it is not possible,

Their seemingly solid existence is folded and spread, without their notice,

It blacks out its entire infinite brightness in a turn of a page,

Their delusion sets them on a track of war and competition, they bring one disaster onto themselves after another,

They think that’s how it is meant to be, but this will crush itself in its own density, until they can turn to rocks, where they think they are immortal,

The other ones want only to enjoy the dual existence, to see essence and substance,

Although in such an existence it is not clear what is before and after, they are content with temporariness,

The dwellers of darkness think they can destroy the transiters,

They kidnap their visitors, and those can weaken and divulge their knowledge,

In the darkness of long nights, those are driven to think that the purpose of the world is the teaching,

This becomes the trap for both peoples

The Answer to The Lama (12)

Empty is the Mind indeed,

Whole is the Mind indeed,

Dictionaries are set by the intellect: a low projection of mind in a temporary non-existence,

Theories and laws, religions and traditions … also,

Why worry about who calls what and who doesn’t call at all …

Emptiness or Wholeness,

Wholeness or Nothingness,

Spirit or space …

Why would a wise man care …?

Religions and their practices cannot save the world or destroy it …

Take a step above emptiness …, you’ll find more emptiness yet to be witnessed,

It is the dictionaries and instructions which tell you where to stop,

But your mind is free, if you so let it …

The universe is here, and we all are in it, and to it we will come back, whatever our theories …

Let’s not pretend that our inexistent dictionaries and knowledge is ultimate knowledge, while itself is born in non-existence …

There is still a long, long …, long way to go …

Let’s do it happily, above happiness and suffering, and in the midst of them …

If anything can go through walls of stone and fire … it is mind,

If anything can feel it solid or burning it is mind,

Let’s not debate which religion has a better explanation: emptiness or holiness?

Mind has the explanation, mind has the power to erase the explanation and the explained thing,

Mind has emptiness, mind has wholeness,

Mind sees god and sees emptiness,

At a time when theories and counter-theories have trickled difference and animosities …: the time is right to go above them: to tell the world: hey, they come from One Source,

It is the Source of Mind of Existence/Inexistence …

It is Compassion, in every Teaching and Religion,

The race to be better and to have a better dictionary is over,

This is an expression of compassion for today, lest we descend in self-destruction

The Answer to The Lama (13)

Perhaps the major difference between Abrahamic and Hindu religions’ approach, on one hand, and that of Buddhism, on the other hand:

Is that, by way of admiration of manifestation, the formers search for an unmanifest essence in the manifest, whereas the latter dismisses the manifest altogether in search for emptiness, while both at this point are dealing with concepts …

Hence, ultimately, both will concur, if they faithfully and truthfully searched,

Where they concur: the instruction they were given, and by which they were guided: starts to fall in the realm of the manifest, then itself becoming just one of those things: that need to be relinquished,

So long as the journeyers are being guided by some understanding, they fail to free themselves completely,

And if for a few moments Reality “manifests” in them: if their ties with their religious instructions are still strong: they have fear of letting go of it, and the invitation is rejected,

And worse cases: upon recounting their experiences to their instructor, they are perhaps scolded by him/her, if they haven’t gone beyond the barrier themselves,

Therefore, it is pointless to say: you can practise meditation without embracing a religion, but once you’ve progressed: you’ve embraced this religion, for you to be able to carry on!

Beside the paradoxicality of such a statement, the practice of it requires self-deception,

Meditation, prayers, Sabbath …, in their true practice by honest practitioners: are one thing: total freedom

The Answer to The Lama (14)

Religions should stop calling the people to embrace their religions, by threatening them with burning forever in hell, or being reincarnated as bugs and animals …

Both threats are equally violent to the human consciousness on top of being a trap of fear and stupor,

Goodness that can be known and practised upon the fear of punishment and the consequent suffering: isn’t really good,

You only have to have in mind the relativity of suffering and its opposite happiness or goodness: to realise that such an approach can only change people’s view from one perspective of good and evil to another,

The good from which both concepts emerge stays thus unrecognised,

So, for example, if you say: love your fellow humans, this is good. If you don’t, you’ll be punished by god or karma …

Such a commandment: preached on two sides of a divide can actually widen the divide, if the good is seen only on one’s own side,

The good from which the commandment “love your fellow humans” emerges is love without borders, going in all directions: and pre-existing divisions …

This one might sound evil to them who are trapped in relative love, although it is the real solution to their conflict with the other side,

The threat of punishment that religions have volunteered: have not taught any virtue to human societies and individuals. If it helped at one past stage, the help was limited, and now its impetus has expired,

The naiveté that such threats seed in people’s minds locks them up in a narrow state of awareness, and indeed calls to rebellion, when people get educated and learn to think freely and rationally: to understand the causes and consequences of actions …, rather than the magic of god or karma,

The best deterrent from harmful thoughts and actions is reason, this one is universal, and doesn’t set a prerequisite of belief in any religion

The Answer to The Lama (15)

If you believe you know everything: every teacher you come across is not a good teacher,

Your opinion thus is a natural result of a belief, not a universal fact,

But no one would admit that they know everything,

In fact, many people pride themselves in the admission of having limited knowledge,

But when you ask them: so, what knowledge do you still have to acquire?

Their finger is pointed to more books of their beliefs and traditions,

And they say that they still have a long way to refining their character, according to those books,

These are the limits of knowledge they have set for themselves,

And if their character is being refined along such a path, one should leave them alone …

We live in a time when everyone’s understanding of everything affects everyone else,

And every praise or downgrade they declare is heard worldwide,

Time is telling us that we should widen our own beliefs: to overlap with others,

That’s if we can’t wear other people’s shoes and walk their walks,

This is yet a long way, but has to be started

The Answer to The Lama (16)

The layman has no idea where the men of religion got their calendars from, in regards to the comeback of their buddhas, avatars, god, prophets and messengers …

As if the entire cosmic manifestation is revolving around the watches on their wrists, and time and destiny have been written in the prophecies of their highly regarded clergymen …

Perhaps those haven’t realised yet that earth is not the centre of this vast universe, and that their perception of time is limited by their local sunrise and sunset …

So, where do they get their dates and times of such reincarnations from? one can’t but ask,

If they expect only the believers of their theories to trust their knowledge: they have to admit, each of them, that every religion also claims to have the universe revolving around their own clocks and calendars …

The layman regrets the sarcasm, but things have to be said. When irrational arguments are questioned, a sense of sarcasm becomes inevitable,

Religions which are supposed to guide the world shouldn’t have a want of rationality and a disagreement with reason,

The layman can tell them with unwavering confidence, that those grand souls have come and gone many times but escaped their notice,

And if they say that it is milestone missions that they are referring to,

Those aren’t determined by their clergy, and include all religions …

That’s why the many interpretations of such grand events …

But even those can go unnoticed by religions, transfixed to their wristwatches and indoor calendars …

Although, their impact on human faith and intellect is of a history-changing magnitude,

All they have to do is to stop portraying their gods in particular images, dressed in their approved attires, having names listed in their books, speaking their local languages …

And to open up their minds to essences, rather than perishables and impermanence,

So they truly appreciate emptiness/absoluteness, free from belief and conviction,

The apprehension and hurt they experience upon stepping outside their beloved confinement: will turn to joy, if they are faithful,

The disappointment they will experience when all the walls have to come down … will be much more frightening, to everyone who haven’t prepared their minds for it

The Answer to The Lama (17)

So long as the men of religions heading in opposite directions, one to the east and one to the west, only to dwell each therein: they’ll never continue their journey,

If they did, they would meet in the middle of the Ocean, where the east and the west meet,

The world is round indeed,

But it seems that men of religion are content in their sojourn far apart, in order for each to perceive themselves as better or exclusively good,

However skilled they might be in the practice of their teaching, their words reveal the content of their minds, and the more one looks into their practices the more one becomes convinced that their practices are just another samsara-ic activity,

If their activities geared them towards a meeting point, it would’ve been beneficial,

But when the activity is thought to be the purpose of their teaching, it turns into an attachment, like every other attachment,

Their terminology and definitions of terminology: aren’t themselves truth …

If taken as truth, they become just another imprisonment, glorified only in their own eyes,

Religions and men of religion can never prove to each other that they’ve reached higher …

The use of their dictionaries as a reference doesn’t prove anything except to themselves …

If they have reached high reaches: it should translate into universality in their words and actions …

This has been the purpose of all religious teaching and traditions from the beginning,

Perhaps their desire to benefit all beings should be the common ground upon which they can be neighbours looking after one another,

If they were sincere to this aim, the ocean of humanity will be their meeting place, where competition and self-selection cease to make sense

The Answer to The Lama (18)

The more the layman looks into the declarations and concealments of the men of religion, the more he becomes convinced that their purpose and wish is mainly to preserve their religion,

Everything else is secondary, in their belief, and hinges upon the continuance of their religions,

The world today doesn’t need religions,

If anything, the world needs to put all religions aside, so that the teaching in the Books can be freed from religious institutes and politics, to be taken to a universal level, fitting the present,

Time is showing everyone that religions are themselves now lost in their own misconceptions,

They can’t resolve their own internal disputes and problems,

Let alone their ideological and philosophical paradoxes and contradictions …

The world today needs reason,

Reason can separate itself from belief, if it strives in this direction,

This would be the first step on the road of enlightenment today,

Without this, there will be no peace and stability, and no “spiritual” enlightenment is thus possible,

And we’ve said before, if a journeyer on a spiritual path can find peace deep inside themselves, unhindered by the activity around them and their own dire condition: it’s good for them,

This is self-realisation and freedom,

The first two feet of the long walk to Union,

But not all people have such capabilities …

Communities all around the world are deprived today of their basic living needs,

Or indeed, have an oversupply of them: that causes deprivation for the rest of the world, and burdens their conscience …

Religions cannot provide those basic needs, except in their wishful thinking and beliefs,

Beliefs which have paved the way for the present predicament!

More of the same will bring on more of the same …

Religions get upset from being shown these facts,

They hence open up their bags of standard accusations …

Because they have lost the reason they once had …

And reason thus cannot make a way today into their minds,

And the kind ones of them will give their old advice, said by the great teachers of the past,

But those did practise what they preached,

Today’s teachers recite only, while, in most cases, oblivious of what they preach,

What religions want is applause and reverence,

And perhaps they deserve that,

But that alone: doesn’t help the world,

It promotes their institutes and traditions …

These are important only in the eyes of the believers and the practitioners …

To the rest of the world, they are a cause of division and self-glorification,

So, all religions, please stop recycling old advice and teaching, which, at some past time, was what was needed,

Today has its own questions and needs answers that all or most can agree on,

Not just one particular religion

The Answer to The Lama (19)

If we try to delve into the concept of causality, from whichever angle of religion, we find concurrent lines rather than diverging ones,

The words used and their dictionary meanings are often behind the divergences, but the intellect, aided with vision and wisdom can surpass dictionary meanings to look deep, and ultimately at the primordial essences …

In its primordiality, causality is not just “whatever you do to others will be done to you”, or simply a system of reward and punishment, as in “if you disobey god, he will punish you, and if you obey him, he will reward you”,

In both such examples, causality is meant with behaviour, aiming at deterring people from causing harm, and encouraging them to cooperate,

Religions don’t know the working of such “laws”,

No one knows how karma works and how it keeps its records over many births, and neither how god arbitrates his reward and punishment,

Any theory of such knowledge can easily be said to be human fabrication, and is unprovable,

But to an astute person, causality at the human interaction level, although can’t be scientifically studied, is intuitive and self-evident,

In that, such a person can see the benefit of cooperative and respectful behaviour to themselves, and can figure out for themselves the best courses of action in different circumstances, and keep constantly learning along the way …, to eventually arrive to the conclusion that their own benefit is indeed everyone else’s,

It is usually the fool-hearted ones who would do anything, if it benefits them immediately, without giving any thought to long term consequences …

Unfortunately, we quite often see such behaviour from world leaders and heads of religions, who take an opportunity to benefit, by causing harm to their rivals and enemies …

Religious taught penal systems, whether based on the laws of Abrahamic religions or those of karmic understanding, do not seem to be effective in teaching people good values …

Gravest errors are often perpetrated by very religious and pious people, who would go to their place of worship soon after committing crimes,

Sometimes to ask forgiveness, knowing too well that they have been involved in criminal behaviour,

And sometimes to tell their god that they’ve done him a favour, to remind him to reward them for their crimes …

Both are totally ignorant of what their religions have taught them …

But causality, if examined carefully, in a wider scope of investigation … is about: what causes things to happen or not to happen …

And without knowing too much physics or chemistry, and away from human interaction …:

If you hit a piece of wood with a piece of metal, the wood will break,

Why does it?

Immediately, a myriad of information about physical laws crosses one’s mind,

Laws which are known, and ones which aren’t fully known …

Those laws are constant in similar conditions …

So the whole science of physics comes in to answer some of them …

And at their higher levels, those laws can explain what hardness and softness generally are ...

Then those laws, taken to another level, raise more questions, which are more philosophic than scientific,

What is texture, what is hardness and softness, what is will and force, what is comparison, what is equality and disparity …, which are all human concepts,

And those aren’t necessarily dictated by physical laws, but rather by human perception and conception …, which in turn can be seen as a product of physical laws ...!

Such a journey of inquisition into the abstracts of one’s own mind, takes one to approach the Cause of all the causes,

This is not a god who rewards and punishes,

Or karma, keeping the books of debits and credits,

Or a particle smaller than Higgs Boson that is the “cause” of everything …

Along the way, the traveler will start to see that human activity is only a natural phenomenon, like every other,

Or indeed, that nature is none but the human mind in exhibition …

Neither science nor religion and philosophy will ever be able to capture or point to the Cause of all the causes,

Because it is causing

The Answer to The Lama (20)

It has been the religious authorities around the world that have used a distorted interpretation of religious commandments in order to protect themselves from scrutiny,

On the posit that: you cannot argue with god; or equally, do you dare contradict the guru?

The quick answer to both such teargas bombs is: no one represents god on earth, and the guru is human and all humans make mistakes,

On a number of occasions in the recent past, COB has provided examples of religious teaching that is meant to teach high values and to point to virtue, being used as a screen to provide impunity to religious authorities …, so that questioning the motive, aim and value of certain actions and teachings: is immediately rejected as interference in god’s or the guru’s law,

The Church, however, has been subjected to free criticism in the West, after political and ideological transformation in Europe paved the way thereto,

Criticism which can sometimes be unfair: provided that other religions have their own erroneous zones, which no one is allowed to question, due to whatever political and business complications …

Hence we find it easy to bash religions only in the countries which are enemies with those religions, or which have legislated laws that allow free criticism of those particular religions, and this is why my choice of the word "bash",

Because, if it were fair and civilised critique, it should also be allowed to be directed at every belief and religion equally and fairly …

We should always keep in mind, that religions, as institutes and academic material: is not a representative of heaven on earth, or the sole owner or explicator of the Books …

The Books and all religious teaching are open for humanity to learn from them, in whichever way this suits it, and this is the purpose of them.

So here are two more examples of distortions, as we started …:

Patience is a virtue that has been taught in all religions,

Because: religions teach engagement in good deeds, and deter from harm,

Both such activities take patience to materialise:

Patience to discharge the deed itself, patience in discriminating between the good and the bad courses of actions, patience in learning to face such responsibilities, patience to train oneself to undertake such responsibilities virtuously …

As such, patience delivers benefit for both the doer and the receiver of the deed …

But if for example, one party is being treated unfairly, deliberately or inadvertently, and consistently and for a time …: the silence and the lack of action to rectify the injustice: has nothing to do with patience …

I don’t claim to know how karma and god keep their records of wrong-doing, but as a human, my instinct tells me that silence and inaction in this case is delinquency, allowing the wrong to continue, and indeed to grow, as it gradually becomes the norm,

Religious authorities and false teaching often say: don’t worry about the apparent injustice, it’s all part of a big plan, pious and patient people will be rewarded …!

While all along they are benefitting from such injustices, in whatever form, for example between corrupt governments and corrupt religious authorities: teaming up against the meek and the helpless …

And so as not to make this post too long, I’ll leave talking about the difference between perseverance and stubbornness to the next post

The Answer to The Lama (21)

Projecting truth – or should I say a quintessence - : onto physical existence: starts off in one mind and spreads in multiple beliefs,

In all religions and moral teaching across cultures and times: the wording of laws commanding good and deterring from evil: is never mathematically perfect,

And by highlighting its imperfection I’m not diminishing its timeless and borderless value,

It is on the edges of the wording of such commandments, and the circumstances calling for them: that confusion and clashes between beliefs and practices occur,

So, for example, if a wolf is seen about to grab a sleeping child: on which party will the observer let the harm occur? on the child? because, he/she refuses to cause harm to the wolf? or on the wolf, because he/she wants to save the child’s life by harming the wolf?

An infinite number of arguments and counter-arguments can be envisaged,

For example, one might say: this is the observer’s and the child’s destiny, they should accept it, and by trying to change it: you might incur more bad karma for both …

Or one might say: this is testing the instinct of the observer and their resolve and courage to face difficult situations …

While both arguments and their entailed courses of action are samsara-ic: the first one, I mean letting the wolf take the child: is utterly foolish,

I say, no matter how holy or evil a person might be, they will have to face such situations in their lives, albeit, not always at such a high intensity …

Life bombards us with such situations constantly, for us to finetune our understanding of life and our understanding of our rules and laws of action and inaction …

In the ideal case, the observer has a highly developed mind, upon facing the situation they bring down overwhelming peace, they look the wolf in the eye without anger, fear or hatred, the wolf thus calms down and shies away …

Many researchers and animal lovers have walked bare handed among wild hungry animals, and made sincere friendships with them,

Perhaps the prophecies which came in many Books about a day when snakes will play with children without harming them … will one day become reality,

But humans are still far from reaching such a peaceful existence,

First they have to learn to understand each other to live with each other peacefully

The Answer to The Lama (22)

If we examine moral teaching, it becomes clear that it is not meant just to solve the problems immediately noticeable upon learning the teaching …

And by trying to explain this, I will almost certainly fall in the traps of the “definitional morality” that I’m trying to evade, if I’m not careful with my words …

So, for example, if we say: be charitable, full stop,

And then we go on setting exact numbers, in terms of money and so on that you should donate to the poor:

We ignore completely the causes of poverty, and indeed we implicitly condone it,

As such, poverty and inequality are facts of life, and moral teaching, weather religious or secular, steps in to minimise its impact,

For another example, if we say: don’t be stubborn, full stop,

And then we instruct people to take up beneficial activity, such as learning skills and pursuing an education, or indeed following a particular spiritual path:

At some point the treader of such paths might be faced with difficulties which highlight the limits of their capabilities …

So, if they persist while not making any progress, we can say they are stubborn according to a definition of stubbornness that we have set,

Or equally we might say they are perseverant …, if in our opinion no obstacle is unsurmountable, and one should continue doing one’s best …

It all depends on from which angle we look at their pursuit, and how we define such concepts of stubbornness and perseverance, and hence what kind of advice we give them,

If we say stubbornness is about clinging to a pursuit that is bad from the start, for example, in the hope of becoming rich quickly …, or in the hope of leading the people to a vain cause of politics and religion …: we should base the advice on some rational argument that can be deduced logically and practically …

In the end, it’s up to the pursuer to decide whether they want to be “stubborn” or not,

We can never know what thoughts and emotions haunt them,

And if they’re clever, they can work out the best course of action for themselves,

Our role should be only to guide them to be rational, by having sincere and honest discussions with them …, rather than encouraging them to have false hopes based on ideological or religious ambitions, or discouraging them, without fully understanding what they have set out to do ...

And one can go on about such matters for ever,

Every religious or moral advice can be used to deliver the opposite of what it is meant to deliver, if taken literally by its wording or by its dictionary definition,

Religions thrive on such black-and-white morality, hence they differ so much and are constantly competing with each other,

The lenses they use to distinguish black from white are different,

Vision without a lens: in their belief is impossible,

Because their minds have been molded and shaped to look only through those lenses,

If they have truly approached the virtue that their Books and teachings have taught them: they would all agree on the spirit of it,

The spirit that makes vision possible with the lenses and without them, and it is indeed it, that shapes and refines all the lenses

The Answer to The Lama (23)

When compassion is learnt, from a guru or by reading …: it takes an effort on part of the learner to practise it by spreading it to the whole of the world …

And that’s not bad per se,

It is however just the start of a journey to universality,

Because in universality: compassion is not taught, it is freed and experienced,

Thus it is not a practice based on teaching and instruction, but an innateness

The Answer to The Lama (24)

Lamas and religious teachers in general shouldn’t expect only applause and approval of everything they say,

Perhaps this was the expectation a thousand years ago or so,

Often good things are said to them. But if it isn’t in line with what they desire, they think it’s bad and promise the sayer a bad karma and punishment in hell …!

The threat with a bad karma or whatever else:

Firstly, it’s not up to any human to make such promises,

Secondly, it’s as violent to the soul as physical violence,

On the other hand, it doesn’t matter from which lineage of teachers they believe they received their training, when their rivals would be making such claims too …!

When the language they use is lacking of reason, backing themselves up by a proclamation of authenticity of the teaching they received …, all in an attempt to hide their inability to answer correctly with a good intent and temper: it goes to say that they, like all, are still at the start of a long way of learning …

No one can claim to have achieved complete knowledge and mastered spirituality …

That’s basic understanding that highly titled lamas and religious figures in general should know by now, one would imagine,

And some of them do demonstrate modesty and compassion, one should say,

It’s only human to feel disappointed, when contradicted or disapproved …

If one’s self-training has been genuine, negative feelings do not dictate a violent reaction,

But openness to the world … prepares one for all kinds of surprises,

We can’t use a filter constantly, it will get clogged up soon, at which point nothing gets through, and we deprive ourselves of further learning

 

The Answer to The Lama (25)

There’s no substitute for rational thinking,

Perhaps in the past there were cultures which were driven by other powers, which we call today faith and trust …

To modern rational thinking minds: all those powers fall in the realm of emotions,

Rational thinking, however, is not totally free from emotional forces, although the staunch adherents to it would like to believe that they are not driven by emotions whatsoever,

The emotions of such people are invested in their trust in their intellectual capabilities and their education …

Although this kind of trust doesn’t feel like religious faith, to a person who constantly examine their thoughts and “emotions”: there’s no difference between the two, I mean faith as in believing in religions, and faith in one’s own mind,

Right from the start, COB has been saying that true faith is actually in the mind,

This can be taken as one’s own mind, or some universal Mind "shared" by all conscious beings, and ultimately the entire universe …, where the lines between consciousness and universe become harder to draw, or vanish completely …

And indeed, faith in the mind can be taken as faith in religions as conveyed by the Books,

Because: even if the believer acknowledges only the god or the buddha or whatever else: he/she is in fact projecting those deity onto his/her own mind, and thus acknowledging his/her mind indirectly …

It is when the faithful in religion realises that their faith is actually in their mind: that they “progress” to faith in the mind proper,

The advantage of faith in the mind over belief, is that the former is universal and communicable, whereas the latter is personal and subjective,

But such distinctions shouldn’t be taken too rigidly, because they too will fade as one starts to hover above them,

This is why, for religions to be able to survive and be fit for the new world: they have to open up to knowledge that is not physically included in their Books and teaching,

After all, they have been kind of forced to do this over the last few centuries, when the achievements of science and technology became demonstrable and indisputable, without having to have prerequisite faith in them,

This is why you see religious people now going to doctors, riding and driving cars, flying on aero-planes, using communication technologies and so on …

These do work, whereas the miracles of old times are only assumed or blindly believed …

Not aiming at diminishing the truthfulness of miracles as recounted in the Books, I’m perhaps trying to say that nowadays: the universal mind of humanity is more accommodating of rational analytical thinking, which, if followed with open-mindedness can actually deliver one to a path of spirituality, away from the competitive market of religious claims and counter-claims

The Answer to The Lama (26)

We must distinguish between an intellectual expression of something and the experience of it,

In the former, words or other means of communication are used, such as other forms of art …: to convey a state of mind,

In the latter, the state of mind is within one’s own experience,

This one is lived, but can remain unexpressed,

When we take a quick look at religious teachings and the purpose of life each has formulated, we feel driven to believe one and reject the others,

Because they sound incongruous, nay contradictory,

Then we become tempted to view one as good, and the rest as bad,

Such conceptions and choices: stem from one’s own past and present experiences, and the affinity we feel towards one is none but the expression of our own existence,

If we try to separate our experiences from the Teaching, in order to formulate an objective and impartial view, we struggle, and might fail completely,

Provided this subjectivity: how can one be certain that what one feels attracted to, and hence believe: is true? and how can one be certain that what one isn’t attracted to is false?

The consideration of such curiousity: cannot be dismissed as a diversion or a temptation from evil, except if one is committed to a certain path …

And this is not bad per se,

It becomes bad, however, when we embark on teaching that only our way is the correct way,

If we take the religious teaching proper, as in Books without commentary, explications, footnotes and additions:

And if we have mastered the language in which those Books were written: with a lot of effort, it becomes clear that all religious teachings “descended” from a high level of awareness, and that that’s the best way such awareness was expressible in the given language and circumstances,

While the intellectualisation of them has been inevitable in order to approach them to the minds of the masses each in their language and cultural contexts: the intellectualisation of their concurrence in their one source is now the inevitable, in order to approach mutual understanding and cooperation between religions and cultures,

The state of awareness that has been given different names in different religions, viz enlightenment, Buddhahood, paradise, salvation …: can start to be seen one:

If it has been purified and emancipated from intellectualisation,

This can be experienced at a primordial level, in whichever description one can convey it,

Of course, there will always be a lot of room for pretentious people, aiming for fame and popularity, to say that they have reached the vertex of heaven, and that they are modest while infallible and perfect,

Only when one has gone ahead of them can one see them in their boxes,

But this doesn’t translate to hatred of them, but indeed compassion urges one to alert them and their followers,

Heavens, Space, God and Buddha ...: do not get angry if we question what we learn about what they said,

Who get angry: are pretentious people who say they are the experts in the Teaching and exclusive representatives of them,

But if we get angry with ourselves about our doubt and curiousity: we are still following people: not the mind: which enlightens everyone equally

The Answer to The Lama (27)

Of course, illusions are inseparable, between themselves, or from the mind which generates them,

The mind, however has to master the skill of using its powers … to use separation … when it sees fit,

Otherwise, the extremes, i.e., that the manifest and its activity is real and each and every bit of it is separable from everything else, or, nothing is real: become an entrapment,

In the first, illusion is taken as real,

In the second, the denial of the samsara-ic experience becomes an obstacle guised as guidance: nothing is real and all is just one illusion,

In the first, empirical sciences are born,

In the second, an attachment to denial of illusion can lead to an ununderstanding of the manifest and its activity, which is the opposite purpose of science,

These are intellectual pitfalls: one entrenches itself in a physical world, denying the mind that creates it, and the other entrenches itself in a state of denial, while all the way breathing, eating, moving …, living a normal “separate” life,

The middle way is not an intellectual balancing of two opposites, but indeed realisation,

In order to reach it: if we separate the glass from the water: it’s because we want to drink the water not the glass, and if we do not separate them, it’s because they are both experiences of mind,

When separation dissolves in the mind: all religious teachings are one, the manifest is one, the action carried out by a person and the person are one …, although practical compassion tells us to separate them,

Whether the intellect can or not separate: the mind can when it’s self-realised

The Answer to The Lama (28)

When to act and when not to act: is not an easily answerable question,

Whoever claims to have a generic answer will be proven wrong sooner or later,

This is one of the major themes in the Ghita, upon which the yogas of action and inaction are both permitted,

But the Ghita redresses quickly to say that one can’t refrain from action altogether, as the body needs constant maintenance in order to continue its action or indeed inaction …

When a decision is required, we have to be specific whether a course of action is or not beneficial to the doer and the receiver,

And benefit itself is a subjective configuration,

So, let’s say we want to determine whether action or inaction with regards to political matters is beneficial,

And to what extent of it …

Many schools of thought are built around such a question,

The balance, for example, between working people’s rights, and the rights of the organisations which employ them to continue to grow: is not always a clear cut,

A great deal of thought and negotiation need to be conducted, to determine an equitable course of action …

That’s action too,

But if from a religious perspective, we say: this is a mundane issue that hasn’t featured in our teaching, and whether it gets resolved apparently fairly or unfairly: in terms of heavenly judgement it’s a futile exercise, conducive to nothing but more of the same problems:

Does this mean that we should ignore the injustice, and comfort ourselves by advising all the parties involved to get more serious about their religious practices, whether these are meditations or prayers of any kind, in the hope that calming everyone’s mind down will ease the suffering for everyone …?

Perhaps in a situation where the level of injustice is not so dire, and people aren’t starving themselves and their families for the gluttony of few …: yes, a spiritual approach is perhaps most effective in reestablishing a degree of harmony,

But there are situations where religious commandments delivered millennia ago, at a time when economics and politics weren’t so complex: taken literally today …: go against the spirit of those commandments, which are meant to make people’s lives easy, so that there less inequality and more harmony …

In this particular situation, the commandment in all religions to give charity to help the poor: must not be used as an excuse to amass big fortunes by the sweat and blood of the poor, under the pretext that charity is being appropriately given to them, and the heavenly law is being upheld,

Religions, hence, can’t cherry pick which actions they deem virtuous and which unvirtuous, based on millennia old interpretations of religious commandments,

New considerations based on rational reasoning, aiming for the welfare of everyone, are needed more than ever, if religious teaching wishes to continue playing the role of moral guidance

The Answer to The Lama (29)

Compassion, if taught and learned, needs to be spread evenly, to all,

As said before, compassion is a state of universal awareness,

But if it has not been reached yet, it is taught and learned, and hence practised,

In practice, if compassion is imparted to a party that is being unjustly treated by another party benefiting from the injustice:

If by alleviating the injustice from the harmed party, the party that is causing the injustice has its feelings thus somehow hurt,

For example, from a reduction of benefit, of which this party has a plentiful anyway, owing to the wronged party …,

If this party gets thus hurt …:

The best compassion that can be afforded to it is counselling and education …

Of course, the scene of royal families targeted by revolutions, for example …, must never be repeated,

Perhaps the compassion lamas call to, when they say: we should be compassionate also towards the criminals and the wrong-doers: aligns with this kind of reasoning,

But to no degree should the sorrow and self-pity of the criminal and the greedy: be an excuse for crimes and a deprivation of basic rights be allowed to continue …

: especially if this has been going on for millennia, unceasingly, and every attempt to have a level of equality restored: the greedy and the criminals, with the backing up of religions, claiming to know god’s and karma’s will: is squashed …

OK, this is an imperfect world,

Religions have had their go at trying to spiritualise its imperfection and corruption,

But the scale of things now, the huge world populations, the speed of spread of information, the spread of technologies …: is going to enforce a major change, despite the gods and the karma as understood by religions,

Let’s for a change do what God and Karma have commanded: “God changes not what has befallen a people, until they have changed what’s in their own selves” (Qur’anic verse),

If religious institutes feels that change threatens them, that is because they are partners with the Tyranny,

The two complement each other

The Answer to The Lama (30)

There is no such a thing as Buddhist deity and other religions’ deity …

Religions are institutes serving the world, and have no real existence, not one inch above them,

If deity have a religion, they belong to what COB calls dark prophets,

Not that they are innately bad, but they answer the needs of people serving jail sentences …

Teachers are aware of the reality above religions, and are able to see their terminologies, rituals and decorations … as projections of one path,

In his early years, the Karmapa demonstrated his Power, needlessly of the appointed numeration, to the discontentment of the Buddhist authorities on all sides of their divides,

What they need is someone who aligns with their terminologies, rituals and decorations …, and affirms their political identities,

The psychological and mental pressure has been enormous, but the Power of the Karmapa will overcome it …

Like all corrupt institutes, the institutes of religion, including those of Buddhism, will have to self-annihilate, as COB has said before,

Whether there’s going to be new institutes to substitute them is a matter for the Karma of all the karmas to decide in the future, to satisfy humanity’s intellectual, social and spiritual needs …

But the present ones are serving mainly the needs of a few people who are happy in their confinements and social and political status,

With the exception of very few who have gone above them, but are resourceless in the present world, and therefore unable to see freedom outside them …

All those institutes, nevertheless, will be dismantled,

As we come back over and over, we all learn more about the might of karmic existence, even if religious terminologies disagree about the wording and the meaning of it,

Darkness isn’t one cast, we all have to free ourselves from the imprisonment of darkness, including deity …, for everyone to happily fit in a new realm of universal human awareness

The Answer to The Lama (31)

Religious teachers and practitioners must understand that religious practice is not a precise science,

And when they are faced with an argument that they can’t answer intellectually and ethically: they shouldn’t throw their standard answer: you have not practised the dharma, or whichever other discipline, and therefore your argument is born in self-conceit and egoism, aiming at self-glorification …

There was a time when religious teaching all around the world was the highest source of intellectual and ethical teaching,

But this has not been the case since the rise of sciences and the philosophies that are founded on scientific discoveries …

Sciences have given humanity a new perspective, and opened new windows of mind, and trained our intellect in evidential reasoning …

Not that this was totally absent in religious teaching, but science has popularised it and simplified it and applied it to all natural phenomena …

In the face of such a major shift of human consciousness: religions have adhered to their old methods, which rely mainly on trust and faith …

Not that there’s anything wrong with trust and faith,

In fact, science itself is founded on trust and faith in the intellect and its faculties of reasoning,

There’s nothing that the human mind can’t work out and understand, as the late Professor Hawking put it,

Religion’s failure, however, has been the inability to be the bridge between reason and spirituality,

So now, instead of offering guidance, religion itself is inadvertently misguiding the masses, to keep their minds captives in a glorified past of spirituality, demonstrated by the writings and the oral instructions of past great gurus and prophets …

Rivalry around science emerges when technology uses science to develop industry and compete in world markets …

But science proper is demonstrable by experimentation and logical analysis,

Religion, by contrast, is a subjective matter,

Religions can demonstrate the effectiveness of their techniques of mind and moral expansion: by demonstrating the reaches of their mind and moral expansion:

In their ability to heal wounds, bridge gaps, thwart tensions, resolve misunderstandings, defend the rights of the wronged and the oppressed, break the arrogance of the self-chosen and their self-awarded status and privileges, pour water on the fires of bigotry and hatred, constantly monitor social standards, alert to the dangers of a hasty introduction of technology into daily lives, raise environmental awareness, raise health and nutritional awareness …

Such a holy mission can never run out of issues of concern, and can never do a perfect job …

It is an ongoing mission that can never be perfectly accomplished,

Past or before that, religions’ spiritual achievements are personal,

Religions can’t grade or judge others, each by their understanding of their Books and methods of spiritual expansion,

They can’t proclaim their techniques and methods as exclusively right, or better than any other, on the basis of their own interpretations of the Books and teachings of old-time gurus and prophets …

None of the teachers of the past, or the bringers-down of major messages, has ever said that their method or teaching is exclusively right, or better,

And when they corrected the misunderstandings of preceding teachings: they didn’t mean to override the actual teachings or falsify them or to say their teaching was better,

They were only un-politicicing religion, correcting misconception, and opening new avenues based on their own experiences ...

I hope that the lamas understand this, in order to widen their own spiritual experience, and have an open mind to the beauty of emptiness and absoluteness …

I have attached this remarkable debate between two scientists, one Buddhist and one atheist, that I recently watched,

Unlike the other debates around this subject that I've watched, in which the “spiritist’s” debating technique can be summarised by the predictable argument: you don’t know anything, I have gone to the world of the spirit …:

The Buddhist scientist in this one understands and agrees completely with the atheist scientist: yet has another window to open,

And I find it quite interesting, that he finds in mathematics a new avenue to acknowledging the universal mind,

This is an approach that COB has noted since its inauguration, I was thrilled to see somebody pointing in this direction

The Answer to The Lama (32)

One can say that Abrahamic religions have themselves given rise to the secular schools of thought and indeed to science,

Sometimes as an answer to them, because: as said before, every thesis has inborn in it its own antithesis,

And sometimes as an expansion of them,

In fact, scientific investigation itself was seen by secular thinkers in the early days of the rise of sciences as a kind of a new religious duty: that is to learn and comprehend the grand creation, for the purpose of admiring and enjoying the work of the Creator …

Whether secular philosophic works are considered religious or non-religious, they are windows into the “empty” mind, where manifestation, expression and abstraction: all merge in the “emptiness” of the mind.

We can never figure out how in past and forgotten civilisations the roads to knowledge and Union were paved and trodden,

And in a twist of fate, the current ones can meet a similar destiny of oblivion …

So where does their believed immutableness and certainness come from and go back to …?

One has hence to consider the Absoluteness/Emptiness from which they emerge and diverge,

Only to vanish in existential impermanence …

A large section of people nowadays feel stranded,

They aren’t comfortable with the many different, nay conflicting nuances of blind faith on offer from religions,

And nor are they comfortable with the nihilist vision of materialist philosophies born from empirical sciences …

Those have invested their faith in their own minds,

This is the safest bank for the modern layman …

Not that everyone should be forced to invest all their mental and emotional powers in it …

Only Time that will instate their faith,

What the future of the many existing faiths is going to be is anyone’s guess,

If they can acknowledge their One Source, and open up to each other, perhaps the modern layman will find intellectual and spiritual comfort in them, as long as irrationality is not served to them in the form of rituals or illogical assumptions …

This is a very important demand in the heads and the chests of modern laypeople,

Religions aren’t aware of it, or indeed believe it to be a deviation from the path of faith,

Which faith? laypeople will rightly ask …

The Answer to The Lama (33)

Like other virtues, forgiveness has been turned upside-down by religions, for the benefit of the perpetrators of injustice …

As mentioned in a previous post, forgiveness doesn’t give the party with the upper hand a blank cheque to continue the wrong: on the basis that the receiver of the injustice must demonstrate forgiveness to be good and pious …

Once again, virtue taught in all religions is being used as a screen to divert the attention from correcting the wrong to allowing it to continue …!

By the standards of all religions today: religions are carrying out their religious commandments:

Whether they are on the giving or the receiving side of an injustice …

But karma and God do not take instructions from religious, political, academic and business authorities …

Thousands of years have gone by and people as nations and as individuals continue to treat each other unfairly, with justification based on their distorted understanding of religious commandments …

Whether these commandments are being used to justify aggression, or to preach submission …: the outcome is a world in which every nation and every individual take the law in their own hands, and the cycle of injustice and suffering continues one generation after the other …

More of the same will bring on more of the same …

In any conflict situation, a mutually beneficial practice of forgiveness should aim at stopping injustice,

So that retaliation and counter-retaliation, whether under the banner of forgiveness or self-defence: are put to rest forever …

Is this too high an aim to achieve?

No, not when a rational approach to resolving conflicts is taken,

One that aims at actually resolving conflict, rather than making karma or god happy …

The Answer to The Lama (34)

Lamas shouldn’t be jealous, if the Analects of Confucius are read and pondered, and shown to be of great value, contrary to what some lamas said in the past about them,

Or if the Qur’an is opened and its treasures are revealed,

Or if the Gospels are shown to be none but the Word of Compassion,

They shouldn’t,

So, going back to those Books, a few hundred years or more, to undo past misconceptions: is what best be done to heal the present,

And same should be done to the Dharma,

After it has been reduced by some lamas to rituals and a road to vanishment,

And populist spirituality and political bias,

This is the work the men of religion should’ve embarked on themselves, for their mission today to be of a universal aim and purpose,

Rather than giving advice on how to be wise and compassionate, and reprimand, from an armchair of religious comfort

The Answer to The Lama (35)

You know that you’re seeing right, when there’s no answer, but indeed irrelevance and attempts of discreditation,

And if you’re right, you take that fearlessly,

But it stands no chance of survival,

Because, if what you see is right, regardless of the crowds disapproving, what is right is what materialises and becomes actual,

The self-appointed antagonists will have no choice but to abdicate their thrones, this will be their responsibility,

Let them enjoy it for now …

The Answer to The Lama (36)

To continue pointing out that every activity is samsara, if unapproved by religious authorities, even if it aims at fixing some wrong …: is contrary to every religious teaching,

Religious teaching is to better people’s lives, so they may have a better understanding of their lives, so they come closer to their Source …

If it is your prayer or meditation time, and you head towards your place of worship, and on your way you notice a house on fire and you hear people screaming, what will you do?

If you are a human, you would miss your prayers and meditations and run to help …

If, on the other hand, you start tossing up the many ideas and options in your mind, and try to remember what the holy books commanded and promised, or what your gurus and role models did …: you have missed a great part of your humanity: the one that urges you to rush to help without even thinking about it …

All those thoughts and their prescribed courses of action: are samsara,

The entire world activity and the human in it: is samsara,

This is what it is meant to be,

Otherwise: no guidance to return is needed,

This one is in activity and the lack of it: because it is in the mind

The Answer to The Lama (37)

To continue to insist on religious terminology and standard expressions, will not bridge religions,

As if the uniqueness and the monopoly of knowledge is still the aim, expressed by such expressions and terminology,

It is understandable that religions have each their expressions and words which point in certain mind directions …

For the purpose of reaching a goal,

This goal: has to be the same in all religions,

If it is not: religions will self-destroy and indeed might destroy civilisation along the way,

If we say the nature of the mind is emptiness – and a lot has been said on this Page about the “nature” of such an assertion -: emptiness of mind as a concept conducive to atheism, purposelessness and nihilism,

And indeed, many Buddhist teachers seem to believe that the world became “accidentally” and therefore purposeless, and should be stopped: by all beings becoming enlightened, even bugs and small things …

A quick calculation … would suggest thus that the world can never cease to exist,

The trillions of such beings on earth haven’t made their way to be higher animals yet, let alone humans, and we haven’t counted the possible many others on other planets in this vast universe,

Buddhist lamas have to drop this thought, if they want to get closer to Hinduism and Abrahamic religions, where the universe is admired for its beauty and grandeur, and is seen as a way to acknowledging the Creator of it and returning to Him …

Whether the Creator of it is said to be Absolute Mind or Empty Mind, becomes less significant outside the dictionaries of religions: because at this Point, it is Awareness and Union …

And when we learn that the word “emptiness” is more of a mistranslation of a Sanskrit word, we are pointed to see the choice of it driven by preconceived atheism …

The fact that the image of the moon reflected in the water vanishes if the moon has gone: doesn’t prove that the mind is empty …

If it proves anything, it is the oneness of cause and effect,

This is something that mathematics demonstrates continually: when a set of givens lead to definite results …

Like a problem of plane geometry, developed in Alexandria in the days of Alexander:

You draw an image, using a ruler and a compass: the image becomes to mean something else to the mind: the conclusions which can be proven logically,

While the image in all its aspects and concepts: is one, right from the beginning,

If Buddhist lamas make this quantum leap into universality, other religions will open up their minds as well,

Some of them still have the moral basis for it …

The Druze of the Middle East were meant to be the pioneers of it in the last millennium, but apart from very few individuals, as a community they aren’t,

On the other hand, among the many religionless people in the world are them who can see this truth, but have no support, neither from mainstream religions, and nor from science ...

The Answer to The Lama (38)

It is quite fair to say that some lamas, or indeed some religious figures generally, would prefer to alienate themselves from intellectual, ideological and political issues, to provide only general advice to their pupils on personal matters of self-development and self-purification from involvement in today’s madness …: of consumerism, political and religious fervour, financial anxiety … and so forth …

In such a case, if approached about such matters, they can just say that they do not get drawn into such discussions, and that their teaching is meant to transcend such issues, where the mind can come closer to a state of equilibrium, and emotions have settled on universal love, unattached to anything representable by physical existence …, if this makes sense,

This state of mind, however, and the teaching that induces it, is not dismissive of other states of mind, such as intellectual and philosophic inquisition, which progress by study, debate and a constant pursuit of self-education …

Although such activities are considered samsara by most Buddhist teachers: they can in fact be a way of reaching higher ranks of awareness,

It all depends on the individual’s goal of carrying out such activities,

And like the practice of prayers and meditations can itself be samsara – when a goal can’t be envisioned, apart from relief from suffering:

Oppositely, the pursuit of knowledge and intellectual inquisition can lead to freedom from entanglement in worldly matters, when a goal is clear, such as a sincere desire of self-development and ultimately an arrival at the doorsteps of a higher rank of awareness …

A quick judgement of different approaches to self-development is often unfair, and can be a sign that the person making the judgement still has a long way before arriving at the starting point to total freedom,

Those should not hide their inadequacy by derision or by issuing standard accusations …

The Answer to The Lama (39)

Perhaps sometimes COB makes the mistake of suggesting change to the terminology of faiths and religions,

The only motive is to bridge the gaps between the different faiths, which COB sees originating from dictionary meanings …

Those dictionary meanings, as has been said many times: are meant with concepts of intellect, whether abstract, or physical, as in objects and their movements …

It is unfair to try to describe or prescribe a way to mindful expansion: using those words,

But we have no other choice at the present,

In past cycles of human existence: people with high mindful achievements were able to demonstrate their rank by their mastery over matter, as in smoothing rocks, looking into them, overcoming gravity … and so forth,

Our genesis, which COB believes to have started around 6 thousand years ago, and was gradually introduces around 12,000 years ago …: limits our “perception”, by focusing it on physical perception, aided by optical vision, sound hearing, and smelling aided by the presences of chemicals …

The reader doesn’t have to believe this, but it is being said to help the notion that “mind” is not a standard thing, and when in the future we bump into intelligent beings, our minds will have to open up to other minds …

And trying to open up to other minds here and now …: is the best exercise we can practise, in order to open up …

But if we are trapped in the mind of competition and exclusiveness …: this cannot happen, and our existence as intelligent beings will implode in self-destruction …

Hence the notion of right and wrong have to be expanded, so that at their universal level, they are visible to everyone.

Dictionary words can point only to binary concepts, born in physical perception,

But it is the mind that is capable of going beyond them, often failing to express itself in those words,

That’s why, highly achieving lamas or other religious figures shouldn’t be too keen on one set of words or another, while scorning one word or another in other faiths …

Both can point to the same level of awareness …

So, when COB suggests that the word “emptiness” should be replaced by “absoluteness”, it’s because at the dictionary level emptiness is conducive to atheism,

In the same manner: the notion that the self doesn’t exist is conducive to materialism and nihilism, at the dictionary level,

And the reason why those are unfavorable in the present, is because the morality that they promote is materialistic, based on no real values, seeing no incentive other than gain and no purpose other than survival, even if at the expense of the destruction of an enemy or rival …

Not that this frame of mind is alien to religiousness,

But in religiousness, the belief in eternal existence and deity: can be a deterrent from sinking in a blackhole of inexistence …

Inexistence, which in common Buddhism is taken as the ultimate goal of spirituality and virtuousness ...!

But, although “absoluteness” can be said to be “empty”, and the “ego” can be said to persist from one life after another …, after which no one really knows whether it vanishes or goes in a state of wholeness …: lamas insist on using their modern English translations of Sanskrit words …

Ones which, while being illiterate in Sanskrit, I can say with full confidence, that they are twentieth century translations: verging on distortion, and often missing the point completely …

I can’t understand why lamas feel so committed to them

Answer to The Lama (40)

Indeed, in religion, trust is predominantly invested in unknowns,

In the trust that this will lead ultimately to the sought knowledge,

Mathematics and empirical sciences, however, have given the world a new thing to trust,

Those do not require preliminary trust in anything,

And they work … in people’s minds of all backgrounds and “trusts”,

This new trust is actually based on things which, for the first time, can be called facts,

Not that the world was totally devoid of them before them,

But the last 500 years have elevated their status in our minds to that of religion,

In that we can rely on them now … in curing illnesses, in their technological achievements and so forth …

The trust in them is based on facts provable to the human mind, and nothing else …

Hence, a new trust has emerged: the one in the human mind,

But what is it exactly? is it the product of evolution, or the will of an arbitrary god,

Is it spontaneous inevitableness or total randomness?

All these are concepts of intellect, and the mind is capable of creating them and shaping them in different lexicons and expressions …

The unknowns that are trusted in religions will perhaps remain unknown,

If they have achieved something in the past: it was to set humanity on virtuous paths and open up their minds to question everything …

The human mind that has produced mathematics and empirical sciences that are trusted universally: is capable of seeing that religions are trusted by the human mind in the human mind,

If we can't recognise the human mind as the source of the trust: religions will continue to differ and compete: in the trust that they are those different unknowns … that we have to trust separately,

And if we can, religions start to be recognised as the many roads to the human mind

The Answer to The Lama (41)

Many religions have claimed protection from disease by virtue of their faith,

And many have practised rituals which they believe protect them or subdue the spread of the disease,

Although the effectiveness of such beliefs cannot be proven, the believers and the practitioners, some of them still have faith in them,

The fact that science is driven by reason gives it an advantage over faith in religious beliefs, in this regard,

In the case of science, faith is in reason, as a universal human intellectual faculty,

And as soon as the men of religion fall ill, they seek advice from a physician, although this was not the case in the not-very-far past,

If it was the case in the past that the correctness of religious belief was provable by the ability to heal or to demonstrate a degree of mastery over physical phenomena: this is not the case anymore,

And moreover, for religious authorities to be in step with intellectual and scientific advancement: they have to stop scorning them, and indeed seek training, at least in the theories of them, so they can play the true role of religious authorities: one of moral and spiritual guidance,

In the end, whether the people prayed to the gods of the crops and the rain and believed they got results, or whether science forecasts the weather and develops agricultural techniques: is not a matter of belief anymore, rather demonstrable facts,

Religious authorities are the ones who should know that human interaction and harmony or the absence of them: are them which drive what goes on around them,