Spirituality and Religions Flashcards
Buddhism is the most likable of the major religions, and Buddhist are the perennial good guys of modern spirituality.
But, Why doesn’t Buddhism produce Buddhas?
Lets be radically honest and cultivate a healthy skepticism, and question. What is the enlightenment success ratio among Buddhism mathematically speaking?
As billions of sincere but unsuccessful seekers over the last twenty-five centuries might reluctantly attest, can we might consider the possibility that there is a serious flaw in a path that doesn’t produce any graduates?
Buddhism is not about awakening. Much of Buddhist knowledge and practice seems focused on spiritual self-improvement.
The Buddha real teaching
“Figure it out for yourself”
If Prince Siddhartha made it on his own, you can too.
The Buddha was just some guy who got serious and figure it out for himself, so maybe that’s his real teachings -that you can figure it out for yourself.
Maybe the point is that he wasn’t a sort of deity but that he was just a guy like you or me.
What is the sin of ignorance?
In the core of Buddhism it’s said that there is only one sin: The sin of ignorance.
Ignorance is sin, sin is ignorance. There’s nothing else. It is not the kind of ignorance where you don’t know something. It’s the kind where you do know something that’s not true.
Monotheistic Religions and the Self-Supporting foundation fallacy.
To overcome common sense, religion use the Self-Supporting foundation fallacy where the foundation hangs from the structure it supports.
We know that God exists because the Bible says so, and the Bible must be right because it’s the word of God.
Crazy is a numbers game.
Like if enough people do it,
then it’s not crazy anymore.
If you live in such a fantasy alone, you’re mentally ill, if you live there with a small group, you’re a brainwashed cultmember, and if you live there with a large group, you’re respectably religious.
Hold nothing sacred
Nothing is sacred, or holy or divine; only true or not true. All that you consider sacred and profound is against the process of awakening.
Take your inquiry seriously and hold nothing sacred. Holding nothing sacred means that nothing is assumed to be true and all of your assumptions are fair game.
The more spiritual they are, the more they are fair game. Ultimately it is your most sacred and unquestioned assumptions about yourself, others, and life that are most important to question.
What is faith?
Faith is just another face of fear. It is a defensive mechanism of the frightened heart trying to overrule over the doubting mind. Fear overshadows reason and give rise to faith.
Let’s be honest; this is not a faith and trust business, this is a self-verification business.
What is tradition?
Tradition is just a word for stuff you accept as true without verifying it for yourself. Tradition is the deeply rutted path that gets formed after many years of being followed by the herd.
The uncritical acceptance typical of the herd mentality is the soil in which all false beliefs take root. Instead of self-reliance and self-determination, most people just buy a package deal; no thinking required.
Traditions and the Herd
Standard religions, traditions and belief systems are the shepherds of Maya. Keeping the sheep in the fold, away from the cliffs, keeping the herd together and heading slowly nowhere in an orderly manner.
Running apart from the herd is certainly better than running with it, but of no substantive difference if you’re still running in the same direction.
Do not believe on the strength of traditions even if they have been held in honor for many generations and in many places; do not believe anything because many people speak of it.
It’s self-verified or fail, simply as that. You are on your own.
The Vampire analogy
If vampires really walked the earth there would be teachers and classes where you could signed up if you wanted to become a vampire yourself, as, I suppose, some people would. If the teacher were a vampire himself, he might just bite everyone and swap fluids or whatever and presto change-o, they’re all vampires.
But if the teacher were just a regular human and not really a vampire, then you might find him handling down specific rules for his students to follow: Don’t go out in the sunlight; Don’t eat garlic; Don’t drink holy water; Don’t drive wooden sticks through your heart, and so forth.
And vampires wanabees would stand in line and pay their money to hear it. They would return to their lives and struggle to follow their teacher’s instructions in the hope that, by doing so, they would eventually achieve vampirehood.
But, as we all know, that’s not how to become a vampire, that’s how to play a fantasy. If you just want to be happy and acting like a vampire makes you happy, then super, that’s definitely the thing to do. But, if you want to become a vampire, then wearing black and getting your canines sharped isn’t going to do the trick.
You are on your own
Truth has no teaching, requires no guru, and is not a spiritual pursuit. The search for truth is not a spiritual endeavor and never was.
The last thing you need is more knowledge. Waking up is not a theoretical subject one masters through study and comprehension.
Much of the teachings you will read in your life is a finger pointing at the finger pointing at the moon rather than at the moon.
There’s no outside authority. You have to verify everything yourself. If you adopt something someone said, it’s only after you have verified it for yourself.
You must sort this out for yourself because your self is the thing to be sorted. You are on your own.
The first rule in this business is that you are on your own.
- Those who know how to think need no teachers.
- Mahadma Gandhi -*
What about all the teachers and gurus that say that they become enlightened in an instant?
They’re probably talking about the transformation brought on by a transcendental experience -a experience of mystic union or some variation of it. It’s powerful and can be massively transformative, but it’s not enlightenment.
Enlightenment isn’t flashy and it doesn’t just occur like an epiphany. There’s no such thing as instant enlightenment any more than there’s such a thing as instant baby.
Something to consider the next time you hear the pop guru recount the moments of his glorious epiphany. “I was walking in the park, children were laughing, birds were singing, when all of a sudden…”
