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Buddhist Cosmology - Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz
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| Buddhist Monk 2005-11-19, 1:01 am |
| Organized Quotations on Buddhism Cosmology, Meditation, and Mysticism.
Main Page:
http://www.ramaquotes.com
Buddhist Cosmology:
http://www.ramaquotes.com/html/buddhist_cosmology.html
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Buddhism is the study of how to be immeasurably happy.
People in the West conceive of Buddhist study as heavy, ponderous, and
as something necessitating a personal withdrawal from worldly
activities. They tend to view Buddhist monks as stoics who somehow
just experience the ups and downs of life with blank expressions.
Nothing could be further from the truth! From my own personal
encounters and studies with both Tantric and Zen Buddhist monks, I
have found them to be humorous, warm, charming, and compassionate.
The Buddhist message is a message not of the negation of life, but one
of affirmation. Humor enables us to deal with and overcome many of the
most painful and difficult situations in our lives.
Buddhism is yoga. Yoga started, who knows when? A long time ago, when
the first person found that they could still their thoughts and
experience eternity and access the higher planes of mind and the
spheres of perfection that exist in the mind of the universe, in the
central nexus of nirvana.
Buddhism and yoga is the study of changing who we are, modifying or
perhaps totally restructuring ourselves as perceivers.
Life is the power to perceive. Without perception, there is no life.
Buddhism is the study of perception, and what is most endemic to
perception is power.
Buddhism is simply a methodology, a way of becoming one with the part
of ourselves that is happy.
Buddhism has existed forever, just like we have. And occasionally it's
codified; it's put together into a system by someone who likes to
codify.
Buddhism isn't about temples, and incense, and shaved heads, and robes.
It's not about church. There are aspects of Buddhism that involve
that. People enjoy that, it helps them, it strengthens their practice.
But real Buddhism is about meditation.
Any individual is capable of realizing the truth at any time. No
tradition is necessary, no chain, no lineage. Once you have realized
the truth, once you have become consciousness itself, then you go
beyond all such distinctions.
A time comes when it isn't enough to read about Buddha, we wish to have
that happen to ourselves. That's when we move from the exoteric to the
esoteric, from religion to mysticism.
Buddhism suggests there are no elect. Everything rests upon your own
self-effort, which is the good news because that means you don't have
to wait around for some nebulous God to help you.
Buddhists believe that you are who you are today is because of who you
have been in all your past lives.
Buddhism suggests that there is enlightenment. Even though it's not
perceivable to the mind or senses, it's there and enlightenment is
absolute freedom.
Self discovery doesn't not seek to bring you answers about your
personal life or philosophically comfort you about life and death.
What it does is bring you into reality as perception itself.
The essence of all practice is to be cool. Life is not worth getting
excited about because whatever you perceive is an illusion.
Behind the transient reality, there is something else. It is a deeper,
more permanent and unchanging reality that we Buddhists call nirvana.
The thing about Buddhism is that it stresses attainment of something
ineffable, and I think that is where it differs from other religions in
that it's more correct. We live in a world with promises of paradise.
It is the Buddhist belief that all things, experiences and people are
inherently empty. That is a simple way of saying that all physical and
nonphysical things have another side.
All of the universes are but phantoms, mirages, and while they have
their own essence, their own pantomime -- they pass forgotten.
Buddhism leads you to the awareness that all things are holy.
Everything is holy. The dark has its own light, in other words.
In Buddhism we don't really believe in sin and salvation as Westerners
would define them. We believe in the limitless possibilities of the
present and of future moments.
What is evil? There is no such thing. In Buddhism we don't recognize
evil and therefore we don't give it any power over us.
Everything aids everything because all things are a reflection of the
Buddha mind or the mind of enlightenment.
Things are not necessarily logical. Logic is a secondary source
reference. Everything is what it is. We have decided to apply
rationale to things. It makes us feel better.
Buddhism is the study of the way the mind works. One has to be able to
hold a large number of relational concepts simultaneously in the mind.
It is necessary to grid, to literally unlock realities and dimensions
with the power of your mind.
In the Far Eastern languages we have many different words to describe
the varying degrees of reality that a thing, a state of mind or plane
of being may have.
The dialectical change of mind that occurs in Buddhism is not simply
the assimilation of a new philosophical basis or religious basis for
viewing and interpreting experience. Rather it is the complete
structural revision of that which is.
The days of infinity are endless. Its hours cannot be counted or found
on a clock. There is no north, south, east, or west. These are just
concepts. Infinity is forever, everywhere all at once. And that's all
there is.
The essential premise of Buddhism is that there is enlightenment, there
is nirvana. Beyond this world, beyond all worlds, there's something
radiant, perfect and eternal. We call it 'nirvana'. You could call it
anything you wanted to: God, the Tao, Brahma - whatever you prefer.
The names don't matter.
The pathway to enlightenment is beautiful. There are a lot of
wonderful things that happen along the way. Win or lose, you just keep
going, and it happens eventually.
Knowledge of the Enlightenment Cycle, of the ways that inner dimensions
and nirvana work, gives you an entirely new perspective on everything.
It lifts you far above the transient sorrows, pains, pleasures and joys
that the unenlightened masses experience.
Buddhism is the study of power initially. It takes a certain amount of
power to even know your potential - to have the sense that you can
change the way you perceive.
Everything goes through the cycle of birth, growth, maturation, decay
and death. But all of this is an illusion. Everything we see is an
illusion. Even our perceptions of truth are illusory, illusory in the
sense they're not complete.
Buddhism is perception, gaining control of the mind and directing one's
attention, to raise the kundalini energy so that it flows with such
volatility and force that we simply perceive life correctly
The Buddhist mindset seeks to eliminate the self. That is to say, what
we want to experience is life, not self. When there's less self and
more life, we're very content, and when there's more self and less life
we're quite unhappy.
The casual dimensions, the planes of light, are happiness. They are
all different and are all endless. They border the shores of nirvana,
which is beyond discussion - a condition of perfection that cannot be
expressed.
The realms of light, which in Buddhism we refer to as the higher astral
or causal dimensions, exist everywhere forever. But it is up to an
individual to raise their mind to a level of stillness at which they
can perceive these most beautiful realms of light.
There's an understanding one gains from all Buddhist thought. The
purpose of all our explanations is not to have you understand anything,
but for you to snap from the understanding of the intellect to the
understanding of pure spirit. All our explanations work backwards.
Beyond learning and unlearning is awareness, and beyond awareness is
consciousness, and beyond consciousness is immortality, and beyond
immortality is dharma and beyond dharma is nirvana.
- Zen Master Rama
www.ramaquotes.com
Thank you in advance for your religious tolerance.
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Hey RAMA,
If everything is illusion then whatever you say and mostly"
Beyond learning and unlearning is awareness, and beyond awareness is
consciousness, and beyond consciousness is immortality, and beyond
immortality is dharma and beyond dharma is nirvana." must be illusion
too...
As a ZEN MASTER are you dealing with these illusions?
With compassion,
Puma
- Zen Master Rama
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| ramaquotes@yahoo.com 2005-11-21, 1:00 am |
| Yes, Puma all teachings are illusions, but may be useful. It would be
like someone coming into your dream and telling you that you are
dreaming. The telling is part of the dream, thus an illusion. Aside
from that, language cannot express all states of awareness, or nirvana.
"For if anyone says that the Tathagata sets forth a
Teaching he really slanders Buddha and is unable to explain what I
teach. As to any Truth-declaring system, Truth is undeclarable." -
Buddha
"If there were living beings for the Tathagata to liberate, He would
partake in the idea of selfhood, personality entity, and separate
individuality." - Buddha
"There was no formula by which the Tathagata attained the Consummation
of Incomparable Enlightenment." - Buddha
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| Wealthy Spiritual Guru Lenz Found Dead on Long Island
Tuesday, April 14, 1998, 8:16 a.m. PDT
OLD FIELD, N.Y. (AP) -- Frederick P. Lenz III, a best-selling author
who packaged Eastern philosophies for a '90s audience but was accused
of operating a cult, was found dead Monday in a bay adjoining his $2
million Long Island compound. He was 48. Police said Lenz may have died
of a drug overdose or accidental drowning. An autopsy was pending. "It
appears he fell into the water from a floating pier, but the
circumstances leading up to that are still unclear," Detective Lt. John
Gierasch of the Suffolk County homicide squad said. Lenz's novel
_Surfing the Himalayas,_ which related snowboarding adventures and
outlined Lenz's spiritual philosophy, reached No. 11 on the best-seller
lists in 1995. The self-proclaimed guru also gave high-priced computer
science seminars and founded a company called Advanced Systems Inc. He
was on _New York_ magazine's list of the "100 Smartest New Yorkers" in
1995. Zen Master Rama, drew criticism from cult-watch groups in the
1980s after he announced that he was the incarnation of a Hindu deity.
Parents and former students accused him of manipulation and sexual
exploitation of followers. He dismissed the criticism, saying some
women followers had consensual relationships with him and then grew
vindictive when he broke off the relationships.
Sending - Please wait...
My email:
Send to:
Example preview:
Subject: Article link Freedom of Mind
you@example.com sends you a link to 'Wealthy Spiritual Guru Lenz
Found Dead on Long Island'.
You can find this article at
http://www.freedomofmind.com/resour...a/spiritual.htm
Sometimes people get out of their graves and start talking,This is
actually what ZEN doesnot teach though!
With compassion,
Puma
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