A zen student articulates the particular distinctions between the visual as well as ritual parts of practice. This content was brought to our notice by Lama Surya Das who is an American lama in the Tibetan Buddhist history. He's a poet, chantmaster, spiritual activist and also author of several well-known works on Buddhism; a meditation tutor along with spokesman for Buddhism in the western world. Lama Surya Das keeps us up to date regarding the various areas of buddhism as well as meditation sometimes with his own discourse and sometimes via articles in addition to content which sheds light on buddhism. This particular piece on Buddhism comes from John Blofeld a scholar, writer, and translator of Asian philosophy and religion, especially Buddhism and Taoism. Continue reading to get more information about Buddhism and the distinctions relating to the conceptual along with ritual components of practice.
Given that Buddhism arrived in the West, inevitably some individuals have felt, “Zazen is nice, consideration is nice, self-discipline is good, why all this bowing as well as incense? To whom do you offer incense and also flowers?” To this all the Buddhists of the past and all Asian ?Buddhists nowadays will answer with one voice: “Dear friends, a spirit of reverence is very important to successful practice. Without them, enlightenment cannot be attained!”
Prostrations and also offerings are usually admittedly just forms-just an individual's way of articulating what cats express by rubbing themselves against a beloved person’s legs. If it were natural for individuals to stand on their own heads or maybe stick out their rumps to convey reverence, then Buddhists would certainly stand on their heads as well as stick out their rumps as a matter of course. Kinds do not matter on their own, however the attitude of mind represented by prostrations and so forth is of fantastic significance to followers of the Way.
My Tibetan lama informed me at a very initial phase of my training: “Ignorant people follow the attitude of subject to king before a Buddha statue. Higher-level practice is conducted fully inside the brain. Yet even if you reach the highest possible level-hard certainly to achieve in one lifetime-you ought to every day alternate formless, wordless, above-conceptual exercise with bowing down as well as making offerings. Under no circumstances fail in that.” My Chinese Chan (Zen) mentor told me: “In between your rounds of meditation, practice bowing, giving incense, and making circumambulations. In case you have no spirit of reverence, no feeling of amazement for all that lies beyond the constraints of that miserably circumscribed illusion you suppose to be your ‘me,’ you'll make simply no advancement. Why? Simply because when your practice increases, you may reflect: ‘I did better inside my meditation just now’ and by so pondering fall back to the lowest level of ignorance as a result of the particular consequent inflation of one's devilish ‘I’!”
Those Zen monks who said, “Meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha” as well as endorsed using Buddha figures as firewood and so on were talking not to Americans or even to new Buddhists but to Chinese as well as Japanese Zen followers that could be counted upon to comprehend the meaning of such recommendations, that really amounted to this: “Never for one minute suppose that veneration of sutras or even images is of much use in itself, so don’t let it switch the rest of your current practice, as uninformed people usually do.” I doubt if it ever entered those monks’ minds that one day there'd be people in the world who'd consider these powerful (and also hilarious) injunctions literally!
If it is wrong to have as well as symbolize perceptions of reverence, awe, as well as gratitude by prostrations along with offerings, then almost all Buddhists have been wrong ever since the dharma was initially preached in this latest kalpa 2,500 plus much more years ago. Would it be possible that those hundreds of millions of individuals at all levels of dedication to the practice we so greatly value included no single man or woman of correct understanding until Buddhism reached America?
Article Source - https://lamasuryadasmarried.wordpress.com/2016/04/28/a-spirit-of-reverence-provided-by-lama-surya-das-with-entire-credit-to-john-blofeld/
Given that Buddhism arrived in the West, inevitably some individuals have felt, “Zazen is nice, consideration is nice, self-discipline is good, why all this bowing as well as incense? To whom do you offer incense and also flowers?” To this all the Buddhists of the past and all Asian ?Buddhists nowadays will answer with one voice: “Dear friends, a spirit of reverence is very important to successful practice. Without them, enlightenment cannot be attained!”
Prostrations and also offerings are usually admittedly just forms-just an individual's way of articulating what cats express by rubbing themselves against a beloved person’s legs. If it were natural for individuals to stand on their own heads or maybe stick out their rumps to convey reverence, then Buddhists would certainly stand on their heads as well as stick out their rumps as a matter of course. Kinds do not matter on their own, however the attitude of mind represented by prostrations and so forth is of fantastic significance to followers of the Way.
My Tibetan lama informed me at a very initial phase of my training: “Ignorant people follow the attitude of subject to king before a Buddha statue. Higher-level practice is conducted fully inside the brain. Yet even if you reach the highest possible level-hard certainly to achieve in one lifetime-you ought to every day alternate formless, wordless, above-conceptual exercise with bowing down as well as making offerings. Under no circumstances fail in that.” My Chinese Chan (Zen) mentor told me: “In between your rounds of meditation, practice bowing, giving incense, and making circumambulations. In case you have no spirit of reverence, no feeling of amazement for all that lies beyond the constraints of that miserably circumscribed illusion you suppose to be your ‘me,’ you'll make simply no advancement. Why? Simply because when your practice increases, you may reflect: ‘I did better inside my meditation just now’ and by so pondering fall back to the lowest level of ignorance as a result of the particular consequent inflation of one's devilish ‘I’!”
Those Zen monks who said, “Meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha” as well as endorsed using Buddha figures as firewood and so on were talking not to Americans or even to new Buddhists but to Chinese as well as Japanese Zen followers that could be counted upon to comprehend the meaning of such recommendations, that really amounted to this: “Never for one minute suppose that veneration of sutras or even images is of much use in itself, so don’t let it switch the rest of your current practice, as uninformed people usually do.” I doubt if it ever entered those monks’ minds that one day there'd be people in the world who'd consider these powerful (and also hilarious) injunctions literally!
If it is wrong to have as well as symbolize perceptions of reverence, awe, as well as gratitude by prostrations along with offerings, then almost all Buddhists have been wrong ever since the dharma was initially preached in this latest kalpa 2,500 plus much more years ago. Would it be possible that those hundreds of millions of individuals at all levels of dedication to the practice we so greatly value included no single man or woman of correct understanding until Buddhism reached America?
Article Source - https://lamasuryadasmarried.wordpress.com/2016/04/28/a-spirit-of-reverence-provided-by-lama-surya-das-with-entire-credit-to-john-blofeld/