Dear Alex,
Thank-you for taking the time to so thoroughly elucidate your offering. I think it is
very
helpful to all of us here on the list.
I agree that there are a number of sweetness and light practitioners around, but in my
experience they either quit when life throws them another curve ball, or get serious
and
begin the natural, unforced process of examination. For me there is a difference
between
critical intelligence and just being critical.
As for those who doggedly persist in bliss, light and warm fuzzies, I just figure
they've
heard the Dharma, and the next time through maybe they'll have conditions that won't
necessitate such heavy sedation to get through life. Generally I find that these
people
have experienced too much suffering already to go beating on them for their style of
practice.
The Buddha's teaching reflect very differently in your heart than they do in mine.
The teaching of being one's own light was given to Ananda as the Buddha was dying.
Ananda, who had been Buddha's attendent for over 20 years, lost his mind when he
realized his friend was dying:
"Lord, my body is like a drunkard's. I lost my bearings and things were unclear to me
because of the Lord's sickness...."
"Ananda, I am now old, worn out, venerable, one who has traversed life's path, I have
reached the term of life, which is eighty. Just as an old cart is made to go by being
held
together with straps, so the Tathagatha's body is kept going by being strapped up. It
is
only when the Tathagatha withdraws his attention from outward signs, and by the
cessation of certain feelings, enters into the signless concentration of mind, that
his
body knows comfort.
"Therefore, Ananda, you should live as islands unto yourselves, being your own refuge,
with no one else as your refuge, with the Dhamma as an island, with the Dhamma as
your refuge, with no other refuge. And how does a monk live as an island unto
himself,...
with no other refuge? Here, Ananda, a monk abides contemplating the body as body,
earnestly, clearly aware, mindful and having put away all hankering and fretting for
the
world, and likewise with regard to feelings, mind and mind-objects. That, Ananda, is
how a monk lives as an island unto himself,... with no other refuge. And those who now
in my time or afterwards live thus, they will become the highest, if they are desirous
of
learning."
Mahaparinibbana Sutra, The Long Discourses of the Buddha
To me this says something very different from you don't need a teacher. Ananda's mind
and body were disturbed because he took refuge in an impermanent object, the
Buddha's body. My teacher's have always told me the only true refuge is my own
realizations of the Dharma. And that is consistent with what Buddha is saying here.
Just
as I would seek an experienced guide going into an unfamiliar jungle, I seek an
experienced practitioner to show me the dangers and beauties of this journey. Although
I follow the guide, it's my own feet that must carry me.
Those of us who have teachers will face this same moment. My teacher is elderly,
though
healthy. I give devotion to her because she embodies the Dharmakaya, and practice
constantly to not be attached to her form. It is impermanent. I am lucky; her form
reminds me of this whereas a younger teacher has the appearance of lasting. And yet
younger teachers can die in an instant. The conditions for death are many, the
conditions for life are few. The devotion I offer is not mindless or witless, you'll
just have
to take my word for it. Because this devotion is full of intelligence, my framework is
regularly rocked by her expression of the teachings. The dull cannot see what is
clearly
before them.
Buddha himself studied with teachers, Ananda was his student, they lived in a
community of teachers and teaching. It's necessary and wholesome.
Even if one were to interpret the above as saying go it on your own, the Buddha's
words
do not suggest critical thinking as the practice. Depending on the source, it's either
the
four Mindfulnesses or the Precepts. These do not exclude critical thinking, and they
are
much more than mere thinking.
I do not think (quite critically) you and I walk the same path, and I have no desire
to try
yours.
Gassho,
Ryunen
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