All Paths lead....

[Tai Shi]

I began simple explanation that for me Zen was exemplified especially with the simple Rakusu given to me by my wife. I have on certain occasions when I traveled used my beautiful Rakusu my wife purchased in Kyoto when she visited our daughter in Date, Hokkaido four years ago, and the two women traveled to Kyoto (was it on the Bullet Train?) because of the City's beauty. I believe they visited the primary seat of Soto Zen, name escapes me? My wife entered a "religious" store in Kyoto, and there purchased a beautiful Rakusu of a silk two to three inch Rakusu for me as a gift from this beautiful country. Then I explained to brother and lady friend that I had been practicing Zen Buddhism for five years, and that it had helped change and fashion certain attitudes which allowed me to appreciate my brother and his friend to the fullest. They have been together for more than eight years. There was no discussion. They simply accepted who I am. My brother and I have sometimes been at odds over the past fifty years, and with this three day visit which I made on the bus to his home just outside the capitol of Iowa, Des Moines, by bus, a distance of about 350 miles, he accepted me for who and what I am, and I did explain that the most important part of my practice was Zen sitting, and that I wore this simple Rakusu made in a monastery somewhere in Kyoto when I sat Zazen, this without going into too much detail, and all seemed good and accepted.

Tai Shi
sat/lah
Gassho

[Kyōsen]

I find it so interesting to see this topic come up after I came across an explanation of how one is supposed to understand the context of certain teachings given in Tibetan Buddhism:

... when they say, "Say this mantra one time and you’ll never be born in the lower realms….” That’s not true, because if it were true there would be no need for the Buddha to have given 84,000 other teachings. All he would have taught is this one mantra and that’s it. But it’s something that encourages people to recite the mantra, and to develop faith and confidence by imagining that particular deity, and so forth. We just have the tendency to take everything literally. That’s how we were taught in our culture. In Tibetan culture, and Asian culture in general, things are not taken so literally.

I see the wisdom in this and it's something that we practice when we chant the Heart Sutra when we chant about the "incomparable mantra" or the "supreme mantra". If it were literally that, there would be no need to practice even prajna paramita or zazen - we should just have to chant the mantra and we'd be perfectly liberated! Thus, I think we're to understand that such statements are meant to encourage us to practice with our whole hearts as though that is the only practice. We know that, rationally, there are other practices, but when we're in the midst of doing a practice we should do it with everything we are. Thus, that practice becomes the supreme practice.

Gassho
Sen
Sat|LAH

[Stewart]

The Western cultural mindset (or at least the liberal version) seems deeply wedded to the idea of equality and I have no issue with that at all - it is a good thing. But, it is a cultural phenomena and quite a recent one. All roads do not lead to (God / gods / whatever) as, someone above noted, there are some roads that lead no where very nice at all. As gay man who has been part of a fairly fundamentalist Christian community - they are loving and supportive and caring and deeply committed and can still cause terrible harm to individuals. I survived my exorcism fairly undamaged but I've known others who have nightmares and can wake up crying in the night as adults. All paths are not equal and some lead to self destruction.

[Jundo]

... when they say, "Say this mantra one time and you’ll never be born in the lower realms….” That’s not true, because if it were true there would be no need for the Buddha to have given 84,000 other teachings. All he would have taught is this one mantra and that’s it. But it’s something that encourages people to recite the mantra, and to develop faith and confidence by imagining that particular deity, and so forth. We just have the tendency to take everything literally. That’s how we were taught in our culture. In Tibetan culture, and Asian culture in general, things are not taken so literally.

If one truly recites the mantra one time ... or sits Zazen one time ... knowing deep in the bones that there is no other time, no place to go, nothing lacking ... then one cannot be born in any lower realm, and one is already the realm that is where one would wish to be.

In fact, one has always been in such realm.

Getting up from sitting ... or quitting the chanting ... we just tend to forget where we are.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jakuden]

The Western cultural mindset (or at least the liberal version) seems deeply wedded to the idea of equality and I have no issue with that at all - it is a good thing. But, it is a cultural phenomena and quite a recent one. All roads do not lead to (God / gods / whatever) as, someone above noted, there are some roads that lead no where very nice at all. As gay man who has been part of a fairly fundamentalist Christian community - they are loving and supportive and caring and deeply committed and can still cause terrible harm to individuals. I survived my exorcism fairly undamaged but I've known others who have nightmares and can wake up crying in the night as adults. All paths are not equal and some lead to self destruction.

Sorry to hear about such suffering Stewart, and I can see the truth of it in my own experiences, attempting to shield my kids from similar harm. I don't think that means Christianity is not a path up the mountain, but that some folks trying to follow that path get lost and wander into the woods. I doubt they will find the peace they truly seek.

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH

[Tai Shi]

Stewart I go to a Unitarian Universalist Church sometimes we speak of the Buddha I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in. The Dharma, I take refuge in the Sangha and after five years I get this[emoji120] and sometimes we speak of Walt Whitman[emoji108] and sometimes we speak of Elerson[emoji115]both of these men I sing of myself and what I shall assume yo shall assume, all of nature is alive, and sometimes we speak of Moses, thou shalt not kill, and sometimes we speak of Jesus Love one another, look my friend the great truths are within. I myself am bisexual and I have a wife (woman) and a beautiful daughter and when I was in college I had a great male friend, I love my little family with all my heart, and gay people are celebrated in my church! Go figure? Life is within! Life is without!
Tai Shi
sat/lah
Gassho


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[Byrne]

All these different traditions are different methods for self inquiring and understanding on the subtlest level. How we direct our attention is very important. You can’t fully entrust in Jesus if you can’t decide whether it’s “better” to entrust in him or Krishna. You can’t sit zazen if every time you sit down you change from zazen to vipassana to Kriya to some new age method etc.

Personally I think they are all coming from the same source in the most general sense. But knowing the similarities does not replace proper practice. Establishing a solid practice within any tradition is the only way to really understand the importance of practice. Human beings are diverse. There are diverse methods. How we come to the method that suits us best is a deeply personal decision that requires right effort.

Gassho

Sat Today

[Tai Shi]

I know now that I am agnostic and sometimes even atheist, an the moods come and go and as I look back from a vantage point of age 68, I see no God, and Jesus the man who believed universal love was the best way, and the Buddha who was a man who believed because we are flesh that passes back to earth, we must have compassion on our neighbors and the earth, and Copernicus who said of the western world the Earth is round, and Jews who believed. Moses brought down a list of things to better life, and Mohamed who believe prophecy foretold of good things and the good in all.
And Theravada that placed supreme possibilities
And Mahayana that believed in mortality
And as TS Eliot wrote
All shall be well,
And All things shall be well,
And the peace that passes all understanding
Shall be well
And all shall be well.

Tai shi
sat
Gassho