The mind-mirror is clear, so there are no obstacles.
Its brilliance illuminates the universe
to the depths and in every grain of sand.
Multitudinous things of the cosmos
Are all reflected in the mind,
And thus full clarity is beyond inner and outer. ...Mind is the base, phenomena are dust,
Yet both are like a flaw in the mirror.
When the flaw is brushed aside,
The light begins to shine.
When both mind and phenomena are forgotten,
Then we become naturally genuine.Being is not being, non-being is not non-being,
Miss this rule by a hair,
And you are off by a thousand miles.
Understanding it, the dragon-child abruptly attains buddhahood;
Misunderstanding it, the greatest scholar falls into hell.When we see truly, there is nothing at all.
There is no person, there is no Buddha.
Innumerable things of the universe
Are just bubbles on the sea.
Wise sages are all like flashes of lightening.
(Translation, Green Gulch Farm <Zen Center>)
| 1.0000 | Psychological Methodology |
|---|---|
| 1.0010 | A methodology is "a body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline: a particular procedure or set of procedures." Woolf) |
| 1.0011 | A method is "a procedure or process for attaining an object: as a systematic procedure, technique, or mode of inquiry employed by or proper to a particular discipline or art." (Ibid.) |
| 1.0012 | A rule is "a regulation or bylaw governing procedure or controlling conduct." (Ibid.) |
| 1.0013 | A postulate is "a hypothesis advanced as an essential presupposition, condition, or premise of a train of reasoning." (Ibid.) |
| 1.0020 | Methods conceptually format the mind operating through the brain and central nervous system. Methods are attempts to better grasp and understand a qualitative reality that only quantifies in demonstrable human behavior. As such, what they do not include of other methodologies is their limitation. Yet, because of this, some humans give them credence in the first place. |
| 1.0021 | Methods tend toward a state of stagnation. Stagnation is a place of perfect and undiscriminating impasse. |
| 1.0030 | In terms of a whole view of mind, the human race currently holds many divergent views. From within the domain of psychoanalytic psychology, we could say that the human race's concept of mind is schizophrenic. |
| 1.0040 | When discussing the following psychological methodologies the writer does not intend to exhaust the subject. The writer does intend each discussion to be complete and thus impart to you, the reader, a general whole concept for your reference. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.1000 | Behaviorism |
| 1.1100 | The Method of Behaviorism |
| 1.1110 | The basic method of behaviorism is to observe the behavior. By behavior we mean demonstrable behavior, behavior that one can perceive, usually see. |
| 1.1120 | The purpose of the observation is to gather data, a base line of behavior counts. How many times within this time frame did the agent carry out this specific behavior? |
| 1.1130 | The purpose of gathering data and forming a base line is to be able to measure or record behavior changes during and after an intervention technique. |
| 1.1140 | An intervention technique may be a reward (i.e., positive reinforcement) or a punishment (i.e., negative reinforcement). |
| 1.1150 | The purpose of the intervention is to change the client's behavior from what it now is to something else (hopefully) more appropriate. |
| 1.1151 | Let us understand that the appropriateness of the new behavior rests in the mind of the person modifying the client's behavior. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.1200 | The Rules of Behaviorism |
| 1.1210 | If a human being experiences a reward for executing a behavior, then s/he will most likely repeat that behavior. |
| 1.1220 | If a human being experiences a punishment for executing a behavior, then s/he will most likely not repeat that behavior. |
| 1.1230 | If a human being experiences neither a reward (pleasure) nor a punishment (pain) when executing a behavior, then s/he will most likely extinguish that behavior. |
| 1.1240 | When a behavior is being modified (changed), its incidence will usually increase upon application of the intervention. It will peak, then change in the desired direction. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.1300 | The Postulates of Behaviorism |
| 1.1310 | Human beings are basically bio-chemical units that respond in a stimulus-response pattern. |
| 1.1320 | All other behaviors ("mental," "emotional," and the like) beside those that are explicitly demonstrable are not the subject of psychology. |
| 1.1321 | Such behaviors belong in the "black box" along with epistemological questions, topics related to consciousness, conscience, awareness, and emotion. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.2000 | Freudianism (Psycho-analytic) |
| 1.2001 | The psycho-analytic school is quite extensive and some consider it to be complex. There are currents and cross currents, tides, and even a few quiet pools. We can juxtapose Freud's ideas with Jung's. Both of these we can place in contradistinction with Adler's and so on. Yet, each of these and others hold to the same general basic model we shall take a look at here. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.2100 | The Method of Freudianism |
| 1.2110 | The method of Freudianism we call "free association." |
| 1.2111 | This technique lets the person talk about whatever comes to mind while laying down or sitting quietly (depending upon the therapist's bias). |
| 1.2120 | The purpose of this free associating is to let the person dwell in memories of his/her past, to make connections to allow for a clearer understanding of his/her inadequate coping mechanisms. |
| 1.2121 | The patient works through basic traumas encountered by less then healthy former interactions with one's parents, usually the mother or mother figure. |
| 1.2130 | The intended result of making the right connections is catharsis, an emotional release of held back, pent-up rage at some (real or imagined) injustice inflicted upon the individual at some earlier moment. |
| 1.2131 | Once the person reaches catharsis (and please do not imagine that there is only one — there need be many over a long period of time, i.e., years) and relives the experience, then s/he is able to live an emotionally free and healthy responsive existence. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.2200 | The Rules of Freudianism |
| 1.2210 | Most human behavior originates in the unconscious, a global term for all that a human is unaware going on inside the head. |
| 1.2220 | Much of what a human does today is in response to unexpressed rage or anger inhibited at an earlier, usually infantile stage. |
| 1.2230 | This unconscious rage finds an outlet, if not in demonstrable behavior, then in the dream behavior of the human. |
| 1.2240 | The above implies that little of what a human being does is rational, even if the performer of the action so labels the doing. Every action has a cause and the cause is more often than not unconscious. |
| 1.2250 | Humans are like animals in that both have aggression and sexual urges as the basic and primary instinctual drives that predicate behavior. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.2300 | The Postulates of Freudianism |
| 1.2310 | The human psyche has three major components: |
| 1.2311 | The Ego is the mediator between the other two. We could say that Ego acts like an "adult." |
| 1.2312 | The Superego is the conscience that is telling the Ego to do or not to do. The human learns this from the environment, usually parents. |
| 1.2313 | The Id is a hotbed of uncontrollable impulses and drives. Some of these impulses are pleasure oriented and their locus is known as the Libido. Other impulses are pain oriented and their locus is known as the Mortido. |
| 1.2320 | A new born human is nearly pure Id, with a Superego developing right after birth by the environment saying, "NO!" to Id-imbued infant. |
| 1.2330 | The Ego develops in response to the battle being waged between the Superego and the Id. |
| 1.2340 | Death (mortido) instincts motivate humans more than the pleasure (libido) instincts. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.3000 | Humanism/Existentialism |
| 1.3001 | Humanism and Existentialism came to be in response to the machine model of Behaviorism and the impulse model of Freudianism. It was an attempt to humanize — bring a human heart, let us say — to the human situation in the here and now, the existential moment. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.3100 | The Method of Humanism/Existentialism |
| 1.3110 | To tune the human being to the present here and now situation means letting the person feel the past s/he is carrying into the present. |
| 1.3111 | To let the person feel the past means showing the person how to use the present moment as the sum totality of the person's entire existence. The past is not past, it is right here, right now — in the body, how it responds and feels right now; — in the imagination, how it creates images of what it thinks is past right here and now. |
| 1.3120 | To let the human person experience totally whatever s/he is experiencing right now and to let the human person express that experience in any manner (save destructive to one's own self, another, or the environment) whatsoever. |
| 1.3130 | As a human being gives total expression to the immediate experience, s/he is free of any restraints that have been hindering full self-expression. |
| 1.3131 | The human being evolves ever increasing domains of true, that is congruent, expression. What the person does is in accord with what the person is thinking/feeling. The outside and the inside become one expression. The human person is free to be as s/he is here and now. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.3200 | The Rules of Humanism/Existentialism |
| 1.3201 | To cite rules in this category is contrary to the spirit of Humanism/Existentialism. Please interpret these rules, therefore, loosely. |
| 1.3210 | The human being has inherent value that surpasses any value or worth in any other material thing. |
| 1.3220 | The human being is inherently free to be as s/he is, even though s/he might consider the opposite as true. |
| 1.3230 | The here and now moment is actually all that is real. |
| 1.3240 | In actuality, there are no rules except, perhaps, the rule established by the reality of the moment (and this "rule" could well be found in 1.6420, The Zen Mode). |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.3300 | The Postulates of Humanism/Existentialism |
| 1.3301 | If you notice a similarity between the above section on rules and this one on postulates, we are thinking in a similar mode. |
| 1.3310 | The past and the future are present right now, in this existential moment. |
| 1.3320 | Depression grounds in a past we are experiencing in the present, representing unexpressed anger or similar emotion we did not fully express then. |
| 1.3330 | Anxiety grounds in a future we are experiencing in the present, representing an unexpressed fear or similar emotion we do not fully let into our awareness. |
| 1.3340 | The more a human being is aware of his or her reality in the here and now moment, then the more present s/he is to not only his or her own reality, the reality of the moment, but also the content (i.e., others, etc.) of that reality as well. |
| 1.3350 | In sum, the only reality is our reality in the phenomenal realm with others here and now. |
| 1.3351 | All else is fantasy. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.4000 | Transpersonalism |
| 1.4001 | Whereas Humanism/Existentialism came to be in response to Behaviorism and the Psycho-analytic schools, Transpersonal schools emerged from the existential movement. Time to the human being was no longer an issue. We have subsumed the past and the future into the present. With a gentle nudge from Physics, the present became equally manageable. The present entered into its reality as a mental construct. What was left? Now. |
| 1.4002 | Now in the now, the human being found the ego existing only in time. As with time, it, too, became a mental construct. There was another reality "behind" the ego, which the ego had masked. Getting across the ego is the task of the transpersonal psychologies. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.4100 | The Method of Transpersonalism |
| 1.4110 | The basic and essential method to realize reality behind one's ego is to "raise" one's consciousness. |
| 1.4120 | Language, as we know it, tends to distort concepts, thoughts, and feelings. Sometimes, poetic language or the language of music can best transfer or transmit the clarity of the reality we want to express. Saying this, we might cite meditation, the non-use of language, as the easiest method to "raise" one's consciousness. |
| 1.4121 | When we use the term "raise," we are not implying "up." What we are implying is movement. This movement is neither away from nor toward. The ego moves thus. The reality "other-than-ego" moves without direction because there is no direction. We are speaking about a pure ontological reality. It has not place, it is place. It moves as air moves in a lung or as a feather "falls" in a vacuum. |
| 1.4130 | There are many ways to meditate. Some of these "ways" we shall be looking at in the course of these various sections. Meditation involves breathing, that is, conscious breathing. Sitting quietly, paying attention to one's breathing from the lower belly area, counting on either the inhale or exhale one, two, three, one, two, three, a human being quiets the whole psycho-physical system. |
| 1.4140 | Within a while, the our mind settles. The settling process involves the our getting in touch with the dynamics of mind. We learn to readily listen to thoughts, thought patterns, to recognize thought matrices while remaining attuned to our emotional state. |
| 1.4150 | We come to experience self as not being our mind. We know this unconditionally, experiencing self as the space within which mind occurs. |
| 1.4151 | We "see" through the mind and the manifestation of mind: thoughts, feelings, body, our general experience. |
| 1.4160 | Within the process, we readily know ourself as one with all that is and is not, without difference or distinction. All is one. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.4200 | The Rules of Transpersonalism |
| 1.4210 | The result of transpersonal psychology is not adjustment to the contemporary culture, but rather the continuing experience of liberation or enlightenment. |
| 1.4220 | Transpersonal psychology deals with issues of value and meaning in one's human life as an essential aspect of the living/therapeutic process. |
| 1.4230 | "'Know thyself, transcend defenses, transferences, projections, and even beliefs, and attain the station of one who has outgrown the need for such childish things, as the great human beings of all times and places have done!'" (Boorstein, 3) |
| 1.4240 | In the Kalamas Sutra, we encounter a summation of possible rules for transpersonal psychology: "Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations; do not believe anything because it is rumored and spoken of by many; do not believe merely because the written statement of some old sage is produced; do not believe in conjectures; do not believe merely in the authority of your teachers and elders. After observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and it is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." (Ibid., 5) |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.4300 | The Postulates of Transpersonalism |
| 1.4310 | The order of the universe manifests itself in one's own being human as well as in one's experience of being human. |
| 1.4320 | Being aware that one is in fact aware even when one apparently is not aware is the key to being conscious. |
| 1.4330 | Know the part, know the whole. The part is the whole. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Conversely, the whole is the part. |
| 1.4331 | Knowing does not imply having knowledge of. To know is a function of being. To have knowledge of is a function of mind. Transpersonal psychologies deal with functions of being and use functions of mind to realize human beings' "true" being. |
| 1.4340 | Once one is conscious of one's own consciousness, then the human being is responsible for the reality of one's consciousness. |
| 1.4350 | Once one is responsible, then the human being knows the order of one's own being. Knowing the order of one's being, the human being expresses integrity, wholeness. |
| 1.4351 | Thus, the human being demonstrates responsible integrity. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.5000 | Metapersonalism |
| 1.5001 | Out of Transpersonalism has evolved the metapersonal psychologies. Having gotten across the ego to a place with-out position, fully responsible with complete integrity, now what? |
| 1.5002 | As with movement in Transpersonalism not going anywhere, so too, in this instance, there is no actual "beyond." In actuality, there is no nowhere but now here. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.5100 | The Method of Metapersonalism |
| 1.5110 | There are several methods, some being "advanced" forms of transpersonal meditations. Essential to each of these methods is the quality of presence the human being naturally maintains with high levels of consistency. |
| 1.5120 | To be present means "to be before one" (L. praesens/praeesse). How to be present involves habitually being aware that one is always in front of one's own self manifested in the moment in one's total environment. Whatever is in one's environment is the manifestation of one's true self. |
| 1.5130 | The bridge of transpersonal psychology leads to the absolute grounding of one's being in the here and now, being unconditionally responsible for the integrity of the moment. The method of metapersonal psychology is sensing the total reality of one's experience as the manifestation of one's own being. |
| 1.5140 | The method is knowing (cf. 1.4121) this present reality, here and now is it. "This is it!" |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.5200 | The Rules of Metapersonalism |
| 1.5201 | The Rules of Metapersonalism are similar to those of phenomenology. The pervading difference between the two being the intention. The intention of phenomenology is to know the phenomenon as it is in itself (acknowledging the subjectivity of the moment to enhance objectivity). The intention of metapersonal psychology is to remain present to one self as the space within which supposed objective reality exists. |
| 1.5210 | The first and truly only rule of metapersonal psychology is to bracket in one's conscious awareness all of one's thoughts, feelings, emotions, bodily sensations. |
| 1.5211 | This bracketing ability we can perfect through the process, practice, and method of meditation. |
| 1.5220 | Once we have bracketed, we consciously, with full intention, absorb the reality of the moment as it is — before we even need to bracket judgements as they naturally form in the process. |
| 1.5221 | Note the second bracketing function. |
| 1.5230 | We now consciously absorb the total absorption process. The total reality of the moment we have not so much internalized, as a function of mind, but rather we have integrated and synthesized it, as a function of being. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.5300 | The Postulates of Metapersonalism |
| 1.5301 | The postulates of metapersonal psychology are similar to those of contemporary physics. The difference between the two lies in our understanding of phenomena they address. Physics addresses the perceived reality of the phenomenal world. Metapersonal psychology addresses the known reality of the phenomenal world. Perception is a function of mind; knowing, a function of being. |
| 1.5310 | There is totality and this totality we have labeled energy. |
| 1.5320 | Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It simply is. |
| 1.5330 | Energy cannot be divided. It individuates by a process labeled transformation: The Transformation of Matter and Energy. |
| 1.5340 | All human-made things once existed as a thought in the inventor's mind before first finding expression on a drawing board, such as the Golden Gate Bridge. So too all things that exist that are not human-made, as the birds, flowers, and trees or the Earth, the Solar System, our universe and all other parallel universes exist first in mind, the activity of energy. |
| 1.5341 | Remember, energy remains one. Energy is energy. The individuation, although very real in one sense, is essentially the same in every other. Thus, do all things and all non-things share in the same reality and are one, interconnected whole that makes-up being. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.6000 | Chinese Modes |
| 1.6010 | In the above sections we spoke of a thread in Western Psychology in terms of method, rule, and postulate. Methods, rules, and postulates exists in the Chinese modes as well. The meaning given to a method, a rule, or a postulate, though, oriental systems structure differently than the occidental systems. |
| 1.6011 | The occidental intention is usually to provide a structure to work from within to achieve an end. |
| 1.6012 | The oriental intention is usually to provide a form to work with to achieve an end. |
| 1.6013 | Structure connotes what to do. Form connotes how to do it. |
| 1.6020 | Thus, our discussion of Buddhism assumes the intention of form rather than structure, a process rather than a prescription. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.6100 | The Basic Buddhist Mode |
| 1.6110 | The basic Buddhist Mode we find in Buddha's Eight Fold Path. The Eightfold Path Buddha derived from the Four Nobel Truths. This is not a method, but rather an observation on how to resolve human suffering. When humans become involved in methods, according to this observation, they invite suffering. A method, in this system, implies getting something external to one's own being. |
| 1.6120 | Buddha's Four Nobel Truths: |
| 1.6121 | Misery or Suffering make up human existence. |
| 1.6122 | The cause of suffering is desire ever renewed by gaining personal satisfaction which, by definition, one can never secure. |
| 1.6123 | In order to remove suffering, the human being must destroy desire and estrange oneself from it. |
| 1.6124 | The means of removing desire we find in the Eight-fold Path. |
| 1.6130 | Buddha's Eight Fold Path: |
| 1.6131 | Right Belief |
| 1.6132 | Right Thought |
| 1.6133 | Right Speech |
| 1.6134 | Right Action |
| 1.6135 | Right Means of Livelihood |
| 1.6136 | Right Exertion |
| 1.6137 | Right Remembrance |
| 1.6138 | Right Meditation, the development of the Buddha-like faculty latent in every human being. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.6200 | The Essence of Buddhism |
| 1.6201 | Buddha, as it is written, gave the following to describe what his teaching is all about:
To cease from all sin |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.6300 | Principles of Buddhism Humphreys): |
| 1.6301 | The immediate task of every human being is self-salvation. If a poisoned arrow wounds a human being, he would not dwell upon who shot or made the arrow. He would rather extract it from his body first to keep the poison from reaching his heart. Live life as it is, learning by direct, personal experience. |
| 1.6302 | The elemental fact of all existence is the Law of Impermanence or Change. All things go through some variation of the same process of birth, growth, decay, and death. Life only is continuous. It constantly seeks self-expression in new forms. "Life is a bridge; therefore build no houses on it." Because life is a process, the human being who clings to any form of life, suffers by resisting the flow. |
| 1.6303 | The Law of Change applies equally to what we would usually call the soul. In Buddhism there is no one individual principal of being that is individual, immortal, and unchanging. There is only "Namelessness," the Ultimate Reality, the principle that is beyond change. All else is a manifestation of this Reality, including what we label human life. A human being does not own life flowing through him or her anymore than the air respirating his or her body. |
| 1.6304 | The universe is nothing more than the expression of law. Every cause has an effect. A human being's soul or character is nothing more than the sum totality of his or her past actions (thoughts, feelings, behaviors). This law we have labeled Karma, which means action-reaction. Karma underlies all existence. The human being is the sole originator of his/her circumstances and situation. The way the human being responds to the situation or circumstance governs future conditions as well as final des- tiny. A human being can gradually purify his or her inner nature by right thought and action. Thus, by self-realization, s/he attains in time liberation from rebirth. This process involves long periods of time, several — if not many — lifetimes. Ultimately, every life form reaches enlightenment. |
| 1.6305 | Though life's ever changing forms are innumerable and perishable, life itself is indivisible and one. Even though every form must die, there is, in truth, no death. As a human being realizes the inherent unity of life, s/he develops an ever increasing sense of compassion, a sense of identifying with life in all other forms. Buddhism describes compassion as "The Law of Laws — Eternal Harmony." The human being who breaks this law suffers accordingly, delaying enlightenment. |
| 1.6306 | Life is one. This being so, Buddha taught that the interests of the part should be those of the whole. From a human being's ignorance, s/he thinks s/he can successfully strive for one's own interests. What s/he produces, instead, is suffering. Thus, the Four Nobel Truths and the Eight Fold Path. |
| 1.6307 | The purpose of human life is to attain enlightenment. Enlightenment is nothing more than a state of consciousness. This is a state of consciousness wherein one experiences the extinction of the limitations of self-hood. This state of consciousness potentially exists in all forms. What we need do is to "Look within, thou art Buddha." |
| 1.6308 | We attain enlightenment by following the Middle Way expressed in the Eight Fold Path. This path is a process of self-development between opposites, avoiding all extremes. The whole human being, not just the best part of him or her (or what s/he considers to be the best part), s/he must develop equally. |
| 1.6309 | Buddha put great stress on our need for internal concentration and meditation. Buddha taught that we ought not attach ourself to the passing show of the phenomenal realm. Instead, we are to maintain a mindful and self-possessed predisposition at all times, refraining from emotional attachment. As we become increasingly watchful of our attitude, response or reaction, to circumstances, which we know to be our own creation, we gain ever increasing control of our actual response. |
| 1.6310 | Buddha taught, "Work out your own salvation with diligence." The only truth is the intuition of the individual. This intuition is authority for the individual alone. Every human being suffers the consequences of his or her own actions. We learn, thereby, while helping others to realize the same deliverance. Buddhist monks and teachers are only exemplars. They are not intermediaries between Reality and the individual. Buddha taught the utmost tolerance for all religions and philosophies. No one human being has the right to interfere in his/her brother's or sis-ter's journey to God. |
| 1.63211 | Buddhism is not pessimistic or escapist. It does not deny the existence of God or the soul, but it does give these terms its own meaning. It is more of a system of thought expressing a reality behind thought. It posits each and every human being as the creator of his or her own present life and the sole designer of his or her destiny. |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.6400 | Zen Buddhist Mode |
| 1.6401 | Buddhism as expressed above can be applied equally to Zen. The basic conceptual model of Buddhism is the same for any of the particular schools. What changes from school to school is the application of meditation techniques. |
| 1.6410 | Zen practice centers on a small, round, usually, black pillow. On it we sit still, without moving, in lotus position (or other appropriate cross-legged position) facing a black wall. This practice we label zazen. |
| 1.6411 | We can note that whatever we write about Zen is not Zen. |
| 1.6412 | There is a particular manner of sitting in zazen. This manner involves placing one's conscious attention upon one's breathing, sitting with an erect spine, eyes unfocused slightly open cast at about a 45 degree angle down-ward. |
| 1.6413 | The foundation of Zen is kensho, seeing into one's own true nature. To facilitate kensho is the Zen Koan. A Koan is a brief story or statement that the student ponders in order to realize further his or her own true nature. The Sanskrit term for knowing one's own true nature is Dharmakaya. Some koans are:
"A monk asked Kassan Osho: 'What is the Dharmakaya?'
|
| 1.6420 | A discussion of Zen would be incomplete without mention of Mu. In addition to the koans, a Zen student sits still working on Mu. Mu translates into English as no-thing. |
| 1.6421 | To best render a sense of Mu, we can read from sections of the Maha Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra:
"O Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness; |
| Return to Index | |
| 1.6500 | Tibetan Buddhist Mode |
| 1.6501 | As we noted under Zen, so too with Tibetan Buddhism. The content remains generally the same. The method is unique to the particular mode. |
| 1.6510 | Tibetan meditation involves sitting in a lotus posture. We pay attention to breathing. In consciousness, we project an image of Buddha and maintain this image to the exclusion of all other images (thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations) |
| 1.6511 | To exclude from consciousness all but the image of Buddha, we do not hold onto any one experience, but go with the flow. We make friends with whatever is happening. We remain alert and mindful. After a while, we experience greater clarity and awareness with a sensible awareness of great space. |
| 1.6512 | We become consciously of whatever we may be experiencing, even the experience of not wanting to continue the experience or any physical pain that we may encounter. |
| 1.6513 | We learn to be one with experience and the supposed dualism between self and experience disappears into the absolute unity of the moment. |
| 1.6520 | No discussion of Tibetan Buddhism would be complete without a mention of the mantra of Tibetan Buddhism, Om Mani Padme Hum. To render an understanding of this mantra we paraphrase an excerpt from a Tibetan meditation text about Avalokitesvara, the Compassionate Buddha. This text describes six symbols in relation to the phenomenal world. Lauf |
| Om mani padme hum: | The white syllable OM appears in the world of the gods to enlighten the suffering of becoming and passing away caused by pride. May the true wisdom of equality be perfected. We call upon the lord of great compassion. |
| Om mani padme hum: | The green syllable of MA appears in the world of the titans to enlighten the suffering of struggle and strife caused by envy. May the true wisdom of the words be perfected. We call upon the lord of great compassion! |
| Om mani padme hum: | The yellow syllable NI appears in the world of human beings in order to enlighten suffering born of fainthearted doubt. May the true and spontaneously-originated wisdom be perfected. We call upon the lord of great compassion! |
| Om mani padme hum: | The blue syllable PAD appears in the world of animals to enlighten the suffering of animal stupidity caused by ignorance. May the true dharma-dhatu wisdom be perfected. We call upon the lord of great compassion! |
| Om mani padme hum: | The red syllable ME appears in the world of the pretas to enlighten the suffering of hunger and thirst born of the passions. May the true wisdom of discriminating clear sight be perfected. We call upon the lord of great compassion! |
| Om mani padme hum: | The blue-black syllable HUM appears in the world of hell to enlighten the suffering of heat and cold born of hate. May the true wisdom of the mirror be perfected. We call upon the lord of great compassion. |
| Return to Index |
| 1.6600 | We conclude our brief look at Buddhism with a metta, a compassionate remembrance , that expresses the essence of all forms of Buddhism.
"May all beings be happy and at their ease, |
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White Robed Monks of St. Benedict