God in Buddhism

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

As someone who is always trying to understand things, I could go on and on about theories. I think about the fact that matter behaves differently if an observer is present. Imagine what matter does if the supreme observer is present....is the source so developed in awareness and intelligence than it is making all matter and energy behave how it wills? Then remember in the book Journey Of Souls, what we do between lives is learn how to work with energies, how to create with energies. What are we really doing in this animal body? Seems to me learning to work with energies, that happen to be in a physical form here in this physical space. We put our attention on thoughts, and draw the energy of thought onto ourselves.

It's one thing for a scientist to say matter changes it's behavior when an observer is present.... but then so many questions come to mind. Can I, an observer, make that matter do what I want? Can I control it, affect it? Then some other little gems we know now, every particle of matter is in several places at the same time and distance seems to not be a factor at all.

It's pretty mind boggling to know scientifically that I could be affecting something light years away right now by picking this flower. And that flower is not the same thing it would be if I, an observer, was not observing it.

I have no doubt we are being trained in working with energy and matter, for what end and for who or what I'm not sure. My guess is as we grow in awareness, so does the source, like adding memory chips to a computer, the more chips, the faster that computer can do things and the more it can do. The more we, these little atoms of consciousness, become aware, the more aware the source becomes, so God itself is evolving to know more, understand more, be aware of more and it's awareness is already billions of times greater than ours, so what new thing did the source become aware of today! We are up to 8 billion little atoms of consciousness here powering the supreme battery.

Like yourself, I too was "always trying to understand things" and I have no regrets regarding that. However, that "weigh and measure" understanding approach took a lot of time as I discovered but it was well worth the time spent (IMHO). I am considered to be very smart intellectually (Phi Beta Kappa, etc.) and that was very good ... up to a certain point ... at which point my intellectualism actually became an obstacle to progress and prevented me from going beyond thought where the mysteries of life finally start to unfold. That mystical "Cloud of Unknowing" was very difficult for people like myself to penetrate since I was so reliant on my intellectual thought processes. Eventually, however, one realizes that the intellect can only take one so far and, in the stillness beyond thought, a strange VERIFIABLE "knowing without thinking" manifests quite mysteriously. To one's surprise, that "knowing without thinking" guides one unerringly and one eventually trusts that more than one's own intellect.

When one gets even a glimpse of the inter-connectedness, one starts to realize on a different level how the Observer influences both matter and energy. The Sufi Master Hazrat Inayat Khan defined souls as "energy loaded with consciousness". Therefore, your points on energy and the control of energy are definitely well taken.

If I recall correctly from Michael Newton's "Journey of Souls", Dr. Newton lamented the fact that his subjects did not include many "advanced souls" from his perspective of what could be considered "advanced". As one seeks, one comes in contact with truly advanced beings who are not the types that show up for hypnotic regression with Dr. Newton and his colleagues. I personally loved Dr. Newton's book but, like intellect, his book can only take one so far.

As I indicated before, I talk from experience in saying that, eventually, I realized that my limited intellect could only take me so far and the "knowing without thinking" that emerges in the stillness eventually took over to answer the questions that intellect alone could not answer for me.

[sentient]

Originally Posted by sky123

A Tree has no sense of superiority nor inferiority it just gives. How Spiritual is that

The Noble Tree gives yet asks for nothing in return.

I guess the Orthodox Christian equivalent to hunter-gatherer animism (as in Everything has Spirit) - is “Seeing God in Everything”. (Which is why we had an understanding between us).

Hence one cannot feel separate from nor superior to the rest of Creation.
Which led to egalitarianism:
http://www.sustainableideas.it/wp-co...2/EGO-ECO1.jpg

But of course this shamanic, animist worldview had a Centre, the Axis Mundi.

In Buddha’s time the Cosmic or the World Mountain (as Axis Mundi) - the Centre of the World …. was Mt. Sumeru or Meru (or so they say).

But a tree can serve as the axis mundi. The tree provides an axis that unites three planes: Its branches reach for the sky, its trunk meets the earth, and it roots reach down into the underworld. In some Pacific island cultures, the banyan tree, of which the Bodhi tree is of the Sacred Fig variety, is the abode of ancestor spirits. The Bodhi Tree is also the name given to the tree under which Gautama Siddhartha, the historical Buddha, sat on the night he attained enlightenment.

Which sometimes makes me wonder, if the tree had something to do with Buddha’s enlightenment.
As we had/have Sacred Site - Sacred Trees - Tree Elders. Trees that you sit under in order to let it shift your awareness to Axis Mundi.

And then I wonder if the fungus network in the root system had something to do with those trees being in 'heightened awareness'.

*

[sentient]

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

When one gets even a glimpse of the inter-connectedness, one starts to realize on a different level how the Observer influences both matter and energy. The Sufi Master Hazrat Inayat Khan defined souls as "energy loaded with consciousness".

The triad: Totality – Interconnectedness Energy – Individual manifestations.

& got to love those Sufis!

Also - the Science-Religion-Philosophy course you took sounded great!

*

[sky]

Originally Posted by sentient

I guess the Orthodox Christian equivalent to hunter-gatherer animism (as in Everything has Spirit) - is “Seeing God in Everything”. (Which is why we had an understanding between us).

Hence one cannot feel separate from nor superior to the rest of Creation.
Which led to egalitarianism:
http://www.sustainableideas.it/wp-co...2/EGO-ECO1.jpg

But of course this shamanic, animist worldview had a Centre, the Axis Mundi.

In Buddha’s time the Cosmic or the World Mountain (as Axis Mundi) - the Centre of the World …. was Mt. Sumeru or Meru (or so they say).



Which sometimes makes me wonder, if the tree had something to do with Buddha’s enlightenment.
As we had/have Sacred Site - Sacred Trees - Tree Elders. Trees that you sit under in order to let it shift your awareness to Axis Mundi.

And then I wonder if the fungus network in the root system had something to do with those trees being in 'heightened awareness'.

*

' Which sometimes makes me wonder, if the tree had something to do with Buddha’s enlightenment.'


Who knows but it's possible. Being close to Nature certainly is very healing and seems to refresh the Mind/Body/Spirit....

[sentient]

Originally Posted by sky123

' Which sometimes makes me wonder, if the tree had something to do with Buddha’s enlightenment.'


Who knows but it's possible. Being close to Nature certainly is very healing and seems to refresh the Mind/Body/Spirit....

Yes, well ....
Important it seems anyways:
https://theberntraveler.wordpress.co...he-bodhi-tree/

*

P.S.
Internet of fungus:
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141...idden-internet

https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stame...save_the_world

*

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by sentient

The triad: Totality – Interconnectedness Energy – Individual manifestations.

& got to love those Sufis!

Also - the Science-Religion-Philosophy course you took sounded great!

*

Not only was the course great, but the discussion forums were particularly interesting at times with participants expressing a very wide diversity of opinions.

You can take the course for free on www.coursera.org and proceed at your own pace.

[Phaelyn]

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

intellectualism actually became an obstacle to progress

Intellectualism is like the conceptualization of understanding ~ I'd not say anything bad about understanding, it's the verbalization of understanding, the projecting of it into the mind, in to the roof brain chatter, the attention captured by the thought stream, I'd say that leads to problems.

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

That mystical "Cloud of Unknowing" was very difficult for people like myself to penetrate since I was so reliant on my intellectual thought processes.

I've read that but for me it was "The Awakening of Intelligence" by Krishnamurti. I dived deep into that. As much as it became a heavy weight at some point, it also led to some nice insights and trippy interactions with others. But yea living it, thinking about it, completely different things.

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

The Sufi Master Hazrat Inayat Khan defined souls as "energy loaded with consciousness".

On earth in a human body it tends to be consciousness tangled up in a lot of lower energy forms and the resulting colored perceptions and actions that come from those associations.

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

If I recall correctly from Michael Newton's "Journey of Souls", Dr. Newton lamented the fact that his subjects did not include many "advanced souls" from his perspective of what could be considered "advanced".

Yea if I remember right, blue was the highest to be found on earth. That he regressed or found anyway. But then he was able to "talk to" some higher beings though his subjects. The higher souls went into the ultra violet colors to clearish. I had a person who could read "aura's" tell me what she saw in my family members and she said my brother had "an orange aura," turns out orange is not that great... kinda made sense to me lol. But then I take such things with a grain of salt, no idea if they are true or not as I can't see aura's.

Sometimes I see a white light around Mooji when I'm watching his youtube videos but then I think it's the computer light or contrast in the image playing tricks on my eyes. The way I interpreted that Journey of Souls stuff was if your light goes higher than blue, you don't incarnate on earth anymore. You have graduated.

[sky]

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

Not only was the course great, but the discussion forums were particularly interesting at times with participants expressing a very wide diversity of opinions.

You can take the course for free on www.coursera.org and proceed at your own pace.

Coursera ' Buddhism and Modern Psychology ' and ' Know Thyself ' are very enjoyable as are many others I have done.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Altair

So how does that relate to what I was talking about?
Don't hide behind your mystical experience.

I've heard the Buddhist teachers say ''May all beings be liberated.''

However, that which achieves ''liberation'' is said to no longer 'collect' karma, hence it is in its last incarnation. Life feeds on life, which keeps everything going. If life feeds on life it means life continues to 'collect' karma. The karma argument effectively kills itself. If all organisms actually were to achieve ''liberation'' you would end up with a world devoid of life. This means the saying is not sensible and more a nice soundbite.

True, 'liberation' implies being free from the kammic cycle, and that is deep philosophical rabbithole, but it's mainly a psychological discourse about volition, as according to Buddhist philosophy, volition is 'cause' and as such it is what perpetuates the kammic cycle. Therefore, the cessation of volition is 'the way' of liberation.


Primarily, it is said that volition is a symptom of ignorance, which is a teaching in Buddhism on the 'dependent origins'. The dependent origins imply that there is no continuous fundamental substance, but rather, all phenomena exist in an interdependent fashion and having no underlying enduring quality.

In Buddhist thought, unlike Western Cartesian thought, there is no duality between mind and matter, so the relationship between volition and your experience is ummm... unified... and not in the sense that one is prior and originates the other, but rather, they are interdependent.

This should not be confused with volition creating experience as we desire it to be. Of course the world is turning and no one can stop it of make it happen if they wanted to, and on careful examination you find that everything is 'as it is' and no one has the power to change 'this' as it is in this moment. You be aware - 'this is how it is' - and that's 'paying attention' - and it follows, does it not, that if you paying attention to know 'what is', there is no volition being exerted upon the experience 'as it is'.

Meditation, therefore, is volitionless observsation, which J Krishnamurti called the choiceless observation, and this is relevant because we want to observe what is just true, rather than trying to make it as we want it to be.

The problem, then, is reaction, which is classified as aversion and desire, or 'craving', in Buddhist discourse, and if you practice meditation you will notice quite clearly how uncomfortable sensations incite adverse reactivity as you also desire a pleasant experience of some kind. The reactivity arises from the illusion that unpleasant experience endures, or you can have an enduring pleasant experience, and due to that delusion or the ignorance of impermanance, reaction incites volition, which perpetuates the kammic cycle.

Hence the meditation discourses Buddha made centre on present awareness of the sensation, or feeling, - because from feeling 'craving' arises ('craving' refers to both aversion and desire).

The critical point in Buddhist psychology is this: cause is not an effect. Cause being volition. Indeed caused volition is a contradiction of terms. This means that experiencial circumstances do not cause reactivity as the incitement of volition, but all experiencial circumstances are caused, where volition is the cause, but it is more nuanced than that, because volition arises primarily from the ignorance of impermanence, or in the most fundamental sense, a belief in an enduring self. The very idea that 'this is happening to me', 'this is my experience - me, my, mine and I - sites a permanant self being effected by experience, and therefore caused to react to it. In that very sense, 'kamma' is the law of cause and effect.

To break the kammic cycle, you cease to cause it, Hence, cessation of volition is the cessation of kamma. Therefore, in meditation one observes it 'as it is'. This means 'just observe' sans all reaction to experience is the cessation of volition, and thereby, cessation of generating kamma.


This non-volitional state, aka meditation, is the cessation of generating kamma, but all the volitions of the past have created potentials for outcomes which have not yet manifested as experience. These potentials are called sankara, and with every reaction is volition, and a potential is created, it manifests as experience, you react, and around and around it goes. Such is the kammic cycle. In meditation without reaction the generation of kamma ceases, but the old potentials still have to manifest as conscious experience and dissolve away. This process of 'emptying out' the accumulation of sankaras is referred to as 'purification'. Now I said a lot, so enough.

[sky]

To understand what The Buddha taught and meant regarding ' May all beings be liberated ' there are many Teachings available, this is just one.





Buddhism is a teaching of liberation, aimed at freeing people from the inevitable sufferings of life. To this end, early Buddhist teachings focused on the impermanence of all things. The Buddha realized that nothing in this world stays the same; everything is in a constant state of change. Pleasurable conditions, favorable circumstances, our relationships with those we hold dear, our health and well-being—any sense of comfort and security we derive from these things is continually threatened by life’s flux and uncertainty, and ultimately by death, the most profound change of all.

The Buddha saw that people’s ignorance of the nature of change was the cause of suffering. We desire to hold on to what we value, and we suffer when life’s inevitable process of change separates us from those things. Liberation from suffering comes, he taught, when we are able to sever our attachments to the transient things of this world. Buddhist practice, in this perspective, is oriented away from the world: life is suffering, the world is a place of uncertainty; liberation lies in freeing oneself from attachment to worldly things and concerns, attaining a transcendent enlightenment.


Full Article,

https://www.sgi.org/about-us/buddhis...iberation.html