Thread: God in Buddhism
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Old 18-09-2020, 09:51 PM
sentient sentient is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gem
I personally find it hard to understand why anyone would get invoilved in chanting or other spiritual rituals, but it's generally fine.
I don’t know Gem.

Imo. everything can be turned into a meditative practice, there being no real boundary or border between mundane activity and meditation.


Before enlightenment - chopping wood and carrying water.
The path – chopping wood and carrying water.
After enlightenment – chopping wood and carrying water.


In Bali I loved the idea/concept that the Balinese dance is not a dance to the audience, instead it is an inward moving meditative offering to their Gods.
This leads to the idea that every act, every movement can be a meditative offering in surrender …..
.... and with that kind of integration, one’s daily life can become a 24/7 meditative flow …

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My friend from a spiritual commune in the jungles held the same belief about musical performances, so we were on the same page.
But in practice, I over time saw my friend lose his centre of meditative inward autonomy and change from a shaven headed spiritual practitioner to a dreadlocks down his ars* musical circus act for a kind of narcissist need/desire for the attention energy from the audience/fans.

The last I saw of my friend was when he was playing with 2 classical guitarists who went deep within their art and entered into “the zone” – leaving my friend outside the zone, his musical skills having deteriorated - mirroring himself through the eyes of the onlookers ….

Maybe drugs also had had something to do with the deterioration of the attention span and rhythmic coordination etc. ….. I don’t know, but what a waste.

Yet I don’t see this as a ‘moral issue’, but more like the mistakes (the free) will makes, and once we realize our mistake – it ceases to be a mistake.
A learning experience from a meditative centre to losing it and finding it again and now having an in-depth understanding of its value ….

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gem
One example: once a young Christian came to the school to learn the meditation. It was explained as a condition of being taught that participants have to suspend their usual religious practices for the duration of the retreat. I noticed the young Christian had hidden his crucifix (also banned on site) and kept it in his pocket, and at meal times he'd secretly hold the crucifix and cross himself, probably saying grace in his head. He couldn't forsake his rituals for even for the short duration. In the same way, Buddhists from various sects, including fully robed monks, are not allowed to practice their religious bits and bobs during retreat, but they seemed perfectly happy to put all that on hold until after they left

I don’t see a reason why Buddhist monks would need to go to a ‘school of meditation’ to learn meditation – heh.
Though Buddhists seem to encourage practitioners to gain various experiences from other schools

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