Quote:
Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot  One day Buddha was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up and began insulting him. "You have no right teaching others," he shouted. "You are as stupid as everyone else. You are nothing but a fake." |
I wonder why the Buddha acted as he did. Perhaps he should have manifested a camel to quell the man's doubts, as he no doubt was teaching that he could perform such miracles. It would have been simple enough. That would have been Jesus' approach, perhaps. Unless of course, the Buddha wasn't interested in or capable of manifesting camels. Do you think the reason the man was angry was that the Buddha was twisting the words of another teacher? Or had he been promised an elephant or goat, and upset the Buddha hadn't delivered?
It's interesting that people who are frauds will hide behind the words of those who are not, and seek their mantle without committing to their advice.
By this I mean: are you a Buddhist - have you ever taken, as an adult, refuge vows and practiced daily in a sangha? If so, for how many years? If so, have you been well received when you suggested that they should spend some time getting themselves new cars? Or did you get a reply that they would rather do another emptiness exercise? Why aren't Buddhists richer than other people?
Or, if you haven't practiced diligently with a community, do you really accept the teachings? Or are you merely using something intended to be taken quite seriously for frivolous ends? Ot maybe you are concerned about dangerous practices in Buddhism?
Because, as I think about it, I realize I did meditate on a car, with a large group of people, for several hours! We were visualizing travelling in a car at high speed, and imagining the moments as that car went of the road, smashed through a guardrail, and went over a steep cliff.
I thought the visualization was about death, but really it must have been about the car! I wasn't attached to the car in the visualization. But I don't recall getting the car. I didn't get a colorful Dragon with buggy eyes, either.
That wasn't the only death meditation I engaged in. I can't count the number of hours I spent manifesting, to use your words, my own death. It seems that, in the mechanical universe that brings me my crystaline and unattached thoughts, I was risking death. I'm very lucky to be alive, I would guess.
Or, then again, maybe there is a difference between being religious and being superstitious, and between thinking you are above the entire universe as a puppetmaster, and immersing yourself humbly in a sacred practice.