Vedanta vs. Buddhism, (update on my practice)

[Pandara]

Hi Tyler,

I have been contemplating your post for a while now and would like to offer the following as well. I think our external world is one of great contradictions and fragmentations today and no easy journey for any student or follower of the path in such a world. Then we as seekers have to contend with the many teachers/master/gurus who contradicts each other around every corner to the point where some of them would even be rivals for the top spot, proclaiming they are the way or their teachings is the ultimate etc. A human thing this is, so you see even the great ones are just human eventually.

The great irony and sad part of this is, that these very same teachers/masters/gurus with their different beliefs and teachings create division and separation in our world today, instead of unifying and harmonising all.

So, how do you know you have a great teacher/master/guru? For me, I believe that when you are supported and encouraged by your teacher/master/guru to "experience" your own truth and to find your own inner teachings and truths through direct experience. This for me is the hallmark of a humble and a great teacher.

I once read this little story somewhere: One day one of the followers of the Buddha came to him and asked him: If I walk in a road and a man comes up to me and proclaims that he is the Buddha, should I belief him and what should I do then? The Buddha replied, you should not belief him, because the Buddha is within, not without.

[Tyler Zambori]

Originally Posted by tubeseeker

is it the buhdists approach or is the the approach someone takes towards buhda's teachings? You can meet a million people who study buhda and one person is enlightened. you can do the same with christians, etc....... We are now judging past Guru's based on the results of current followers. Read what buhda said at interperat it for yourself. My favorite part of what I read from buhda is the part titled the seeker So many people, myself included, spend so much time studying and too little time meditating. we are using so much energy searching outside what we are to find on the inside.

just my thoughts
seeker

hey tubeseeker,

I do spend plenty of time meditating. It's ok, I am coming to a resolution
about it, and am getting the help I wanted through a process of book
buying over the last couple months.

I'm deciding that Buddhist philosophy doesn't make any sense to me, but
I am not above using something useful on the practical end of things.

Tyler

[Tyler Zambori]

Originally Posted by Pandara

Hi Tyler,

I have been contemplating your post for a while now and would like to offer the following as well. I think our external world is one of great contradictions and fragmentations today and no easy journey for any student or follower of the path in such a world. Then we as seekers have to contend with the many teachers/master/gurus who contradicts each other around every corner to the point where some of them would even be rivals for the top spot, proclaiming they are the way or their teachings is the ultimate etc. A human thing this is, so you see even the great ones are just human eventually.

The great irony and sad part of this is, that these very same teachers/masters/gurus with their different beliefs and teachings create division and separation in our world today, instead of unifying and harmonising all.

So, how do you know you have a great teacher/master/guru? For me, I believe that when you are supported and encouraged by your teacher/master/guru to "experience" your own truth and to find your own inner teachings and truths through direct experience. This for me is the hallmark of a humble and a great teacher.

I once read this little story somewhere: One day one of the followers of the Buddha came to him and asked him: If I walk in a road and a man comes up to me and proclaims that he is the Buddha, should I belief him and what should I do then? The Buddha replied, you should not belief him, because the Buddha is within, not without.

Thanks Pandara, you're right, it's not easy. Well in a way my teacher
did do this - he told me to go off and focus on God within my own soul.
But humble? I would not call him humble. or rather, his humbleness
varies.

I believe I found the key - and that is to give up the meditation he
taught because it was the essence of seeking something, and just
do "awareness watching awareness" instead, which I found in a
book of course.

I have decided that he really was sincere, but may not be that great for
total beginners, because something seriously got skipped there. I now
feel that the meditation he was teaching me is something to be done when
a person is a bit more advanced, and of course some basic training in how
to actually meditate can not be skipped.

So I am doing this, and I will slowly try to educate myself more about
Vedanta. I'm pretty happy with the new books I acquired - besides some
simple ones about Vedanta, I got two new Yoga Sutra commentaries that
should really do it. If those two commentaries don't do it for me, then I
just won't get it. But they are not being my first priority right now .

So I have to keep reminding myself that he really did seriously believe
that his yoga sutra commentary could help me. The reason it did not,
was that he wrote it for his advanced students, and in fact any yoga
sutra commentary may not be the best text for beginners because it
s not set up to be understood all at once, so it may not give one a
good grounding to build on. That is my take on it anyway.

So I have been pretty frustrated about that, but then, some people
end up wasting far more time than I have (a few years), so I will try
not to feel too bad about it. It's par for the course, to waste time
until you learn what works.

Tyler

PS I think some teachers might, after a while, start to have a somewhat
difficult time remembering what it was like to not be enlightened,
and then communication becomes a problem, and they don't remember
where the beginners really need to start.

[Hubert]

Originally Posted by Tyler Zambori

PS I think some teachers might, after a while, start to have a somewhat
difficult time remembering what it was like to not be enlightened,
and then communication becomes a problem, and they don't remember
where the beginners really need to start.

A realized soul knows exactly what the disciple needs, because he has ways of knowing the disciple cannot comprehend.
The soul, once ready will recognize such a Master, and there will be no doubt of who is who, and whom he should follow.

What you say it might be true for people who think they are realized, or who are very advanced on their journey, but still did not achive Self realization.

I think you are on a good track. Getting from Vedanta to Buddhism, is getting from the complex to the more simple. This does not mean either one is better, just that it might be better fitting your specific needs.

[Tyler Zambori]

Originally Posted by Hubert

A realized soul knows exactly what the disciple needs, because he has ways of knowing the disciple cannot comprehend.
The soul, once ready will recognize such a Master, and there will be no doubt of who is who, and whom he should follow.

What you say it might be true for people who think they are realized, or who are very advanced on their journey, but still did not achive Self realization.

I think you are on a good track. Getting from Vedanta to Buddhism, is getting from the complex to the more simple. This does not mean either one is better, just that it might be better fitting your specific needs.

hey Hubert,

Well you would think so, wouldn't you, that since enlightened people
have a great deal more clarity than the rest of us, that they would
be able to communicate it clearly, but more and more I am coming to
the conclusion that it is not necessarily so.

What I am deciding to go with for now, is something written by an
enlightened guy that has a rather cheesy title, but it's like: here are
the clear and specific instructions on _how_to_make_a_hamburger_!
This guy, Michael Langford, spent 27 years on his own quest, and not
getting anywhere, until one day in his room at some ashram in India, he
figured it out himself. Three years after that he became enlightened.
So then he wrote a book.

Reading his description of what he went through, and how his teachers
described _how_to_make_a_hamburger_! and how off-the-beam
it all was (my words not his), and how much confusion it caused for him,
I am now thinking they really really have a hard time with this. So he
wasted 27 years because of confusing instructions from really actually
enlightened teachers. It's not just me. he claimed the problem was his
own ego getting in the way, and that's probably a part of it for all of us,
but it was more than that. It was also lack of clarity about _how_to_
make_a_hamburger_!

So I feel bad for him that he lost those 27 years, and for myself that I lost
a few. But at least now he wrote really clear instructions about how to do it.

Anyway, some Buddhist told me I have to choose between one or the other,
but I don't think I do have to choose.

btw, that's just a metaphor, saying _how_to_make_a_hamburger_, so if
you don't like that substitute _how_to_build_a_computer_! instead, or
something similar, but making a hamburger is something that should be
simple, and isn't because of too much specialized technical style.

[Pandara]

Hi Tyler,

Good for you. The flipside of how_to_make_the_hamburger is of course flipping it once it has been made or how_to_make_the_computer is to switch it on once you have build it.

[Tyler Zambori]

Originally Posted by Pandara

Hi Tyler,

Good for you. The flipside of how_to_make_the_hamburger is of course flipping it once it has been made or how_to_make_the_computer is to switch it on once you have build it.

haha so true......and I am just about to build one, and am very nervous
about applying electricity, after frying my last computer. I think I have
to do it myself, because I'm the one that paid for the parts, so I should
be the one to fry or not fry.

[justwannabe]

Originally Posted by Tyler Zambori

hey tubeseeker,

I do spend plenty of time meditating. It's ok, I am coming to a resolution
about it, and am getting the help I wanted through a process of book
buying over the last couple months.

I'm deciding that Buddhist philosophy doesn't make any sense to me, but
I am not above using something useful on the practical end of things.

Tyler

and is there a difference between buhdists philosophy and budha's philosophy?

[Tyler Zambori]

Originally Posted by tubeseeker

and is there a difference between buhdists philosophy and budha's philosophy?

yes, often, since it's hardly a hard and rigid system.

[justwannabe]

what are you searching for?
seeker