RELIGIOUS PATHS AND AVAIVARTIKA
炼金术禛而无回
HERMETIC KABBALAH AND AVAIVARTIKA
Kabbalah is an aspect of Jewish mysticism which consists of speculation on the nature of the divine, creation, and the origin and role of human beings. It has its own meditative practices as well as varied devotional and mystical practices, bordering at times on what may be considered magical, all of which were normally taught only to those able to understand.
It might seem odd to many that within a page dedicated to Buddha Dharma we should even consider viewing the Jewish Kabbalah, but if indeed we believe that the Dharma is universal then we must be prepared to look without Elitist Arrogance, with sincere pen and flexible examination, to the similarities between any path which searches for truth, even if its basic tenets (the existence of a creation and god) are divorced from our own beliefs.
We have chosen to study and present only Hermetic Kabbalah here, as many aspects of traditional Kabbalah are so deeply intertwined with Jewish religious beliefs that they require too deep an understanding for most people, even those within the Jewish faith.
That we should choose to look at the Kabbalah is not strange, for the Kabbalah has been studied and used as a guide been studied and practiced outside of Orthodox Judaism for centuries.
If we dare claim that the Dharma is Universal then we must not turn away from other paths because they are different. What we must be open to is the elements of that true path that coincide and even strengthen our own resolve and aid in our own understanding of Dharma Avaivartika as a base for Awakening.
The following five sections are in progress:
基督教而无回
HERMETIC CHRISTIANITY AND AVAIVARTIKA
Christianity is the system of religious belief and practice taught by Jesus the Nazarene, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius (A.D. 29), which is regarded as the date when the Christian Church began. It was a sectarian offshoot of Judaism, although it is considered by Christians to be a natural extension of the previous gradual preparation for the preaching of Christianity.
The Messianic predictions, considered in the Kabbalah as merely the symbolic representation of an era of peace and justice, were transformed into the arrival of a personified Messiah, namely Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, the central Christian position is that what is now called the "Christian religion" existed amongst the ancients, and began with the creation of the human race.
From the Chan Dao position we can say that the Life Force of the first evolved human creature may indeed have contained the natural impulses which we call the root sublime states, but they cannot be termed as religious in any form.
We must further clarify that the Dharma Nature for natural survival lies within every living creature and that the Gladness, Compassion, Benevolent Affect and Equanimity are natural experiences accompanying correct human survival characteristics, which have been masked and overruled by the evolution of Dualistic Identity.
Here we look at these original Christian principles and their possible kinship with Avaivartika, accepting the fact that the Christian religion, now divided into quite distinct groups with widely different practices, claims that the Jews had misinterpreted their oracles. This, as we shall see, is the same criticism made by Islam of both Jews and Christians.
We attempt to see here then, beyond Christian sectarian religious claims, if there is similarity in the root belief system of all Christian groups to Avaivartika when the sectarian religious dogma and ceremony are removed in order to reveal the base of the Christian "spirit".
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清真苏非而无回
ISLAMIC SUFISM AND AVAIVARTIKA
Christians argue that we need lofty ideals to strive for, yet in practice a very small percentage of the over two billion adepts come close to applying the basic characteristics of Compassion and Benevolence. The question is whether the same can be said of Islam; for although they claim that the Divine Wisdom behind Muslim obligations is within the reach of the average believer and is not held out as a distant and difficult objective, when the presence of Islam within State power is withdrawn, Compassion and Benevolence seem to go no further than kinship.
It is only when Islam is taken closer to Allah the Compassionate and held within heart and practice with daily meditation that the greatness of true Islam goes beyond the destructive tentacles of political and social Islam.
The Holy Quran has both an exoteric (zahir - the outer or apparent) meaning and an esoteric (batin - the inner or secret) meaning. Knowledge is made accessible depending on the integrity and cognitive ability of its recipients, with the consequence of requiring the withholding of information from the uninitiated.
This is why there has always been a gradual unveiling or communication of spiritual truths to mankind. What Muslim esotericists call the "wisdom of gradualness" (hikmat at-tadrij).
Here we look at Islamic Sufism and see whether or not the differences from Avaivartika are great, and whether in essential closeness to a Singular Deity is no different than other Theist beliefs in quality and practice.
However, there are those within Islam that refute the fact that Sufism is Islamic at all. Why is that?
In the Introduction to The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, it is declared:
"Religiously, people tend to fall into two categories. Some find the meaning they seek in religious forms – commandments, observances, and texts straightforwardly, largely literally, interpreted – while others, without bypassing or abandoning these, sense their provisional character and reach out for meanings that the forms contain but which cannot be equated with those forms. If we call the first type of person exoteric, out of his concern for meanings that attach to outward or manifest forms, the second type that is drawn to the meanings that underlie those forms is conveniently designated esoteric."
It is often that those who are bound to religious forms reject the ideas of a more profound meaning. That could well be the case for the rejection of Sufism. Perhaps we shall discover something in the comparison of the Sufi ideals with Avaivartika.
度教而无回
The word "compassion", one of the Dharma Sublime states, is derived from from Latin and means "to bear with". We say in a general way that it is then an essential human quality that allows one to understand, and respond with Benevolent Affect to the apparent suffering of others.
Ahimsa in Hinduism, known as the God quality within a person, is a Dynamic Compassion. It is an open, flexible and active response of respect and care for every living creature.
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, as within Hinduism, unfortunately compassionate care has become a religious obligation. There is a like falling away from the true spirit also evident in some Buddhist groups of some importance. Although such responses may be useful within society, in them we do not see the hallmark of our shared natural humanity.
Compassion in Hinduism, like Judaism and Christianity, is a manifestation of God's love and mercy. It is the way their God is said to interact with creation and is, therefore by extension, the way people should interact with one another.
What Hinduism provides, that other religions do not, is the concept that God is not only an external phenomenon, but dwells within all living things, not unlike the Christian Holy Spirit..
It is true that Hinduism has a mass of intermediary figures to which prayers are directed, as do some of the Christian traditions in the form of Saints and other higher forms, including founder figures. But what we are looking for here is to see whether that image of an Internal God generates true humanitarianism by providing a meditative source to reduce the impediments of Stained Samsara, like Avaivartika does, or simply becomes too easy a base to plead for personal material gain or act as a psychological sugar-coated pill to alleviate suffering.
无神论而无回
Although most people understand what Atheism appears to be, a better term for Atheism that conveys its more elevated sense is Secular Humanism. Although as an organized philosophical system it is recent, its foundations can be found in the ideas of classical Greek philosophers such as the Stoics and Epicureans, as well as in Chinese Confucianism. These philosophical views looked to natural human-impulsed behavior rather than the inspiration of a supreme entity as a guide to correct human comportment.
During the Dark Ages of Western Europe, humanist philosophers were suppressed by the political power of the church, banished, tortured or executed. At the time of Renaissance the humanist alternative to a god-centered existence was accepted and gradually developed into a valid belief system.
It is clear that Chan Dao is an also atheist belief system and its difference to the humanist philosophy is that it provides an available tool, which is Contemplation, to destroy the stained human illusory Identity which is alien to humanist ideals.
Avaivartika is a sound base for Dharma study leading to Chan and, although it has many traps for the unwary if badly explained and taught, it can lead to the elimination of the symptoms of this Identity clinging and craving.
What we will examine here then is the similarity between Secular Humanism and Avaivartika, revealing any important differences if they are found to exist.