Welcome all, to our little charnel ground.
The teachings, dharma, quite profound
The teachers, trying, a little sick
Some parts experienced, better skipped.
What can be done now to restore our view?
Established for the many, not for the few.
I encourage us all to hold space for each other and listen deeply to what is said. There are many wisdom holders on these walls. Repression, suppression, never works – the only thing that does is skillfully working with our current moment to bring about benefit for others, and in doing so, ourselves.
Lineage as a concept is useful but broken. It detracts from the fundamental openness of experience, existence. It creates a conceptual hierarchy that should be discarded when the time comes.
The world is full of inherent contradiction, yet fundamentally there is none. Conditions support arising; everything is a symptom and not the cause. Going backwards along this path sometimes allows for better understanding and better wisdom moving forward.
We should not expect our teachers to bring us enlightenment – first of all, enlightenment as a concept is widely overblown, it is much more simple than all the prose would have you believe. Better to focus on things more tangible and readily understood and employed, such as sitting and paramita practice. Second – it is clear our teachers cannot. Not due to their own flaws, which are many, regardless of whom we speak, but because one cannot do the heavy lifting for another. There are no saviours, only signposts along the way. Too often we mistake the finger for the moon, and suffering ensues. We may heap fancy names and titles, oh luminous one, but the luminosity only comes from the moon, not the finger pointing at it.
The same is true throughout all traditions; this is a basic point of human existence. Your math teacher cannot do math for you, but can impart some methods to you. Your dharma teacher is the same. Only you can experience the suchness of dharma in your own moment. You do not need a mediator for this experience. In fact, you cannot have one.
If someone claims to show you the way, you should not have to carry them along with you. Just as all rivers lead to the sea, all forms eventually lead to wisdom, though some follow rocky paths with precipitous drops.
Let us pick our path forward wisely, and help press the trail safe for the many who will follow.
Gurus and teachers, spiritual friends, definitely have a place and function within the realm of understanding, development and transmission. Guru worship does not. The clear, sane view does not demand religiosity.
There is no need to see wisdom as being separate from yourself, and in fact, the more you make yourself relative to your perception of someone else, the further backwards you move.
It is great to recognize and appreciate the wisdom of others. The trick is to not make your own wisdom subservient to that recognition – as was said in the Kalama Sutra:
“Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted and carried out, lead to welfare and to happiness’ – then you should enter and remain in them.”