Conceptual habits of the Conscious Mind are the greatest bar to man's discovery of himself.
Uell S. Andersen
I just finished a wonderful book(fiction) about the life of my man, Aristotle: The Golden Mean by Canadian author, Annabel Lyon. Of course I have no where near the mind he had but I do like to do what he is known for doing, contemplating the nature of reality. That is what leads to my studying all these philosophers, poets, writers, scientists and spiritual teachings. What I really like to do is find the connecting dots, the similarities, the One truth that they all point to when it comes to dealing with suffering. You know?
Well , as you may have gathered by now, I love the Buddhist dharma and I love the idea of discovering the True Self as taught in many other scriptures including Hinduism/Yoga and...yes...the "new age" stuff. (Though I do have a problem with that term ). I am finding some important connecting dots that help with my understanding.
I would like to compare the teachings of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh with other non-Buddhist teachings including ACIM, the Maharishi inspired works of Robert Spira and the writings of Uell S. Anderson to exemplify the idea that there is only One Truth. (Bear with me, I have a bit of vertigo and the letters on the keys sometimes jump all over the place lol...if there are a lot of typos, we will blame it on that)
Differences Between Buddhism and the Other Teachings
Before I begin talking about the similarities , it is important to speak to the difference in the philosophies of Buddhism with the others that keep slapping me in the face as I read, listen or study. There are, I believe, three distinct differences.
My way of understanding the first difference is that the Buddhist Path to liberation, freedom from the modifications of the mind and a return to the natural state of peace, is an "indirect path" taking many steps ( Well Eight to be exact) . The others above speak to a "direct path", one that requires nothing more than a "holy instant" or a moment of realization.During this directionless journey, the mind sinks or relaxes backwards, inwards or ‘selfwards’. (Spira,page 55)
Another difference is in the teaching of the non-Buddhists that most of the stuff we are experiencing is just an illusion that should be ignored or pushed away. No matter what obstacle or undesirable circumstance crosses my path, I refuse to accept it, for it is nothing but illusion.
(Andersen, Uell S., page 429) All aspects of fear are untrue because they do not exist at the creative level, and therefore do not exists at all...Believe this and you will be free. (ACIM-T-VI:1:5)
The Buddhist, on the other hand, do not believe in ignoring, resisting, struggling against anything, nor do they believe in supressing and repressing emotion as they feel we will be doing when we "ignore" certain things. They see all that occurs, all experiences, thoughts and feelings as part of our reality in the moment and must be recognized, accepted and embraced.
The third difference is that Buddhism speaks to the idea of "transformation" more than the idea of "transcendence" used in the other teachings. It is taught that we can transform our suffering , with the help of mindfulness energy, into a tool that guides us toward awakening. The others speak to the fact that we actually transcend this "idea" of suffering when we realize the illusionary nature of it.
Similarities
As I listened to a dharma talk today where Thich Nhat Hanh was speaking of the five powers (well he added a sixth). I immediately saw many similarities between this philosophy and the others I have been presently reading.
The First Power is Faith
All these teachings speak to the idea of Faith as a power that can help us get beyond our suffering. . Thich Nhat Hanh speaks to the importance of having confidence and trust in ourselves to awaken. The others use the term "belief" and faith interchangeably. This faith Hanh and others speak or write about is not a reliance on something outside ourselves but on a something within. We need to "believe" we can get beyond our pain by knowing Who or What is inside us. All teachings refer to a higher consciousness, a higher Self, a higher level of Being that rests in these temporary forms we wear like a gown.
The Second Power is Diligence
Diligence is all about applying "appropriate attention " to the things we want in our life. Hanh calls it "watering selectively". We water those feelings and experiences we want to be paramount in our loves like joy, happiness, love, compassion, peace and and awakening and we do our best not to water those things we do not want paramount in our life : pain, grief, anger, resentment, violence, greed etc.
Many of the teachings refer to the mind in a similar way though different terminology may be used. Hanh says the mind is divided into the "store consciousness" and the "mind consciousness". Uell and others refer to it as "subconscious" and "conscious" mind. The "conscious" mind according to Uell and others is the boss of the subconscious mind but the subconscious mind determines more or less how we live because it is there where the "Prompters" from the conscious mind are placed. Hanh refers to these as "seeds". These seeds or prompters include what the dualistic mind would refer to as both negative and positive aspects. We want to water the positive and leave teh negative where they are. These seeds are like "core beliefs" we hold onto yet may not be even mindful that they are there. Sometimes they get watered on purpose by our appropriate attention and sometimes unfortunately by our "unskillful attention". If we are thinking about the negative, focusing on it... that is like watering. The negative pops up into our conscious mind and we may experience, according to many, more negative in our external worlds. What we want to do is avoid watering the negative.
If, of course, they do get watered and sprout out into our conscious experience, we need to help them to go home. Hanh and Spira say we do this by focusing on and watering the seeds of mindfulness/awareness so that energy comes to the surface to embrace the energy of suffering we had allowed to sprout.
Positive seeds or prompters are also much more powerful than the negative. We replace the negative with the positive. Psychologists may refer to that as cognitive restructuring. If we focus on positive, all teachings say, we out do the negative. It is not about struggling or fighting or resisting that which we do not want.
The Sixth Power is Letting Go
All teachings speak to the power of Letting Go but none more so than in Buddhism. The basis of true happiness is a recognition, allowing, embracing, looking deeply into what is to gain insight.
Hmmm! That is all I can seem to regurgitate right now. I will be back.
All is well.
References:
ACIM
Andersen, Uell S.. Three Magic Words . BN Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Lyon, A.(2009) The Golden Mean. Random House Canada
Plum Village (October, 2018) Practicing in a stressful environment/ dharma talk with Thich Hhat Hanh/ 2004 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6KTb0QMyJ8
Spira, Rupert. Being Aware of Being Aware (The Essence of Meditation Series) (p. 55). New Harbinger Publications. Kindle Edition.
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