Quote:
Originally Posted by KontanKarite
But if you're searching for truth, you can't stop at what makes you feel good. It's disingenuous and a lie. Stopping at what's comfortable isn't exactly spiritual enlightenment, it's establishing a comfort zone at best and admitting that you actually are afraid of the truth at worst. In the most dire of times, your "feel good" spirituality will not console you.
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Thats very true. I don't know if vindi is thinking of enlightenment the same way I think of it, but I think a lot of other Buddhists think that way, that we should lock ourselves away from the pain and sorrow of the world so we can be happy in our "enlightenment".
As for my own beliefs, I gotta go soon so I'll keep this short, but I don't really believe in much. I'm Zen Buddhist, which rejects a lot of the supernatural aspects of Buddhism, or rather deems it unimportant. Chanting the lotus sutra over and over won't give you good karma or save you, for example. I think if I were to assert that there is an underlying aspect of everything in the universe which connects it and everything, which I do suspect, I wouldn't be able to defend it because I haven't seen it yet. Even if I knew it intellectually, I haven't experienced it. So I keep in mind that I don't know, I meditate zazen style (focusing on the breath and not following thoughts), and when I do it does clear my mind and I can see things in a more fair view (yeah, I know, I must not do it enough
), but its not always comforting, sometimes its unpleasant and sometimes its very weird. More or less, I'm religious in this way because it makes me, personally, a more functional and compassionate person, and I feel it can help me help others better.