GREAT MASTERS OF ALL RELIGIONS SAY THE SAME TRUTH!
The Christian saint, St Benedict
Question 2
Zen Buddhism (and I think Buddhism in general) is offered up as A way whereas most world religions popularly consider themselves THE way.
What are your ideas on this?
I think saying that your way is the "one and only" just serves your own ego (I am right and you are wrong) and would increase attachment.
Of course most religions do respect others, and I'm not implying they are boastful.
By the way, am I correct in using the English word "religion" for Zen? I believe it is much more than that.
Jimbeaux
Answer
One main reason that makes Buddhism stand out from other world religions is, as you have said, that Buddhism is offered as a way to spiritual fulfilment whereas the other religions are offered as the way.
Buddhists do this not because they are modest in their claim but because this is their conviction. Buddhists are sincerely convinced that there are different ways to spiritual fulfilment, and that Buddhism is one of the ways. Indeed, Buddhists would advise those who are spiritually happy in their own religion but intend to switch to Buddhism, to remain in their original religion.
But Buddhism is not the only world religion that is offered as a way. Taoism and Hinduism also never claim that theirs is the only way to salvation.
Saying that their way is the “one and only” does not necessarily serve their own ego, and does not necessarily increase attachment. Many who hold this view honestly believe in the truth of their statement, and are sincere in wanting to help others in spiritual fulfilment. Many of them are also selfless and have contributed greatly to the welfare of those they preach to. The issue is not their ego-serving or their sincerity, but whether what they think is the truth is really the truth.
Using “religion” to describe Zen is incorrect. Zen is non-religious. It can be practiced by and benefit any person of any religion, or of no professed religion.
The term “Zen” may cause confusion for many people. But much of the confusion can be cleared or avoided if they know that Zen has three related but different meanings.
At the most supreme level, Zen refers to the Cosmic Reality. At the intermediate level, Zen refers to a glimpse of this Cosmic Reality. At the lowest level, Zen refers to a training of mind, which is usually though inadequately described as meditation.
The term “meditation” comes from the verb “meditating”, which means pondering or intellectualizing. Pondering or intellectualizing is exactly what to be avoided in Zen training of mind, or Zen meditation.
Zen is sometimes used to refer to Zen Buddhism. Zen Buddhism, or even Buddhism itself, is strictly not a religion as the term is normally conceptualized by people in the West. The gist of Buddhism is to avoid evil, do good and cultivate the mind. Zen Buddhism is that school of Buddhism that focuses on mind cultivation. Hence, in the Shaolin Monastery, which was a Zen monastery, there were Shaolin masters who were Taoist, Christian and Muslim.
Let us have some fun as well insight into spiritual cultivation. The following is taken from my yet-to-be-published manuscript on the Heart Sutra.
Let us now examine what the greatest masters say about their supreme spiritual experience. Can you tell the religions of these masters from their quotations below? Again, connotative terms are replaced by the neutral term “Cosmic Reality”.
Experience 1:
What is to know of the Unity of the Supreme Reality
It is to extinguish oneself in the presence of the One
Should thou desire to be as bright as day
Burn out thy separate existence like the candle of light
Since separate existence brings in violent inebriation
Reason forsakes the mind, shame the heart
He who loses his separate existence
The result of what he does is always full of bliss
Experience 2:
He saw a light which banished away the darkness of the night -- upon this sight a marvellous strange thing followed. The whole world gathered -- as it were -- under one bean of the sun, was presented before his eyes. For by that supernatural light, the capacity of the inward soul was enlarged. But albeit the world was gathered before his eyes, yet were not the heaven and earth drawn into any lesser form than they be of themselves, but the soul or the beholder was more enlarged.
Experience 3:
Thence comes cessation of ignorance, the cause of suffering, and freedom from the power of life and death. Then the whole universe, with all its objects of sense-knowledge, becomes as nothing in comparison to that infinite knowledge which is free from all obstructions and impurities.
Experience 4:
The Real Mind does not think; does not ponder; there is no thought. When there is no thinking, no thought, life and death cease. As I cultivate my mind, there is emptiness, devoid of all phenomena. Whatever phenomena there are, are due to principle. This is the primordial principle, the principle of the Supreme Reality. Before me is the spread of emptiness; all consciousness is unseparated and infinite. As I return to my real, permanent, original self, there is void and tranquillity, an undifferentiated spread of brightness, attaining the great cosmic spontaneity.
The first quotation records the experience of Mawlana Jalalad Din Rumi. The term "Supreme Realtiy" is to be replaced by “God” in the original passage. This Muslim master teaches that in the moment of supreme spiritual fulfilment, the aspirant and God is one; there is nothing besides God.
He also teaches that the mind must be emptied of thoughts, and the heart emptied of shame if anyone is to attain this highrest fulfilment. If we substitute the term “God” with “the Tathagata” -- both of which are respectively Muslim and Buddhist terms for the Supreme Reality -- the above poem can easily be taken as a Buddhist gatha.
The second quotation records the ecstatic spiritual experience of Saint Benedict. It is similar to an enlightenment experience of a Buddhist master, in which he perceives the whole world in celestial light, and directly experiences that he expands to become the universe.
In the third quotation, Patanjali, the father of yoga, describes the highest accomplishment of a yogi when his atman attains union with Brahman, the Hindu term for the Supreme Reality. This quotation reads exactly like a Buddhist text, especially when “life and death” in the quotation above is replaced by “karma” as in the original.
When the aspirant attains his highest spiritual fulfilment, he realizes that all the objects that he earlier perceived with his senses, are actually nothing, because ultimate reality is unobstructed and pure. This is exactly the same as saying, in Buddhist vocabulary, the enlightened being realizes that phenomena are illusory because ultimate reality is undifferentiated and tranquil.
The fourth quotation is taken from a Taoist classic, “The True Teaching on Cosmic Nature” by Ji Yi Zi. The expression “life and death cease” and “the Supreme Reality” in the above quotation are replaced by “the cycle of rebirth ceases” and “Tao” respectively in the original. The Real Mind means the Universal Mind.
The Taoist master explains that in the Universal Mind or Ultimate Reality, there is no thought; when thought ceases, the cycle of rebirth ceases; in his highest spiritual attainment, he experiences that the Ultimate Reality is emptiness, devoid of all phenomena; phenomena appear to us in our ordinary consciousness because of the primodial principle, which in Buddhism is described as the principle of dependent origination (to be explained in a later chapter).
He mentions a great cosmic truth that is often exphasized in Zen Buddhism, i.e. when he attains the highest spiritual fulfilment, it is returning to his original self. In Zen vocabulary, it is expressed as when one attains Enlightenment, it is actualizing his original Buddha nature. Both statements mean the same thing: when we are enlightened, we realize that our individual bodies and individual souls are an illusion; in reality we are the universe!
It is obvious that all the great masters of different religions say the same Truth. Personally, this is one of the most beautiful lessons I have in my many years of training.
The Taoist master, Ji Yi Zi
The above is reproduced from the thread 10 Questions to the Grandmaster about Zen in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum
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