Simple_Jack

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I think you would find this article interesting My link. It's by Dudjom Rinpoche. I've changed some words to make it easier to read, since most people are unfamiliar with Tibetan: "Let us now look at Refuge. At the external level there are what are called the Kön-chog Sum : Sang-gyé, chö and gendün [buddha, dharma and sangha]. Buddha is the source of Dharma. Those whose minds are turned towards Dharma are Sangha. Because we exist in duality we experience delusory dissatisfaction. Because of this, we take Refuge in order to be freed from the experience of self-generated dissatisfaction. Due to misapprehending our true nature [because of the delusory appearances that arise when the various elements coalesce in accordance with patterns of dualistic confusion] this human body becomes the container of endless dualistic projections. It becomes a source of attachment, in terms of supplying delusory definitions of existence. This attachment remains very strong until you see the true nature of existence. Until you are completely freed from the delusion that your body validates your existence, dissatisfaction will continually color your experience. Because of this, Kön-chog Sum exist as a focus of Refuge. So, externally speaking, one should take Refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha with devotion. But internally, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are symbolic. They are a profound and skilful way to lead us out of this self-created illusory samsara. From the Dzogchen point of view, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are within us. On the absolute level, this mind of ours, which is empty of all referential co-ordinates, is in itself Buddha [rigpa -- radiant self-luminosity]. Externally, Dharma manifests as sound and meaning: You hear it and you practice it. But from an internal point of view, Dharma is empty. In essence, it is the unceasing, unobstructed, self-luminous display of rigpa -- primordial Mind. Externally, Sangha comprises those whose minds turn towards the Dharma. But internally, Sangha is the all-pervading, all-encompassing aspect of Mind. They are all fully accomplished within us. However, since we do not recognize this, we need to take Refuge in the external Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. When you really practice tantric ngöndro properly you visualize Padmasambhava with fervent devotion; you perform prostrations in humility with your body; and you recite the Refuge formula with your speech. Then, when you sit silently at the end of your practice [and dissolve the visualization into yourself] you realize that all these three things -- subject, object and activity -- are none other than rigpa! The meditation is oneself; Padmasambhava is one's own creation. Just remain in the nature of rigpa. Other than rigpa, there is nothing to find! Shakyamuni Buddha said in the Do-de Kalpa Zangpo, 'I manifested in a dreamlike way to dreamlike beings and gave a dreamlike dharma, but in reality I never taught and never actually came'. From the viewpoint of Shakyamuni Buddha never having come and the dharma never having been given, all is mere perception, existing only in the apparent sphere of suchness. As regards the practice of Refuge, the relative aspect is the object of Refuge to which you offer devotion and prostrations and so on. The absolute aspect is without effort. When you dissolve the visualization and remain in the natural effortless state of mind, the concept of Refuge no longer exists. The generation of chang-chub-sem [bodhicitta] or enlightened thought means that if we just act for ourselves alone we are not following the path of Dharma and our enlightenment is blocked. It is of the utmost importance that we generate enlightened thought in order to free all beings from samsara. Beings are as limitless as the sky. They have all been our fathers and mothers. They have all suffered in this samsara that we all fabricate from the ground of being. So the thought of freeing them from this suffering really is very powerful. Without this, we have the deluded concept that we are separate from all sentient beings."

Just because you take refuge, does not mean you can't study other traditions and do thier practices. I've met people who came from different backgrounds when coming to Buddhism. Such as: Jewish, Christian, Shaivite, "kabbalists," etc. Though they do make Buddhism their "main" tradition and do carry out it's practices and teachings to realize "the view" of Buddhism.

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"For the sake of clarity, Zen is not the answer in my opinion, nor is Buddhism. There is no karma for instance, at least not from my experience, (although I did lean towards believing in karma at one time), nor is there a wheel of dharma. When I die, nothing of the "I" I have become in this life will pass on. The notion of karma is simply a way to encourage people to behave, a softer gentler form of sin. If one wishes to believe in these things, that is fine, but I allude to the notion that if one becomes intellectually enlightened regarding these "truths" that one should examine the nature of that "truth's" arising, because more often than not, it arises from a lesson taught somewhere along the road to that awakening, rather than a spontaneous understanding based on one's own experience with the void, nothingness, stillness, source, etc." This is what I'm talking about, when I posted these comments: "This is why in that spat between us in that one thread I said to get rid of all your current held beliefs, to drop them, and to really dedicate with mind and body to find out if these things that the different religions around the world are talking about are true. To really go beyond your current outlook based on conceptual constructs and rendered beliefs based on emotional opinions; to really go beyond and prove this stuff for yourself. To get as far as you can in this lifetime in determining once and for all the question of life and death." "Having stillness in one's mind is just another functioning of the sixth consciousness (faculty of discrimination.) Just cultivating stillness as you're advocating is not enough in order to realize "who" or "what" is ultimately experiencing these states of quiet and stillness or movement, thoughts going through one'mind, etc,; or "who" or "what" is experiencing reality. In fact the inert "stillness," that you're talking about is akin to "Dead Tree Zen" that became a problem in the Zen school in the late Tang dynasty onwards. Like I said when we went back and forth in the other thread: Samadhi is something that saints from all over the world describe in thier scriptures/teachings. So anyone who cultivates that far can experience these same states. Likewise it goes for anyone who applies insight, who can then get to the bottom of experience." "My experience has taught me that there really is no such thing as right or wrong. That these notions of morality are simply transient constructs of the social mind. Within each of us lies the capacity to understand the idea of necessary action and when one can do that, then morality becomes obsolete. Now the good news is that the notion of necessary action is achieved along the way to "true" awakening or enlightenment, so one does not need to be "awakened" to understand necessary action. The irony is that in fact none of this is necessary. Most of what we do isn't necessary. We don't need to save the world, for the world is not in need of saving, it merely is what it is. If we begin to understand the notion of necessary action then that desire to save the world will evaporate." This is clearly someone who is talking from a purely intellectual basis. So all the teachings from various saints and sages around the world are for naught? They were all trying to uplift society for the better, by focusing on showing the individuals the way towards their own inherent capacity to "transcend" there own egocentric, selfish tendencies that humans perpetuate. "Having" fundamental wisdom allows you to know how your interactions with the world, effect your surroundings through cause and effect. In fact "virtue" or "morality," is never abandoned (In fact "virtue" is exemplified in your behaviour through, a deep understanding of the interdependent nature of cause and effect) though artificial rules and codes of conduct have no absolute bearing on a person who has "seen through" the notions of "self" and "other" and has transcended their own "evil" tendencies, afflictions and obscurations; while exemplifying the "good" in themselves. "So why do I bother explaining any of this? Because there's no harm in explaining it and in the end my experience may benefit others." You're cheating yourself and others when you post things like this. You're cutting off people's wisdom life and potentially derailing them into thinking there is no need to cultivate "virtue," to understand cultivation principles and so forth. I still think you would benefit by going back to the basics and learning how to cultivate meditative absorption and other basic principles, in order to progress further on the path.

There's no such thing as "intellectual" or "experiential" awareness. You still haven't addressed my earlier posts on why you feel that those who have proven the teachings through direct experience are brainwashed or is just an intellectual understanding, while you continually tell people that your experience which is somehow truly "experiential," is not intellectual solely because it is somehow not based "on prior beliefs."

The you haven't really addressed my or his posts stating that a mundane state where there is no-thoughts is not complete practice and that clinging to this state of inert "clarity" is frowned on. For someone who says they have "studied Zen" would know that this school also does not just advocate "stillness," but also the application of "insight" or "prajna" in order to know the nature of things.

Well, the process of meditation is universal in that the point is to eventually reach samadhi, though this isn't really the goal in itself just from these realms of mental stillness you can then "investigate" or apply insight to come to a realization of the nature of experience. As for Zazen...Like above it is used as a means to still the mind, though even in this school clinging (what they call "Dead Tree Zen") to this experience or attachment to inert lack of thought, or stale "clarity;" is looked at as wrong practice. So clinging to a state of ordinary lack of thoughts is not something that is advocated in this school. Though it is a problem among those who don't know proper cultivation principles. The quote you posted sounds similar to (actual) Zen, dzogchen and mahamudra; where someone who has experience of "The natural state" or "rigpa" integrates (when in the post-meditative state) this state of spontaneous awareness when interacting with their environment...Non-attachment or not dwelling and letting each experience, thoughts or whatever is encountered arise; without clinging, accepting or rejecting...Acting accordingly to the situation without dwelling... So yeah spontaneity and wu-wei/non-action like what the above quote is talking about is also something to "achieve" in Buddhism also.

Well, that has to do more with what's being taught by the individual teachers themselves, than what is taught in the scriptures. Either way, the question was whether 5 skandhas were taught in Orthodox Buddhism; which the answer would be yes, it is taught in Orthodox Buddhism (and it is something that people who follow Vajrayana should know about too; since they also follow the teachings of Buddha.)

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Sorry this isn't related to what you asked, but I was wondering since I wanted to purchase this e-book: How extensive is each topic? Are they more extensive then what's covered on his site? Alot of his site deals with some of this stuff already, though it looks pretty exhaustive and more in deph than from he has on his site: 1 The Challenge of Correctly Measuring and Interpreting Spiritual Progress Kung-fu Mind-Body Transformations * Prajna Transcendental Wisdom * Avoiding Self-Delusion in Spiritual Cultivation * Direct Experience is Essential 2 An Introduction to the Five Skandhas Ranking System The Selflessness of the Ego and Phenomena * The True Meaning of Religious Practice * Form Skandha * Sensation Skandha * Conception Skandha * Volition Skandha * Consciousness Skandha * Transforming, Purifying, or Exhausting the Skandhas * Cessation-Contemplation and Zen * Using the Skandhas in Cultivation * Four Cultivation Truths 3 The Taoist Time Requirements for Spiritual Kung-fu and the Consecutive Stages of Spiritual Attainment The Five Elements Schema * 8 Sensations * The Three Realms * Tao and Longevity * Jing * Chi * Shen * Why the 5 Elements Transform in the Order That They Do * The 9 Year Transformation Sequence for the Physical Components of the Body * Taoist Jing-Chi-Shen Transformations Explain the Spiritual Path * Laying the Foundation, Pregnancy, Suckling the Baby, Facing the Wall * Inedia in Christianity and Hinduism * Proper Fasting Practice Instructions * 100 Day Bigu Fasting Practice * 9 Year Bigu Fasting Practice * The 5 Requirements for Becoming Immortal * Ghost-Human-Earthly-Heavenly-Spiritual Immortals * Shakyamuni's Analysis of Immortality Techniques * I-Ching * The Many Spiritual Measurement Systems You Need to Learn 4 Twelve Enlightening Case Studies: An Analysis of the Spiritual Progress and Problems Faced by People Practicing Meditation The Kundalini Experience * The Importance of Using Tao and Longevity as a Reference * (1) HUMANITIES PROFESSOR * Fan Chi or Wind Chi * Sensations in the Legs * Meditation Reveals Latent Illnesses * (2) HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER * Fixing Problems Revealed through Meditation * Semblance Dharma * (3) ARTIST-TEACHER * Cultivation and Mental Illness * The Du-yin Shadow Consciousness * Chi at the Back of the Head * (4) PSYCHOLOGIST * Feeling Chi Sensations in the Body * (5) COMPUTER SCIENTIST * Strong Vitality and Sexual Activity on the Path * The Number of Chi Channels in the Body * The Importance of the Left Big Toe in Meditation * Spontaneous Movements * Incendium Amoris is Christian Kundalini * Pranayama * Sounds in the Head * Saint Francis of Assisi * An Explanation of Biblical Superpowers * (6) ARTIST * The Stage of Not Needing Sleep * Fullness of Jing, Chi and Shen * (7) SCIENTIST * (8) ACTRESS * Dreams of Flying * Poltergeists * (9) PSYCHOLOGIST * (10) LIBRARIAN * Excessive Damp Heat in the Body * (11) HOUSEWIFE AFTER MENOPAUSE * Cycles of Human Development * (12) PSYCHIATRIST * Seeing a Blue Diamond * Twenty-Five Doors to Meditation Reveals Many Meditation Techniques * Zen Master Hakuin Cures Himself with the So Cream Meditation * The Cardinal Spiritual Principle of Practice 5 The Five Aggregates Schema and the Various Levels of Consciousness A Discussion of the Five Aggregates * The Stories of Vasubandhu and Asanga * Form Skandha * The Four Elements and Space * The Agglomeration of Form * The Parinispanna, Paratantra and Parikalpita Natures * Perceptible Form * Imperceptible Form * The Five Sense Organs * Ching-se Sentient Matter * The Three Natures of Reality * The True Nature of Reality * Sensation Skandha * Sri Yukteswar's Yang Shen Emanation Body and Jesus' Resurrection Body * Conception Skandha * Enlightened People are Aware During Dreams * Volition Skandha * Behavior and the Spiritual Path * Emptiness of Phenomena * 10 Omnipresent Factors * 11 Virtuous Mental Events * 6 Root Afflictions * 5 Deviant Perspectives * 20 Secondary Afflictions * 4 Variable Mental Events * Shen Tsan Helps Educate His Teacher * Non-associated Motivational Forces * States of No-Mind * Boundaries of the Skandhas * Consciousness Skandha * The 8 Consciousnesses * Sleeping, Death and Leaving Samadhi * The First Six Consciousnesses * The Seventh Consciousness * 4 Ego-centered Notions * The Eighth Alaya Consciousness * Xuan Zang in The Journey to the West * Avalokiteshvara's Meditation Method of Hearing * The Dharmadhatu and Tathagatagarbha * Reviewing the Five Skandhas * Great Mirror Wisdom * Equality Wisdom * Analytical Wisdom of Discernment * All-Accomplishing Action Wisdom * Spiritual Cultivation From the Aspect of the Skandhas 6 How to Correctly Interpret a Zen Master's Progressive Attainments Vimalakirti Scolds Purnamaitrayaniputra * Han Shan Breaks Through the Form Skandha * Merit, Sexual Discipline, Emptiness * Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharshi * Guang Qin * Hui-Tzu is Found Inside a Tree Cultivating Samadhi * How To Arouse Someone From the State of Samadhi * Bodhisattva Candraprabha * Rainbow Bodies 7 The Spiritual Accomplishments of Four Famous Tibetan Adepts: Yeshe Tsogyel, Milarepa, Gampopa, and Machig Labdron LADY YESHE TSOGYEL * Eight Severe Austerity Practices * When Chi Flows Cannot Meet * Master T'ien-wang Wu Floats on a Lotus Flower * Fa-jung of Ox Head Mountain * Jesus Disperses the Crowd of Stoning * Cultivation Tests * Return to Maidenhood and the Woman's Road of Cultivation * Confucius' Sequence of Cultivation Progress * MILAREPA * Kundalini Cultivation * Heavenly, Earthly and Human Dan * Food Intake During Cultivation * Wei Po-Yang's Explanation of Cultivation * Shape Shifting Versus the Yang Shen * GAMPOPA * Zen Master Huai-jang and Ma-tsu * The Complete Enlightenment Sutra and Immediate Enlightenment * Bliss, Illumination and No-Thought * Renewing the Brain * MACHIG LABDRON * Tibetan Empowerments and Real Initiations * Foundations of Chod 8 Kundalini Yoga, the Four Stages of Intensified Practice, and the Five Overall Phases of the Spiritual Path Kundalini in Chinese Culture * The Stage of Preparatory Practices * The 4 Steps of Prayoga * Stage of Warming * Stage of the Peak * Stage of Forbearance * Stage of Highest Worldly Dharma * How to Grade Yoga Achievements with the Four Stages of Prayoga * Empowerments * Cultivating Chi Through Breathing Practices * The Big Knife Wind * Makhafa Path of Islam and Way of Margaret in Christianity * The Equation of Spiritual Progress * Sexual Desire and Sexual Cultivation * Step-by-Step Spiritual Transformation 9 Essential Cultivation Principles Which Few People are Ever Taught God, Buddha Nature, Allah and Other Equivalent Terms * The Three Buddha Bodies * Dharmakaya * Sambhogakaya * Nirmanakaya * How to Cultivate the Full Three Enlightenment Bodies * The Ceaseless Transformations of the Universe * The Characteristics of Form and Ultimate Nature * Nagarjuna's and Avalokiteshvara's Negations * Existence and Nonexistence * Ontology and Spiritual Practice * Behavior as the Ground, Means and Fruit of the Path * The Nature of Conscious Thought * Merit, Wisdom and Discipline Requirements in Spiritual Cultivation * Some Various Roads of Cultivation Practice 10 The Meditative Realms of the Nine Samadhi Absorptions The Definition of Samadhi and Dhyana * Tien-tai 's Six Steps for Cultivating Samadhi * General Characteristics of the Dhyana * First Dhyana * Factors Inhibiting Samadhi * Methods for Attaining One-pointedness * Dhyana Stages of Joy and Bliss * Retreat Practice * Discipline Required of the Path * Desire Realm Heavens and Inhabitants * Ching-an State of Pre-Samadhi * Alexandrine Gnosticism * Second Dhyana * Third Dhyana * Fourth Dhyana * How Other Spiritual Schools Describe the Four Dhyana * The 5 Eyes of Wisdom * Various States of No-mind or No-Thought * Bardo States * The Four Formless Samadhi Absorptions * Samadhi of Infinite Space * Peach Blossom Enlightenment * Samadhi of Infinite Consciousness * Samadhi of Nothingness * Samadhi of No-Thought * Samadhi of Neither Thought Nor No-Thought * Edgar Cayce, Rudolf Steiner, Meister Eckhart, Padre Pio * Hakuin and Master Dokyo * Zen master Hseuh-tou Ch'in * Samadhi of Extinction * The Arhat's Fractional Nirvana of Remaining Dependency * When an Arhat Passes Away * Other Samadhi Attainments * Drowsiness * Buddhism as a Guide to Cultivation * Iron Ox Master Tieh Nieu * Stupid Emptiness Samadhi 11 Purifying the Skandhas and the Fifty Great Spiritual Paths of Delusion Form Skandha Phenomena * Sensation Skandha Phenomena * Conception Skandha * Yang Shen Body * Eyes and Seeing * Clarity Within Dreams * Zen Misconceptions * Volition Skandha * Surveying Past Lives * The Whirling Force of Life * Consciousness Skandha * Buddha Gives Specific Warnings About the Paths of Delusion * 5 Skandha Pollutions * Complete Cultivation * Transmitting Spiritual Teachings * The Creation of Consciousness and the World * Gradually Exhausting the Skandhas 12 The Internal Principles of Cessation and Contemplation Are Embodied Within All Genuine Spiritual Practices Yogacara and Consciousness-Only * Sandhinirmocana Sutra * Mahakashyapa Teaches Ananda * Nirvana Sutra * The 4 Methods of Cessation and Contemplation * 25 Variations of Cessation, Contemplation and Dhyana Practice * Zen Master Yung-ming's Lesson on Cessation and Contemplation 13 The Road of Tantric Cultivation for Opening the Sushumna Central Channel Esoteric Practice Focuses on Things Outside of the Mind * The 7 Major Chakras * Chi Channels, Chi Flows, Habit Energies, and Superpowers * The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine * Various Schools Discuss the Chi and Chi Channels * An Introduction to Tibetan Esoteric Practices * The Tantric Tradition * Padmasambhava * The Resultant and Causal Vehicles * Stigmata * Master Tsong Khapa * The Yoga of Marks * The Yoga Without Marks * Generation and Completion Stage Yogas * The Stage of Generation * The Stage of Completion * Specialization of the Tantras * A Short Analysis of the Tantric Tradition * When Chi Enters the Central Channel * Biophysics of the Cultivation Path * The Four Blisses * The Four Empties * Ways of Accidentally Seeing the Tao * Signs that Chi is Entering the Central Channel * Useful Cultivation Practices * Sexual Cultivation * Consciousness Rides on Chi * Drops * Tibetan Bardo Yogas * Comparing Spiritual Schools and Their Stages of Cultivation * Incorruptibility and Sariras * Requesting Enlightened Beings to Help You in Your Cultivation * Matching the Esoteric and Orthodox Paths 14 The Great Learning, Confucian Cultivation, and the Way to Actualize Universal Salvation Blind Faith and Superstition * Confucian Cultivation * Tan Fu and Moses * The Chinese Exodus * The Great Learning * Ming De Bright Virtue * Qin Min Loving the People * Zhi Resting in the Highest Good * The Seven Step Confucian Process for Attaining Samadhi * Transforming the World with Personal Spiritual Cultivation * Bringing Peace to the World Through the Mastery of Self-Cultivation * Purifying Your Behavior * Modern Science Lags Behind Cultivation Science * The Path Ahead Appendix The "Warning to Cultivators" Chapter of the Surangama Sutra

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Contemplate the ultimate void Remain truly in quiscence All things are together in action, But I look into their non-action. Things are unceasingly moving and restless. Yet each one is proceeding back to the origin -Tao Te Ching In order to subdue the mind act with non-action. Of movement and stillness, be aware of thier origin; There is no work to do, much less someone to seek. Responding to phenomena, you must be unconfused. When unconfused, the nature will stabilize by itself. -Excerpt from Lu Dong Bin's Hundred Character Tablet Let's not stick to just stillness or movement...When in an state of movement (thoughts, etc.) or stillness do you know the "patriarch"? Are you clear and unconfused in matters, even when dealing with the hustle and bustle of the outside world? Do you niether long for stillness nor have disdain of movement? Who is "this" enagaged in stillness or movement?

"I do not think there is anything wrong or right with following a tradition, just as there is nothing wrong or right with giving up those traditions, rather my point is that they are not needed in order to attain insight and awareness. If one seeks within they will find it, if they practice the three virtues of clarity of mind, dedication, and meditation. Dedication should not be confused with attachment, but rather a knowledge of there being something more and the practice of acquiring awareness. Then how come you aren't applyng the teachings yourself in order to really see if they are bullshit or not, instead of totally dismissing them? "So again, I will not say Buddhism is bad, or any other religion, because bad and good do not exist, but rather that one should not follow something blindly, nor view the destination as being reached by only one path, but rather we should remember that if the destination is really there, then no matter how we get there, we will know when we arrive." Then why are you always going around accusing everyone who has proven the teachings for themselves that they are brainwashed? Why go around telling people on this board that being "free" from one's afflictive states, attachments, and obscurations is not possible and cannot be attained? This is why in that spat between us in that one thread I said to get rid of all your current held beliefs, to drop them, and to really dedicate with mind and body to find out if these things that the different religions around the world are talking about are true. To really go beyond your current outlook based on conceptual constructs and rendered beliefs based on emotional opinions; to really go beyond and prove this stuff for yourself. To get as far as you can in this lifetime in determining once and for all the question of life and death.

"Recently I have had a few experiences that have shaken my understanding of the world, the "void", heartmind, and enlightenment. For that matter it has shaken my understanding of compassion and other things as well, however this thread isn't so much about that, but rather I use this as an example of how it might be useful to shake off old beliefs to gain a greater awareness of what is and isn't." What about those individuals who have proven the teachings for themselves, through direct experience? Is it brainwashing? Psychosis? "The common consensus of most people is that in order to gain an awareness of the "truth" one must be taught or guided. (Please keep in mind that I use the word truth only so that we can understand the premise of my comments within a certain context.) I do not agree with this entirely, but in all honesty I cannot discount that certain ideas led me to a greater experience, but I also must say with honesty that only after I gave up those beliefs was I able to achieve an even greater degree of awareness, one that called into question and discounted many of the "truths" I held." What if someone were to progress , through realization of a particular set of teachings, to a point where they start to realize that people are fundamentally not seperated from trancendent wisdom awareness and the innate freedom from afflictions and mental suffering experienced in one's life? That because they attach to "false thoughts" that they perpetuate thier experience of mental suffering/afflictive states and continue to create bad karma by continually following habitual tendencies that are deepely ingrained in the consciousness of an individual. "From my experience what I can say without doubt is that every man and woman, regardless of who they are or where they come from, has the ability to achieve this awareness, that it requires no guidance, but in some instances may require prompting, simply because many of us are led to believe that something other than, or more, doesn't exist, and rather what is true and real is what we've been taught to believe is true and real." I agree that we all have the innate potential to realize self-nature, but there is so much obscurations and karmic habit energy and clinging that the possibility of going astray or getting attached to a mental realm or phenomenal appearence; most poeple don't have enough inborn wisdom to guide themselves out. What I meant was getting guidence from someone who is more experienced in meditation. As for the other thing I was talking about there are many texts from different traditions on how to apply different meditations in order to reach "higher" meditative states i.e.: Learning from the worlds different texts on how to apply whatever meditation technique, the transformations in mind/body that start to happen as someone apply's meditation, the meditative absorptions that one can reach through applied meditation, and the succesive steps one can take to proceed further towards realization. Though I have to ask: What's wrong with studying the world's traditions? Even Shakyamuni Buddha went all over India, studying under different teachers; though he eventually found out that they didn't lead to what he was seeking and eventually left those teachers.