365 Tao - ADORATION

[Encephalon]

ADORATION

 

Images on the altar,

Or imagined within:

We pray to them,

But do they answer?

 

 

The wise tell us how important adoration is. So we kneel before altars, give offerings, and make sacrifices. In our meditations, we are taught to see gods within ourselves and to make supplications to receive power and knowledge. This we do with great sincerity, until the masters say that there are no gods. Then we are confused.

 

The statue on the altar is mere wood and gold leaf, but our need to be reverent is real. The god within may be nothing but visualization, but our need for concentration is real. The attributes of heaven are utopian conjectures, but the essence of these parables is real. The gods, then, represent certain philosophies and extraordinary facets of the human mind. When we devote ourselves to gods, we establish communion with these deeper aspects.

 

The thought that we are worshipping symbolism may make us uncomfortable. We are educated to accept only the tangible, the scientific, and the material. We doubt the efficacy of adoring the merely symbolic, and we are confused when such reverence brings about genuine personal transformation. But worship does affect our feelings and thoughts. When the wise say that there are no gods, they mean that the key to understanding all things is within ourselves. External worship is merely a means to point within to the true source of salvation.

[Encephalon]

Joseph Campbell couldn't have said it better.

 

Well... come to think of it, he did!

[Marblehead]

When the wise say that there are no gods, they mean that the key to understanding all things is within ourselves. External worship is merely a means to point within to the true source of salvation.

 

I just wanted to repeat this.

 

Peace & Love!

[Encephalon]

When the wise say that there are no gods, they mean that the key to understanding all things is within ourselves. External worship is merely a means to point within to the true source of salvation.

 

I just wanted to repeat this.

 

Peace & Love!

 

You must've read Joseph Campbell too! I'll have to dig up what he said exactly - it's perfect.

[Marblehead]

You must've read Joseph Campbell too! I'll have to dig up what he said exactly - it's perfect.

 

Hehehe. Actually, I have not read any of his works. It is just that I agree so much with that quote. Even though I am not a religious person I really am not anti-religion because I understand how religion helps many people to find a way to live. But regardless of which god one prays to the answers they get are answers that already were within themselves, they just didn't know how to access the information. Religion points to that information. Some listen, some don't.

 

Yes, I would enjoy seeing exactly what he said concerning this subject. Thanks.

 

Peace & Love!

[Encephalon]

[Marblehead]

[3bob]

Blasto, What happened to your little flying furry guy? (replaced by the Hollywood model)

 

Is your soul and human beingness just some type of metaphor or more than that?

 

Anyway, some gods and goddess are also in fact souls, existing long before mankind as a different order of Beings than humans. (and not just as basic elemental forces) As for the gods that humans made up, well there are some of those also.

 

Om

[Encephalon]

Blasto, What happened to your little flying furry guy? (replaced by the Hollywood model)

He is the Phoenix arisen, and (s)he's from Romania, not Holloywood. How dare you.

 

Is your soul and human beingness just some type of metaphor or more than that?

Uh.....

 

Anyway, some gods and goddess are also in fact souls, existing long before mankind as a different order of Beings than humans. (and not just as basic elemental forces) As for the gods that humans made up, well there are some of those also.

 

Right. And this knowledge was imparted to you how? I don't go around wearing my Buddhist practice on my sleeve, but I don't like metaphysical indulgences any more than the Buddha did. It's so far beyond the realm of verifiability and falsifiability that we can all sit around and discuss it with turnips. This was never an emminently practical way to spend one's time. Sorry.

Om

[3bob]

ok, but the little furry guy was fun.

 

Buddhist practice ... well the Buddha gave direct witness to various god type beings, was that also an indulgence?

 

beans and rice with some onions and tomatoes...

[Marblehead]

beans and rice with some onions and tomatoes...

 

Now we're talking reality!

 

Peace & Love!

[3bob]

Now we're talking reality!

 

Peace & Love!

 

[Encephalon]

ok, but the little furry guy was fun.

 

Buddhist practice ... well the Buddha gave direct witness to various god type beings, was that also an indulgence?

 

beans and rice with some onions and tomatoes...

 

He was a participant in the religious and philosophical realities of his day, back in the Iron Age, and still coversed through those vocabularies. He was disgusted with the rigid Hindu orthodoxies that he witnessed, and simply argued that working out your own salvation in the Here and Now was a worthier enterprise than estimating the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin

[3bob]

He was a participant in the religious and philosophical realities of his day, back in the Iron Age, and still coversed through those vocabularies. He was disgusted with the rigid Hindu orthodoxies that he witnessed, and simply argued that working out your own salvation in the Here and Now was a worthier enterprise than estimating the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin

 

Righto Blasto,

Although orthodoxies (being the nature of the creature) come in every shape, form, and formlessness, including those in Buddhism. Btw, I'm sure he was very thankful for his "Hindu" background related teachers that helped him attain the many liberations on the head of a pin.

[Encephalon]

Righto Blasto,

Although orthodoxies (being the nature of the creature) come in every shape, form, and formlessness, including those in Buddhism. Btw, I'm sure he was very thankful for his "Hindu" background related teachers that helped him attain the many liberations on the head of a pin.

 

I can only imagine that he would categorize his Hindu background as the fertilizer of his awakening, inasmuch as we all imbue the transitory nature of our lived experience with value. He was unequivocal about his rejection of Hinduism, however. He was a radical and an iconoclast, and there many alive today who are still holding to ancient animosities, some as bitter as those that emanate out of the Middle East.

[3bob]

I can only imagine that he would categorize his Hindu background as the fertilizer of his awakening, inasmuch as we all imbue the transitory nature of our lived experience with value. He was unequivocal about his rejection of Hinduism, however. He was a radical and an iconoclast, and there many alive today who are still holding to ancient animosities, some as bitter as those that emanate out of the Middle East.

 

I'd call it his human backgroung that happened to be related to Hinduism which just as easily could have been related to Buddha-ism, if that term had been common. As I'm sure you know, such rafts serve a purpose but are not carried ashore after that purpose is served. Hanging around beating up on rafts is ultimately counter-productive compared to sailing on.