to what extent does lineage create reality?

[Yoda]

I wonder if a cultivation system's lifestyle guidelines have less applicability for someone who doesn't practice within that system?

[Taomeow]

I wonder if a cultivation system's lifestyle guidelines have less applicability for someone who doesn't practice within that system?

Great question.

 

Choosing a lineage is like choosing a subspecies to belong to. If you follow the seagull lineage, and someone else, the whale lineage, you shouldn't bother teaching him how to lay eggs properly, where to fly to take shelter from the storm, and how to maintain down-and-feather hygiene.

 

Human masters do it all the time though. How many rabbits I've heard preach to the tiger about vegetarianism, I can't begin telling you. How many black widows, while munching on their mate, will explain to you that true love means becoming one with your loved one in exactly this manner and no other, I've lost count. How many online taoists... you catch my drift, right?

[Smile]

Choosing a lineage is like choosing a subspecies to belong to. If you follow the seagull lineage, and someone else, the whale lineage, you shouldn't bother teaching him how to lay eggs properly, where to fly to take shelter from the storm, and how to maintain down-and-feather hygiene.

Otherwise, we would have a a feathered whales flying to NYC to lay eggs. "Whale watching" would have a new meaning.

[宁]

Great question indeed...

 

I would add to that question another one. To what extent can one "choose" a lineage.

 

Yoda, I think lineage is like being a mason... it's a farfetched comparison, isn't it?

[Yoda]

Along the same lines then... there is a set of rules that all animals must follow, but they manage it in many different and often contradictory ways.

 

I like that... thanks!

 

I practiced within the Kagyu lineage for 7-8 years and I had a Kagyu teacher tell me (paraphrased): "You aren't really a Buddhist, you know. It's a good affiliation for you right now, but it's not your thing long term."

 

Interesting question about how free one is to choose.

[Mal]

Choosing a lineage is like choosing a subspecies to belong to.

 

Love the analogy

 

I also think there is a lot of power in thought forms/archetypes that are created by a lineage or tradition.

 

i.e. if you are in a lineage or tradition where people have put their energy into beleifes over time. You can pick up on that energy without having to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Want to go to heaven? If you are a Buddhist call on Amitābha Buddha, Christian call on Jesus.

 

But a lineage or tradition will also be restrictive, if you follow it, you must stay on the "correct" path.

 

Choice...is is a "modern" problem? We have so much choice these days. Or it seems so.

I did chose to do Tai Chi but I stuffed about for years doing it till I found a good local teacher and started to make progress. I didn't "chose" to learn Tong Long, it was the only think in physical proximity to me, and I chose it because I wanted to stay with my teacher. Only over time did I come to appreciate Tong Long as an Art. I chose to do Kunlun, but circumstances didn't "click" for what I "wanted". I didn't chose KAP, again it was the only thing available to me, distance learning over the net. And much like Tong Long I feel I have found a diamond in the coal.

 

So before the net and easily available books, we would only be seagulls who have never even seen a whale

[YMWong]

It is not actually 'the lineage' that creates reality: our reality is only a projection of our minds.

 

Let me make an example.

 

In daoism there is a lot of work done with the hands and their connection to the microcosm and the macrocosm. I have been involved with various sects and have learned different systems of, for instance, the correspondance of Stars and/or internal organs to different part of the hands.

Those are utilized during practice and produce *real* (visible) results ... so one would tend to think that there is a (one) specific CORRECT system.

 

Well, I have learned OPPOSITE systems and practiced (separately) only to find that they BOTH work.

Whic is not to say 'everything is the same' or 'everything works' of course, but - when properly taught by somebody who has the right experience - everything works in its specific complete system.

 

So for a Daoist who has learned the proper 'mijue' (oral transmission) he will know that all the 'spirits' he works with are only a projection of his own mind and thus said - for an external viewer - it is hard to believe so and see the depth of respect it is given to ritual.

 

YM

[Yoda]

YM, very interesting!!

 

Mal, some psychologists say that greater choice correlates with discontent which could be problematic to a tbum!