A lot of our recent discussion focused on questions about the basics of Buddhism and how we can learn about them.� This isn't easy. There is a cacophony of information, and oceans of books and articles written from infinite perspectives. You can read 20 books about Buddhism and get 20 contradictory views, and still miss learning anything about the basics.
And I don't mind mentioning that at least half of the people writing and lecturing about Buddhism in the West don't know dharma from doughnuts. Just sayin'.
Here is some basic advice:
Studying books and learning doctrines -- although valuable -- will only take you so far. Genuine understanding only comes through practice. The dharma reveals itself in life experiences and will take you to places concepts and words and descriptions cannot reach.
For that reason, at some point you have to just trust the practice and jump in and start swimming. If you hold back waiting for it all to "make sense" first, you'll never start.
IMO the most common problem in practice is "sticking." By "sticking" I mean thinking that your present understanding is all there is to know. This seems to be a particular problem for people in a solo practice, because they can too easily become satisfied with their understanding when there's no one around to challenge that understanding.
Most of us benefit enormously from working personally with a teacher. A good teacher will help keep you from sticking to flawed conceptual understanding. Even if you have to travel to personally see the teacher and can do so only once or twice a year, it can make a difference.
Work in one tradition. Ironically, the deeper you go in one tradition, the more you see the depth, and commonalities, in all traditions. Conversely, people who never put down roots in one tradition seem to have a superficial understanding of all of them.
After some time you might decide to leave the school you started in and work in another one, and that's fine, but if you are flitting around without putting down roots anywhere your understanding is unlikely to go very deep, either.
If you are fairly new to Buddhism and it all seems simple -- I assure you, it is infinitely complicated. There's a lot you aren't seeing. However, if you've been practicing a while and it seems too complicated -- really, it's very simple.
By this I mean that people in the beginning often latch onto some simple formula -- all you need is compassion, or mindfulness, or meditation. Then those people grow a "Buddhist" persona that is nicer or more focused or something than their old persona. But that's just wrapping yourself in another layer of delusion. So if it all looks simple, there's a lot you aren't seeing.
On the other hand, at some point you might get a glimmer of what practice really is, and feel overwhelmed by it. And then if understanding seems as futile as trying to break up a glacier with a tiny ice pick ... congratulations! You're a real dharma student!
As your insight grows, however, you see that it's only complicated because you are complicated.� And as someone said to newbie me, when I complained about the glacier and the ice pick -- sometimes the sun comes out, and the ice melts. So keep chipping.
No comments:
Post a Comment