Wednesday 12 November 2014

a pocket guru guide to buddhist basics

Get it from the horses mouth and weigh the truth yourself. This is nirvana, living in truth, based on satori, the moment of enlightenment (assessing the truth by your own integrity). Otherwise you exist in sansara, the confused / conditioned mind. Respectability comes from faith in ones own connection with instinct. Instinct never lies. Respectability comes from honesty, actions based on truth, not on lies. Reliance on rumor, gossip, slander, to build a world view and opinions, is false rhetoric. 

This is where translating the creed splits it into two discernable levels of meaning.

Being true to your own instinct is purity of intention. The word Prana has three translations / means; instinct, life-flow (ka), energy (chi). To use these words interchangeably is to develop understanding of the message intended by the creed.

In practicality only an ascetic could maintain that level of integrity. It is described as 'wild' (rousseau's 'noble savage') by civilized peoples. This is an amusing paradox. Compromise of integrity so as to function as a social organism and/or interact with environmental limitations becomes necessary. At this stage the pure creed becomes Taoism rather than Stricture.

This leads us to the other level of interpretation of the creed. It is about social conduct. The two definitions can be described in simple terms as; Honesty with others and Honesty with ourselves.



I saw while writing this that the word 'guru' is also sanskrit, from components;

Ru - speach / 'that which issues forth' / mouth / yoni / indicative of female principle (yin - flowing)

Gu - shaped clay / 'that which has been formed of the earth' / geo / hand-crafted / indicative of male principle (yang - assertation)

Both of these are in the active rather than past tense.

U - symbolizes 'receptacle for' 



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