Greater Reality Forum
 
Re: A message


Message written by

Craig
April 20, 2006 at 06:18:38:

In Reply to
A message
posted by
Tsukasa Sakai
April 19, 2006 at 14:17:21:

 
Hello Tsukasa,

I greatly admire the Zen practices because they liberate the mind from the bonds of the physical realm. And without the weight of the physical realm chaining the spirit to the world, the spirit rises naturally toward understanding and evolves.

An understanding of the Greater Reality is the same as the third Noble Truth. Enlightenment brings an end to suffering when the individual learns not to cling to anything called me or mine.

Significantly, however, I believe in a very personal Universe. The Greater Reality is imbued with love, care, and intelligence. Sentient beings and consciousness are all at their base loving, caring, and intelligent. Individuals do evolve to higher levels of being, often helping each other in the progress, and being helped by the Greater Consciousness. To have a loving, compassionate society, we need only remove the mire of the physical realm, and we need to do it as individuals. We each need to wake up.

To have full awakening will require a Jewel Community that carries each individual toward awakening so the individual can finish the journey, with continued help. But the help comes not only from the tradition and the continuing influence of the presence of the Buddha, but from continual contact from the Ancestors and from that intelligent, loving, caring Universe that overarches all consciousness.

And all of that occurs in the normal day-to-day lives people live in the physical realm. Caroline Myss calls it "earth school." And I know Robert Thurman talks about Buddhism as being educational, not "religious" in the Western sense.

So I think the difference between my conception of the Greater Reality and the Zen tradition is that the Greater Reality is personal, loving, and active in the evolution of each individual and the community. Whether it's called a Higher Power, the Divine, God, or Allah, the Universal Soul is personal and encouraging.

Let me know whether that is what you see as well.

Craig


 



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