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From: johnw@farside.eng.ready.com (John Wheeler)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Gone, Gone ...
Message-ID: <1991May10.171712.12795@nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 10 May 91 17:17:12 GMT
Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov
Organization: Ready Systems
Lines: 65
Approved: prabhu@amelia.nas.nasa.gov

I have enjoyed the enlightening discussions on s.r.e. over the past few weeks.
Unfortunately, my work commitments keep me from fully engaging in the
various discussions here on the net, though if I had the time I would
enjoy doing so.

Although I feel I cannot contribute much in the way of erudition and Buddhist 
scholarship, as interesting as it is, perhaps I can offer at least something
to consider. 

One thing a lot of posters to the net don't speak about is 
the value of a genuine master on the spiritual path. But any
text you read containing the teachings of an enlightened sage will
invariably point out the great good to be obtained by finding
and practicing under such a compentent guide. 

The reasons for this are several:

1) Spiritual philosophy in the true sense is not theoretical, it is
   living experience. It is more easily understood in a living
   environment, i.e. as directly conveyed by a sage. 

2) The enlightened sage provides a continuous, living example that
   the seeker can learn from. Most people that only read books 
   have no idea what an enlightened being might be like, and conjure
   up all kinds of erroneous notions about enlightenment. They easily
   go astray into all kinds of useless speculation.

3) Only a living master can provide personal, custom-tailored advice
   to fit the propensities of the seeker. A book cannot do this. While
   books provide general guidelines, they are insufficient for establishing
   the seeker in truth.

4) Practicing spirituality under a master in such a living fashion is
   generally regarded as the fastest and most certain method of
   achieving the goal of spiritual practice.

5) To find such a genuine master and practice the Dharma in the context
   of a dynamic, living environment is extremely joyful and exciting.

Fortunately, I can say this from own experience of being with and practicing
under a self-realized sage. It was not until I had the rare fortune of
meeting such spiritual master that I could even begin to appreciate the
true import of teachings given by past enlightened masters. Under his
tutelage it has become clear that the natural state of life is essentially
joyful and happy. That spiritual philosophy, far from being a rigorous
and puzzling mental conundrum, is simply the natural revelation of our
true being, inherently free and spontaneously joyful. That there is indeed
a means to experience this for oneself. That inherently all beings are
divine and eternally so. That the veil of ignorance that seems to obscure the
minds and hearts of beings to their inherent perfection is the merest
illusion born of mistaken identity and can be relinquished by right
meditation under the guidance of the illumined sage. That the path
is joyful in the beginning, the middle, and the end.

If you are interested, I am only too happy to share with you how it is
that I have found this to be so. Consider it an opportunity, an opening,
a possibility. 


Take good care,

johnw@ready.com


P.S. Take it easy on that zazen stuff will ya? :-)