What a Buddhist beginner needs

The beginner is not a specialist in Buddhism.  A Buddhist beginner’s needs are much different.  The beginner requires an integrated bird’s eye view of Buddhism.  But then how do we present such a picture?  Do we present the picture historically with a list of important developments listed chronologically?  But how far can this really go in helping the beginner?  This is a question that is difficult to answer.

There are so many books about Buddhism available these days so that the beginner is more than often overwhelmed and confused.  Some of the books published are scholarly and highly technical.  Other books are cobbled together by dilettantes or opportunists, some of whom merely provide a personal interpretation of Buddhism, one not based on anything the Buddha actually taught.

When I was a beginner, the one book that I was attracted to was John Blofeld’s, The Zen Teachings of Huang Po which, by the way, is still available.  Looking back to that time, my beginner’s heart seemed to know what to look for.  The integrated bird’s eye view of Buddhism that I was looking for was a spiritual one.  I wanted to intuit what other Zen masters and the Buddha had discovered.  I wanted to see for myself what they saw.  As a beginner, the books that I was particularly drawn to helped me to gain a spiritual intuition.  

I did not find Buddhist books worth my time that were written from a psychological, self-help perspective.  These authors are using Buddhist meditation therapeutically so that the angst ridden denizens of the rat race who follow them, might become better and happier rats!  These authors ignore much of what the Buddha taught.  They are not interested in the core teaching of the Buddha which is spiritual in nature.  

I have to agree with Heinrich Dumoulin who said, “The mystical element is an essential part of Buddhism.” In fact, it is so essential there can be no authentic Buddhism without it.  Minus the mystical element Buddhism has nothing worthy to teach.  It boils down to there is no self or transcendent, all is impermanent and suffering, and death is emancipation.  But this is precisely nihilism from which the West is presently suffering.  

The only Buddhist books worth reading are those which give us a integrated bird’s eye view of Buddhism are those which contain the mystical element; in my case The Zen Teachings of Huang Po.  In such books the beginner learns in a few pages that they have to have a deep and profound intuition of pure Mind or resign themselves to prithagjana (worldling) status which is Buddhism for those who cannot distinguish spiritual light from material darkness.

 

Comments

[Kojizen]

Clyde, not all beginners are the same or like you. Still, beginners must be offered the best, not bullshit like Suzuki's Zen Mind Beginner's Mind or Batchelor's gunny sack of manure. I am thankful for beginners that The Zennist doesn't treat them like 'tards.

[Azanshi]

For beginners especially the younger generations with a short attention span and used to videos more than books, I would recommend this new zen site online;

http://www.youtube.com/user/bodhichild

The zen buddhism offered here in an audio-visual form with the latest state of the art computer voice (Ivona TTS voices), offers the beginner zen in instructive mode or modern zen art like the bodhi pearls 'A book of dreams' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do7ZByS0Buk or 'A most mysterious light' http://www.youtube.com/user/bodhichild#p/c/FC229DA47764FA40/4/ftosxWZ6d7M

My favourite is the latest uploaded zen instructive video 'Dharmavidiums (The unmoving Principle)' http://www.youtube.com/user/bodhichild#p/c/A8FC15F48CF95E41/6/gJ5aUelF43o (Intermediate Zen section). It catches the very heart of zen. Its beauty and ability to offer a simple direction towards that which matters most in this great teaching.

From what I have gathered, all this is created by a zen practicioner called bodhichild (NYC resident) in memory of his zen teacher and the zen school Unborn Mind.

Enjoy.

[clyde]

While I highly recommend John Blofeld’s The Zen Teachings of Huang Po, I would not recommend it to beginners. That said, it was one of the first books on Zen that I did read (40 years ago!) and have re-read, studied and contemplated countless times.

So, to paraphrase qbrick’s question, how is it that we started with the same seminal text and have such seemingly disparate views? I understand Huang Po’s use of the term Mind (or One Mind) as the equivalent of Dharmakaya. If you understand “Self” as a synonym for those terms, then I suppose we have no disagreement . . . unless you believe there is a Zennist’ Mind, Kojizen’ Mind, and a Clyde’ Mind, etc.

clyde

[Azanshi]

Qbrick wrote: "Would have been much more interesting to get to know what lies in between Huang Po and your present state of murky mysticism in your personal bibliophilic evolution. What is responsible for this mess you're in?"

I can answer that question.

Two things Qbrick.

First one, a vow taken eons ago yet still valid in the eyes of the Buddhas, and two and more specifically, to use the awakened and generated bodhi power in this saha realm wisely, which basically translates to tirelessly strive to save inbred, secularized, barbequing, lager swilling , incestuous redneck banging, abrahamic god freaks like you, endowed with nothing more then a stinking confederate gun loving hick brain at par with nothing more then a troglodyte, who like most neo-buddhist wannabes, tries to screw the dharma of the Buddha in every concievable way known to man.

[minx]

My Master told me;

"You are a spiritual being. You do not need any third party or religious authority telling you what you are or what you are capable of. Yet understand this; until you awake to the awesome truthbody of your original nature which is Mind Only, you certainly need a spiritual guide leading you to the other shore, where your true nature resides permanently and blissfully beyond any approach of the evil one."