The calling

I just got done watching the four-hour PBS documentry, The Calling.  The documentry follows Muslims, Catholics, Evangelical Christians and Jews.  (Where are the Asian religions?  Oops!).  

I guess one can describe all of them as having been called by God to do his work.  The calling for each, however, appears to be subjective this calling going no further than the religious culture each elects to follow which is hardly ‘spiritual’.

Let’s face it, the followers of the major religions of today generally use religion for other than its intended purpose, its intended purposed being to realize one’s true nature which is absolute spirit.   A historical case in point.  The Christian Paul said that the New Covenant is one of spirit (pneuma); not one based upon letters.  Paul even says that the Lord is spirit ((O de kyrios to pneuma estin).  It is safe to say from Paul’s letters that those who take Christianity at a literal level belong to the Old Covenant which keeps the spiritual covenant veiled.    

But the obvious references to spirit or “pneuma” in Paul’s letters, as we know, did not stop the followers of Christianity from making a counterfeit Christianity which is arguably, anti-spiritual; which has been used primarily as a means of social control—mainly to keep the rich, rich and the poor, poor.  As a result of many years of being despiritualized, the Christian ministry, itself, has been transformed into a “ministry of condemnation” (II. Corinthians 3:9).  Does all this sound familiar dear Buddhists?  It should.

The same mind that made a counterfeit Christianity is busy destroying Buddhism; turing it into something which is spiritually dead.  It always seems to be the case that what emerges after the flowering of true religion, over time, paradoxically turns into a system which destroys true religion, making the soil for its growth and development, barren.  Thus religion eventually becomes its own hangman.  What is originally spirit, over time, becomes veiled.  The clergy not only become the guardians of the veil, they also become overseers and guardians of herd values, values which insure the veil will never be lifted!

Buddhism is the last stronghold of true religion which is still growing in the soil of mysticism which includes shamanism.  But its destruction is likely given the fact that it is being rapidly “westernized” which is to say, it is being turned into a religion that celebrates herd values; that, in addition, makes the profane man (prithagjana) the great hero despite the fact that this man’s history in recent memory has been one of genocide and the destruction of earth’s biosphere.

 

Comments

[Bob Morris]

Based on Java Junkie's post, I bought a used copy of "Buddhist Wisdom: The Mystery of the Self" by George Grimm.

[Bob Morris]

Interestingly,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta indicates that Advaita Vedanta was influenced by Buddhism. As a metallurgist I see Buddhism as the Iron Age crystallization/simplification of Bronze Age Indian mystical religious concepts. Don't understand why Java thinks it is dead. Does "dead" mean replaced by a better system?

[java junkie]

"last stronghold of true religion"

What hath thy been imbibing? All religions are by definition, secularized metaphysics for the common rabble. You know very well Buddhism (technically reformed Sramanism, or Advaitic Vedanta) died nearly 1700 years ago formally.

As pathetic and corrupt as all Creationism is both in premise originally, or formally in ritual and practice presently, it contains a hundredfold more metaphysics than ANY ‘form’ of current “Buddhism”, of which you know this fact is very true.

Save a very small pact of George Grimm adherents and some proto-Mahayanists in some armpit of China or Tibet, Buddhism is utterly, totally, and completely dead in the absolute, to wit you know this well. Your entire articlette here is both twaddle and laughable rubbish.

[MStrinado]

To make a long story short, the history of present-day Christendom originated in the 2nd Century wherein the esoteric, mystic-gnostic oriented strains (highlighted through Valentinianism ) of authentic followers of the Christos (the inner mystical seed of self-realization) lost out to the hard-core exoteric (serve your brother through the exclusive dogmatic social dictates of the external hierarchical Ecclesia) boys led by Irenaeus and other Church Fathers. Of course, with the advent of Constantine, this whole exoteric—church-in-your-face—business became a state-led Institutional-enterprise whose ramifications remain with us to this very day. Interesting how you raise a warning flag here in light of Western Buddhism, wherein, sadly, the emphasis once again leans toward “outer-directed” exotericism—help me improve my psychological profile and I’ll abide by your clerical, impositional (ol’ Shakyamuni must be puking) garbage—that passes as “mainline Buddhism”. Will the real ariyasâvaka please stand-up!