We’ve all probably heard this story before. But I am going to put a slight twist on it. The story goes like this. A man at night comes home and, as he goes up the stairs, he steps on what he believes to be a cobra. He is frightened almost to death. A few seconds later he finds out that it was only a rope he stepped on—not a cobra. But at the time he stepped on the rope he firmly believed it to be a cobra. He imposed a cobra reality on the rope.
The bulk of mankind is at the point in this world of just stepping on the cobra. Everything they see is real and in the end, death. They are not at the point of seeing that this world is like the rope. There is no world or cobra there—we superimposed it on absolute Mind which is unconditioned.
So far so good. But there is a problem. Although we seem to understand that things are illusory or māyā, being superimposed upon Mind, we still have not seen true reality or absolute Mind firsthand. We’ve only succeeded in going so far as to have faith that things are basically configurations of Mind. But this is not enough.
If this was Christianity (Eastern Orthodox), while many believe in God or Theos, this is not the same as becoming one with God called, theosis. Needless to say, the Catholic attitude towards theosis has been traditionally negative and would seem so with Protestants. Again, I would argue that faith is not enough even for Christians. It is okay in the beginning but still lacks direct gnosis of God this being theosis.
In Buddhism, faith that all things are just configurations of Mind or Mind-only is not enough. We still have to realize Mind face-to-face. We have to look beyond the veil of illusory phenomena to where the veil ends and Mind begins. Few, these days, want to take up this path. They believe in the reigning propaganda that we are all meat sacks and that when we die, that’s it, so might as well eat, drink and be merry.
Good Adastala, that just ain’t right
Jumping up on saints some dark night
You might keep your sword polished each night
But five on one is no fair fight
Posted by: n. yeti | May 05, 2018 at 08:27 AM
Last saturday night, in a dream, I was opening a portal through a wall with my mind, with energy flowing through my hands while uttering Namo Amitabha Buddha, in order to try and make a door. Through the portal, only golden but coloful radiance was visible. Then I scolded people for dismissing the Buddha's miraculous power. LOL!
Later that morning, I booked a cabin in a remote mountain location, with no electricity or neighbours for miles, for 6 nights. If I see Manjushri, I'll punch his lights out.
Posted by: Adasatala | May 04, 2018 at 08:21 PM
Thanks for your insight. Keep the faith!
Posted by: thezennist | May 02, 2018 at 02:26 PM
I find it helpful to understand the rope-snake metaphor as the twin-fold nature of delusion. There is not just the superimposition of the snake (a positive delusion), there is the concealment of the rope (a negative delusion). In other words, as described in the OP, it is not enough to recognize the snake is falsely imagined, one must remove the delusions which conceal the true nature of the rope.
Keep on keeping on, old timer!
Posted by: n. yeti | May 02, 2018 at 07:53 AM