path_of_one
Embracing the Mystery
As far as I have read, similar studies conducted with shamans, mystics, and priests from all sorts of religions show similar brain activity.
I don't see how that has anything to do with anything. We live in a body. Everything, including development of awareness and consciousness, will light up parts of our brain like a Christmas tree.
I think Buddhism is being misunderstood, and often is by most non-Buddhists in the West because it is a relative rarity and many people don't ever bother to get the basics correct.
Personally, I don't think you need an ego to have progress. It is neither inherently natural nor inherently social to "die to self" (as the Christians put it) or to become aware of nonself and impermanence (as I think the Buddhists would put it). The natural instinct is for the self to wish to feel that it is permanent and independent. It is not. When we awaken to this interdependency and impermancy, we are open to the type of transformation that I believe both Christ and the Buddha spoke of... a transformation that leads to presence in God, in the ground of being, and thus the end of fear and selfishness... liberation.
The two religious systems are quite different in their approach and explanatory model, but when I read Buddhist practioners' descriptions of nirvana, it is much like my own experiences of being in God's presence. By virtue of two very different cultural systems from which the religions arose, they are necessarily quite different.
But I dare to say the truth behind them is the same.
I don't see how that has anything to do with anything. We live in a body. Everything, including development of awareness and consciousness, will light up parts of our brain like a Christmas tree.
I think Buddhism is being misunderstood, and often is by most non-Buddhists in the West because it is a relative rarity and many people don't ever bother to get the basics correct.
Personally, I don't think you need an ego to have progress. It is neither inherently natural nor inherently social to "die to self" (as the Christians put it) or to become aware of nonself and impermanence (as I think the Buddhists would put it). The natural instinct is for the self to wish to feel that it is permanent and independent. It is not. When we awaken to this interdependency and impermancy, we are open to the type of transformation that I believe both Christ and the Buddha spoke of... a transformation that leads to presence in God, in the ground of being, and thus the end of fear and selfishness... liberation.
The two religious systems are quite different in their approach and explanatory model, but when I read Buddhist practioners' descriptions of nirvana, it is much like my own experiences of being in God's presence. By virtue of two very different cultural systems from which the religions arose, they are necessarily quite different.
But I dare to say the truth behind them is the same.
Last edited: