The following are excerpts from my journal...A Study in Transcendence...I call it. Writing is a meditative exercise for me. I'm posting these excerpts merely to share and discuss. I've no interest in debating for I've no intention to convince anyone. Its long and tedious. Further, I know this forum so I'll preemptively say that if your only point in participation is mockery (and you know who you are), I suggest that you get a life and find something more worthy of your time.

A central concept in Buddhist philosophy...in nearly all Eastern philosophies (including Near East- and Far East-) for that matter...is impermanence (time, characteristic) and emptiness (space, characteristic) of both being and form. In a reality laden with matter and characterized by both time and space, it is one of the most difficult concepts to grasp. A pupil will spend many years in contemplation of it before taking on the mantle of 'Buddhist'. Even still, some may never grasp its true meaning and fail to become a majutsu-deshi (Japanese, 'disciple of the true art', may also be translated as 'student' or words of similar context 'of the pure art'). Although majutsu and deshi are both Japanese terms, they are not exclusive to the Shingon Buddhism, or, mistakenly, Buddhism's equivalent 'Left Hand Path', in which they are commonly employed. Here, I will use the terms to highlight the difference between the common exoteric Buddhist and the less common esoteric Buddhist. I will use deshi rather than student or pupil, for it denotes teachings learned by experience and apprenticeship rather than through scholarly reading and mundane practice. A deshi signifies devotion. A majustu (user of the pure art) is then preferred over 'practitioner'.

Some may question why I selected the compound majutsu, given its 'dark' and 'magical' connotations. It was for no other reason than to incite the question itself and point out that ma (Mara) carries a deeper meaning of samsara. Samsara is the observed reality. Thus, majutsu comes to mean having power over samsara rather than remaining trapped in the endless cycles of explicate reality. A deshi, then, understands that, as with all 'magick', the magi or majutsu manipulates reality to conform to will. Ultimately, samsara is seen as the root of suffering, hence 'evil', and liberation from it as 'good' or 'pure'. All beings desire to attain peace (shanti or santi (sanskrit)) or liberation from suffering (the root of such being samsara) but this hidden santimarga (path to peace) is not for all beings. Rather, it is only for those who can attain peace no other way, for their very longing for wisdom causes them intense suffering. Further, it is no matter, either, that I use Japanese terms even when speaking of other non-Japanese esoteric teachings, for they all significantly derive from the same central, archetypal concepts. And therein lies the 'hidden thread' which forms esoteric Buddhism...concept and symbol.

Concept is to symbol as 1]thought is to energy and 2]as to energy is to matter. Concept (thought) proceeds all. It is potential and, therefore, non-being. Thus, concept exists outside of the perimeters of space and time. It has the characteristics of impermanence and emptiness. It does not yet have form or being but it does have existence (ceasing to exist is a misconception of the Buddhist 'impermanence'). It is the highest, purest existence. It is what one would call the substratum that forms the implicate order (symbolic, whole 'cosmic' ocean) where as, being, from its subtlest forms to its gross manifestations, shapes the explicate order (symbolic, waves peaking on the ocean). Further, being, here, should not be taken to mean a 'thing' but, rather, a state of existence. Hence, in existence, there is being and non-being. Existence, or the state of existing, is permanent. But being and non-being, states of existence, are both impermanent. One must draw the distinction between 'existing' and 'existence'. One easy way to understand the distinction, as it applies here, is that existing is 'moving', hence changing (impermanent) and existence is stationary, hence fixed (permanent).

Understanding these distinctions and 'what is truly meant' is esoteric Buddhism. It is jutsu, the pure art. The 'hidden meaning within' way of teaching is, itself, a lesson, for one might even say that whereas all of Buddhism is a symbol, esoteric Buddhism is the concept or 'truth' embodied within the symbol. All of existence and existing is embodied within symbols. One needs only to look within to discern the meaning of what one sees without.

It would be impossible to discuss the whole body of esoteric knowledge, to illustrate the implicate patterns and the connections between. Much must realized through experience rather than revealed through teachings. Every individual's path unfolds uniquely but, certainly, our guides may point us in this direction or that direction. Although we stand at crossroads every moment of every day, we alone choose which direction we will take at any given moment. It is between those moments that the path twists and turns, never truly straight, but rising and falling like waves upon a torrential sea.

Here, I have used specific words for effect. The use of certain words, likely unfamiliar to the reader, will incite the deshi to seek out its meaning. The deshi will reflect on its significance. If the reader, that is, finds himself or herself to be a deshi. Additionally, interchanging terms from divergent paths (Chinese, dao) merely serves to illustrate the universal meanings (archetypes) contained in all. It is important to remember that the meaning always supersedes the symbol itself. Yet, there is deeper meaning still in the symbol (word) which is revealed with greater contemplation. Symbols are doorways along our paths, our mind is the key.

A deshi sees samsara (perceived reality) not as an illusion (maya) but as symbols. An illusion is defined as a distortion of the senses which alters what one perceives. Thus, reality is not an 'illusion'. Rather, people fail to understand what they perceive. Therefore, we are subject to misconception not misperception. It is those misconceptions which cause the suffering of samsara. When one begins to understand what they are perceiving then one begins to liberate themselves and others from suffering. Why, then, the contention that reality is an illusion?

Every whole thing is a symbol of all things in existence. Every order or pattern perceived (and those not perceived) is a symbol of the cosmic order and every pattern. It brings to mind William Blake's poem "To see a world in a grain of sand...And a heaven in a wild flower...Hold infinity in the palm of your hand...And eternity in an hour." Thus, an atom's pattern is symbolic of the cosmos' pattern. The cosmos' pattern is symbolic of an atom's. These patterns are what is perceived with the senses. Some refer to it as the explicate order. We call it reality. The implicate reality is what is known only through the mind itself. It is the concepts embodied within the explicate symbols we observe as reality. Again, with the concept to the symbol as the ocean to the wave. We observe the surface of the ocean and the rising and falling of the waves. This we perceive with our senses. But with our minds under contemplation, we are able to discern the whole body of the ocean beneath and that the waves are not separate things unto themselves. Thus, observed reality is not an illusion but a symbol of a far greater and ultimately incomprehensible reality.

Even in the stone age, the sages grasped the power of the symbol. By creating a symbol of an intended object and manipulating it, the shaman (tribal practitioner of magick) manifested his or her will on the object the symbol represented. This early magick gave rise to the written language. Petroglyphs gave way to pictographs, ideograms, hieroglyphs, cuneiform, etc. These archetypal symbols are universally present in all languages. Humankind learned to communicate through symbols. The subconscious mind communicates with the conscious mind via symbols. It should come as no surprise, then, that the reality is understood as symbols even if the conscious mind is no longer aware of this hidden stream of cognitive thought. The deshi, however, seeks to return his awareness there as a necessary means to liberation. That the deshi is able to do so, among other things, is what the Buddhist call 'taking refuge in the Buddha'. Taking refuge is not, as many misconstrue, the same as worshipping the Buddha or his many idols (I'll address ritual and worship more later). Buddhists do not worship Buddha. Indeed, one may be a follower of religions whilst being an exoteric Buddhist. Though it becomes impossible to be an esoteric Buddhist without altering religious beliefs. I say esoteric 'Buddhist' merely for convenience sake, for the truth is far more complex. In truth, like Buddhism itself, it is a synthesis, or totality of understanding, of all the paths to enlightenment and liberation. But this is no matter, for we see the "world in a grain of sand", the universe reflected in a single atom, a thing symbolic of all other things. It is, as the quantum physicists theorize, the implicate within the explicate and the explicate symbolic of the implicate.

This post has been edited by iwant2believe2: Aug 12 2008, 10:28 AM