From: "Ali Kazmi" <alikazm-AT-digicom.net.pk>
Subject: Re: The wheel and the energy
Date: Sat, 6 Feb 1999 06:26:18 +0500


The hoary mendicant writes:

>I don't believe that you'll ever find an explicit statement like "this is a
>Myth, do not confuse it with religion."  That said, it is *not* a new
>interpretation.  All of the Eastern Philosophies (the "isms", hindu,
>buddhist, Jain, Tao, and some that escape me) share a common world view,
>that this world we live, work, love and die in, are the products of
>illusion; but the illusion can be pierced.  Those unable to pierce the
>illusion are condemned to follow the endless cycles of death and rebirth.
>There's more, but this is the essence.


I agree.

"What is soundless, touchless, formless, imperishable
Likewise, tasteless, constant, odorless,
without beginning, without end, higher then the great,
stable, by discerning that, one is liberated from the mouth of death"
                                                    Upanishads

But all religions operate on many levels, or rather, they are "used" on many
levels.
The emotional, the practical, the social and the mystical. Hinduism or
Buddhism are religions which lend themselves to a mystical understanding of
the universe, But how many use them that way? How many people wish to
understand the interconnectedness and underlying truths of the universe? I
feel that the percentage in any population of people with mystical desires
is relatively constant. So even prosaic religions like islam and judaism
invented sufism and the cabala to serve this minority. While in mystical
religions, only a minority use the religion mystically.

Perhaps the curve is skewed in the west. Because of the popularization of
Hinduism and Buddhism in the '60's and '70's as an alternative mysticism to
the judeo-christian cabalistic tradition (which is a bit of a pain:-), the
mystic minority adopted them, therefore all the buddhists you meet are
mystically inclined. *grin*. The immigrants seeing which way the wind is
blowing, would also tend to adopt a more "socially" mystical view.

I know the above is a gross simplification, but I am really interested in
this. We have a hindu minority here in Pakistan, and I have been to India on
numerous occasions (Fatima, my wife, is an Indian), so I have had chance to
observe different caste hindus in their natural environment. :-). and
recently, the Maharishi World Television has started brodcasting in
India-Pakistan. They hardly get any viewership at all. Comparing their
programming to the normal Hindu religious TV programming, you would be
forgiven to think that these were two completely different religions.

How would you compare the American Buddhists to, say, the Taiwanese
Buddhists as a group? Or any group which has adopted a religion and one
native to it?



Ali