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The Role of Beliefs in Relation to the Concept
of Liberation The correct understanding comes from becoming familiar with the teachings. We cannot separate Buddhist doctrine from Buddhist meditation experiences. Because Buddhist teachings have four characteristics:
By familiarizing oneself with the teachings which have these four characteristics, one progresses. Then these teachings don't remain abstract and are appropriated in the continuum of ones own experience. They become inseparable. Outer expressions of the teachings refer to written or spoken and inner expressions of the teachings refer to our own experiences. That's why in Buddhism we have to practice meditation by trying to understand the teachings and by placing one's own experiences in the context of the teachings themselves and appreciate that they cannot be separated. The understanding that one develops from inculcating the teachings in one's own being is liberating in itself. It's not that one practices and then finds liberation, but digestion of the teachings is in itself the same as liberation. This means that the teachings are important to us not because they were given by the Buddha, but because he realized the significance of the teachings and passed them on. The authority of the teachings pre-exists. It does not come from the fact that Buddha gave and endorsed those teachings, but because he realized the full content and significance of the teachings. He was not in a privileged position, and we, disadvantaged to access the content of the teachings, as if we have a distance from the direct teachings of the Buddha in terms of time and of our nature. But by developing the proper view, by developing proper understanding through the practice of meditation, we learn the significance of the content of the teachings. And as a consequence we become liberated. The teachings themselves represent liberation. When the teachings are fully understood, they do not remain on a conceptual level. Oneself and the teachings become inseparable and that is the goal - enlightenment. Therefore, we have to appreciate the importance of developing the correct view in relation to meditation and the importance of having a comprehensive world view, of human nature, of our place in the scheme of things, and in terms of life, and one's own relations with the world we live in. All these things have to be taken into account in meditation, otherwise we only deal with one aspect of our life, otherwise our world will be fragmented - bits of this and that. Then we become confused. There are competing world views and without being a Buddhist chauvinist and believing that Buddhism has the only truth, there doesn't have to be one worldview that is true and all others wrong. We approach it from a Buddhist point of view. Teachings are a raft across the river, the finger pointing at the moon - once you see the moon you don't have to look at the finger. But don't use this example as a reason to get rid of views. The necessity of the boat and the finger, the teachings, have become assimilated into one's being. They are there to remind oneself of the fact that these conceptual tools that we use, are like transport and as soon as one is in the vehicle one is on the journey. Then the effect has already taken place and one has already been liberated. |