Question about Buddhism and Eastern Spiritualism: I am having difficulties understanding what ones True Self..?

is supposed to be, if not ones body or individual soul(like in Christianity)?





It seems they are speaking about some other part of us which is eternal and unchanging, like some kind of universal soul, which is the base of all things??? formless consciousness???


And so one can when liberated, even watch ones own death calmly, because ones true self is not the body and liberation has cleared this ignorance.


any help understanding this better????





2nd Question:


They also speak of Being, to simply be. watching one self and body from a detached position(as ones TRUE SELF?), and simply experiencing or existing. What does it mean to simply BE??


Is it to have awareness that one exists???





Can anyone clear up these two question for me??


English is not my mother tongue.Question about Buddhism and Eastern Spiritualism: I am having difficulties understanding what ones True Self..?
the universe is like an ocean


and all people animals things plants molecules and everything else


are wavesQuestion about Buddhism and Eastern Spiritualism: I am having difficulties understanding what ones True Self..?
G You are reading from texts whose aim is to wind you up in endless speculation so that you keep paying the monks to explain.


Buddhism is, at its heart, not speculation, but observation.


Life is changeable.


Causes produce Effects.


Life is both visible and not visible, like body and mind.


In the fifth century Vasubandhu put into his works an idea that became ';One thought, three thousand aspects.'; This is complicated, but explains how the mind creates results in the environment.


This was still difficult and required 20 years of leisure time to comprehend. 600 years later Nichiren figured it all out so that ordinary people can comprehend the entire nature of life based on observable facts.


The formula he devised uses Japanese words because other languages aren't succint enough to produce a usable formula.


I have translated it into modern terms and called it MEME. Then I saw a program about Rumi and realized his yearning can be realized too, so I added FUPU.





Make Efforts More Effective %26amp;


Find the Unification of the Physical and the Universal


Generalist 鈥揓une 7, 2009





You can believe what others tell you and you can learn through your own study and observation. The two are not opposite, but different uses of consciousness. Learning is a better use of consciousness than believing and a clear, well informed, mind makes your efforts more effective.





It is great to accumulate knowledge, and greater to find beneficial uses for it, yet, the vastness of the universe, and our ignorance of it, preclude knowing everything. It is also not necessary to know everything.


To function much better than usual and optimize life, start by observing what you can see and systematizing it. Then remove all the repetition and all the advice and everything you were ever told is true. Keep only what is verifiable. What you wind up with is that things change. Causes produce effects and life is both tangible and intangible. The fact is that if you choose to guide your life by those simple observations, you will be way ahead of almost everyone. If you want to package those concepts into a system, use the following observations. It is necessary to:





Focus intention 鈥?NAM-. Understand the basic relevant realities like the inseparability of tangible and intangible-MYOHO.





MYOHO is also the union of the physical and universal that everyone is seeking in religion and inventing different names for. See Rumi鈥檚 poetry for an indication of this ubiquitous yearning.





Realize that causes produce effects-RENGE. Understand that change never stops- KYO. This is motion and continuity-like a river. No one is stuck.


Reciting the formula that includes all of these basic realities in a short form produces results. Why? It works because the human mind is heavily biased toward language. It鈥檚 in Japanese because the topic can鈥檛 be expressed as succinctly in another language, and its originator lived in 13th century Japan.


This process clears the mind for greater comprehension. It is not magic, it is cognitive exercise. It doesn鈥檛 replace focused effort toward your goals. It makes those efforts more effective.





Put your palms together and recite the formula for a great life (Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.) It works better when you find a support group at SGI. This summation of life's realities is the basic truth which anyone can use to enhance life. The dichotomies and contradictions disappear as fast as you allow them to.





What have I gained since I started to use this formula?


Unknown artistic ability discovered. That ability led to success.


Rebuilding of an unhappy, isolated, paranoid, chain saw personality to being a middle class nice guy with all the friends I want.


Money is much better.


Professional ability is much better.


Met and married the woman of my dreams 16 happy years ago.


Comprehensions added.


The comprehension required to help hundreds of people change their lives to happy success. Success as they individually defined it


Source(s):


1) Nichiren Daishonin, by way of Daisaku Ikeda


2 )http://www.sgi.org 鈥揻or a variety of reasons, some of the terminology used in some writings of SGI sound religious, but the intention of the founder was that people uncover their inherent enlightenment without requiring any outside agency.