A Spirit of Reverence Shared by Lama

Surya Das with whole credit to John Blofeld

A zen pupil articulates the dissimilarities between the conceptual
and also routine components of practice. This information has been
brought to our notice by Lama Surya Das who is an American lama
inside the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. He's a poet, chantmaster,
spiritual activist as well as author of several well-liked works on
Buddhism; a meditation teacher in addition to representative for
Buddhism in the west. Lama Surya Das keeps us updated about the
a variety of elements of buddhism and also meditation sometimes
with his very own discourse and sometimes via articles as well as
content that sheds light on buddhism. This piece on Buddhism
originates from John Blofeld a scholar, writer, as well as translator
of Asian philosophy as well as religion, in particular Buddhism and
also Taoism. Read on to get more information on Buddhism along
with the differences involving the conceptual along with ritual
components of practice.

Due to the fact Buddhism came to the West, inevitably some

individuals have felt, Zazen is great, sympathy is great, selfdiscipline is nice, but why all this bowing and also incense? To whom
do you offer incense and also flowers? To this all of the Buddhists
from the past and all of Asian ?Buddhists currently might answer
with one voice: Dear friends, a spirit of reverence is a must to
productive practice. Without them, enlightenment cannot be
acquired!
Prostrations and also offerings usually are admittedly simply formsjust a person's technique of articulating what cats express by
rubbing themselves alongside a much loved persons legs. If it had
been natural for individuals to stand on their own heads or maybe
stick out their rumps to convey reverence, then Buddhists could
stand on their particular heads or maybe stick out their rumps as a
matter of course. Kinds do not matter by themselves, however the
attitude of mind represented by prostrations and so forth is of
fantastic relevance to followers of the Way.

My Tibetan lama advised me at a very initial phase of my

training: Ignorant people undertake the perspective of subject
to king before a Buddha statue. Higher-level practice is
performed wholly inside the intellect. Yet even if you reach the
maximum level-hard in fact to succeed in in one lifetime-you
have to everyday alternate formless, wordless, aboveconceptual practice with bowing down in addition to making
offerings. Under no circumstances fail in that. My Chinese
Chan (Zen) coach informed me: In between your rounds of
meditation, exercise bowing, offering incense, in addition to
making circumambulations. If you have no spirit of reverence,
hardly any sense of awe for all which lies beyond the confines
of that miserably circumscribed illusion you suppose to be your
me, you'll make zero development. Why? Simply because
whenever your practice increases, you are going to reflect: I
did far better inside my meditation just now and by so
contemplating fall back to the lowest level of ignorance owing
to the actual consequent inflation of one's devilish I!
Those Zen priests who stated, Meet the Buddha, kill the

Never for one instant guess that veneration of sutras or

images is of much use in itself, consequently dont let it
replace the rest of your own practice, as uninformed
people typically do. I doubt if it actually entered those
monks minds that one day there would be individuals in
the world who'd take these kinds of powerful (and funny)
injunctions literally!
If it's wrong to have as well as symbolize attitudes of
reverence, awe, and also gratitude by prostrations in
addition to offerings, then all Buddhists happen to be
wrong for the reason that dharma was basically preached
in this current kalpa 2,500 and many more years ago.
Would it be probable that those hundreds of millions of
individuals at all levels of dedication to the actual practice
we so significantly value included not one man or woman
of correct understanding right up until Buddhism reached
America?
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