Rewriting the Buddha

He tried all their spiritual exercises, and tried to immerse himself in the love of God. But somehow he never felt that he succeeded. Love, yes, he could feel plenty of that — open, charitable love. But when he was told that the love of God was higher than that, that he must resign himself utterly, he was filled with a recognition, not just that he could not give up his human love, but that this was not the right path, not quite.

He could not resign himself to God, any more than he could resign himself to the authority of his parents. Not that he could not live like that obediently for a while, but there was a more important moral urge within him. After two years, the Prince came up to the Bishop and told him he had decided to move on. I need to move on. Where will you go? What will you do? Somehow I will find a way. So the Prince went forth once again. After leaving the house of the Bishop, he wandered up into the hills. He sat on a rock amongst the heather looking down at the town below, considering.

In his first life, he reflected, he had had every desire fulfilled, yet he had been under the power of his parents at every minute. Their suffocatingly conventional beliefs about good princely behaviour had been the only value he knew, but those beliefs were built on — what? Convention, tradition, social status, family honour.

Other Subject Areas

In his second life, on the other hand, his desires had been well-controlled, his life disciplined by religious beliefs. But what were these beliefs based on? In some ways this life seemed to be opposite to the first, but in many ways it was also the same.

There were many social expectations, there was authority, and there was his will, apparently opposed to that authority. Did goodness only consist in obedience? He could not understand how that could be so. Did either of these ways of life help the young woman with the dead child in her arms, or her kind?

The young woman suffered from not being free, from being exploited by the rich and by men, from not being educated or able to judge for herself, from not being able to realise her potential. Those who based their teachings on power, whether it was the power of God or of human traditions, would not address her needs.

It was not that the Prince did not believe in God, he decided, it was that he did not feel that God was an authority that he should follow. The right way to judge, the right way to live his life — that did not come from authorities, but from the sense of balance within his experience. At last the Prince was clear. He did not need to look any further for a profound truth.

All he needed was a direction, a method of thinking. If he knew how to judge the right direction in any situation, he would know how to act.

• Internal Primates Forever.
• Want to add to the discussion?;
• An ethical approach to a better life, by integrating desires and avoiding dogmatic extremes;
• Reward Yourself.
• Welcome to Reddit,.
• How to Stay Protected From the European Banking Crisis;
• Buddhism and Modern Literature - Buddhism - Oxford Bibliographies.

He realised that he should learn from whoever he met, that they would all help him understand the world around him, but that he should live life on his own terms. When someone told him what to do, he should listen and weigh their views, but not accept their power over him. He would make his own decisions, not in reaction but in discourse, open but firm. As the sun set, the Prince loped down the hill. Half an hour later, he had found a stagecoach to take him to the town by the palace.

The next day, he walked into the castle, past the astonished servants, but did not first go to see his parents. He went to see his wife and son and embraced them. I needed to work out how to live my life, but now I am clearer. The first thing I suggest is that you must move out of this castle. I cannot come back to live here. We need a place of our own. Anyone familiar with the life of the Buddha should recognise here a somewhat transmogrified version of the earlier part of it.

I take the early life of the Buddha, not as a piece of history though it may also, at least in some respects, be that but as an inspiring parable. I feel entirely free to alter the telling of any parable so as to bring out one aspect or another of its message, for its significance lies in the universal patterns it reveals, not in particular historical claims. In this case, the message of the parable is the nature of the Middle Way , so I felt that this message could be brought out more directly for a Western audience by transposing the story to a more Western setting I imagine England a few centuries ago, but please do not let us get caught up on details of historical accuracy that are no more relevant to the significance of the story here than they would have been in ancient India.

I, however, am not so much interested in this supposed achievement as in the approach or method he was said to have used to achieve it — the Middle Way.

What is Kobo Super Points?

Placing the discovery of the Middle Way in England also enables it to be shorn of many cultural accretions that are merely Indian, and to explore what such a discovery might have meant if it had happened in England. Whilst it is very easy at least, for me, with a thoroughly universalised account of its meaning to place the discovery of the Middle Way in England, it would be much more difficult to imagine the enlightenment, loaded as it is with specific cultural and religious expectations from its Indian context, taking place in England.

Added to this, I do not think it is at all significant whether or not the enlightenment took place.

It may have done for all I know, but this supposed achievement is very often made the basis of authority claims in the Buddhist tradition that in my view are not compatible with the Middle Way. At the very least, then, it needs to be omitted from the story here, so as to provide a clear and uncluttered account of the recognition of the Middle Way.

The most significant lines of the story, however one chooses to flesh them out, are of a confined young person in a place of highly conventional and thus relative values, followed by a traumatic confrontation with the full difficulties of wider conditions. In an attempt to be adequate to these wider conditions, and with an intuition of a deeper meaning, the young man leaves the scene of his confined youth and wanders the wider world.

He then learns from religious teachers who offer a supernaturally-authorised, highly disciplined way of life. Although he learns much from this training, it does not fulfil what he is intuitively looking for and he moves on. After engagement with both these extremes, then, learning from each but in the end firmly moving on, the young man hits on the Middle Way: Such avoidance of dogmas, positive or negative, will enable him to avoid delusions that cause limitations on both sides and engage more effectively with conditions of all kinds.

How to Meditate to Improve Your Life: The Little Prayer Book. N is for A New Sky with Osho. Essence of the Heart Sutra. His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The Long Discourses of the Buddha. The New Heart of Wisdom. Be a Light Unto Yourself. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Refuge in the Three Jewels eBook. The Book of Equanimity. Realization Into Hermetics Initiation. The Ceasing of Notions. Freeing the Heart and Mind. His Eminence Sakya Trizin. The Complete Jataka Tales. The Hands of the Buddha. The Buddha's Three Jewels.

1. Winter (A Very Special Dog Book 9)!
2. The Middle Way: Rewriting the Buddha’s life | Middle Way Society.
3. Nur Du, und nur Ich: Roman in sieben Schritten (German Edition).
4. La última oportunidad (Spanish Edition).
5. CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE INDIAN SPIRITUAL SOUL.

How to write a great review. The review must be at least 50 characters long. The title should be at least 4 characters long. Your display name should be at least 2 characters long. At Kobo, we try to ensure that published reviews do not contain rude or profane language, spoilers, or any of our reviewer's personal information. You submitted the following rating and review. We'll publish them on our site once we've reviewed them.

03-08-13 Buddhism and the 12 Steps, Pt. 5

Item s unavailable for purchase. Name calling, harassment or trolling will not be tolerated. Posts disparaging other subreddits will be removed. No pictures with text, including memes and memetic videos. Posts with New Kadampa Tradition-supporting content will be removed. Please place your meditation and drug related experiences in the weekly meditation thread. What is the actual question, and why are you asking? What are you looking for in an answer?

Welcome to Reddit, the front page of the internet. Become a Redditor and subscribe to one of thousands of communities. Want to add to the discussion?