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| Who is The Buddha? Are YOU The Buddha? |
In addition to being a shamanic
practitioner I am also ordained as a Buddhist Samana in the Hongaku Jodo
Compassionate Lotus tradition. The word “shaman”
is generally believed to have originated from the Evenk language (Tungusic) of North
Asia. I think (and because I’m not a
linguist I just 'think" because I don't know) that they may have gotten the world from India via China. After all “sramana” (श्रमण) is a Sanskrit work and “Samana” (समण ) is a Pali word; and
both words mean “one who strives” although it is also taken by some to mean, “one
who knows”.
There are some
surprising parallels between shamanism and Buddhism. For example, when compared to the “Book”
religions, Buddhism and shamanism have a surprising lack of formal doctrines. In addition, the Buddha avoided speculations
about the existence of deity. His dying
words are reported to have been, "Be a lamp unto
yourselves." or in other words, be your own light, your own authority,
your own Buddha. A common
Zen Koan attributed to Linji is, “If you meet the Buddha,
kill him.” Zen master Shunryu Suzuki wrote in Zen
Mind, Beginner's Mind, “Kill the Buddha if the Buddha exists somewhere
else. Kill the Buddha, because you should resume your own Buddha nature. One is only able to see a Buddha as he exists
in separation from Buddha, the mind of the practitioner is thus still holding
onto apparent duality.”
Apparent duality means separation. I am me, and you are you, and we are both separate. Both shamanic practitioners
and Buddhists see the inherent oneness in all things. You are and I are not separate. To quote the Beatles in The Walrus, “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.” In addition to oneness, Buddhist and
shamanic practitioners share some other common views.
The
attitude of non-duality gives both traditions a deep sense of intimacy with the
natural world. My training by Andean
shamans gave me an understand and respect for the spirits of the natural
world. When The Buddha attained his enlightenment
he was challenged by demons who questioned, “You have no right to the seat of
enlightenment. Who bears witness to your
right?” The Buddha touched the ground
with his finger and Earth thundered
back, “I bear witness!”
When
I want to take a shamanic journey I enter the earth. When a monk asked Master Gensha where to
enter Zen the Master responded with a question, “Can you hear the babbling
brook?”. The monk replied, “Yes.” and
Master Gensha told him, “Then enter there.”
As a
Buddhist when I meditate I close off the outside world and enter an inner
world, or in Zen terminology, to take a step backwards. Meditation is not an
end unto itself. Rather it is a way of
training the mind to avoid needless attachment, to free my mind from distractions,
and to just be. Way too often I am a human doing not a human being. Meditation
gives me a chance to just be. Listening
to the drum in a shamanic journey also frees my mind from other external and
internal distractions so that I can just be in an alternate reality.
Many
Buddhist, including Zen and Tibetan, take the bodhisattva vow, a vow to postpone personal liberation to help
others achieve enlightenment.
Essentially it means that I vow not to enter nirvana until we can all
enter together. Traditional shamans live
in a tribal setting and their role is to serve their tribe or community. Shamanic practitioners live outside this
close tribal setting but I see the world as my “tribe” and my role is one of
service (one of the reasons I left a promising career in public accounting to
become an academic, and why I have abandoned my academic career several times
to accept roles in development projects in lesser-developed countries in places
most people would not go on vacation).
Service to others is everything.
It doesn't really matter where you serve. I doesn't matter if you serve your family, your community or the world. What matters is that you serve others. Think globally, act locally and find ways to
serve in whatever path you follow to be of service to others. Here
are some questions to meditate on today:
1. What
path do I follow?
2. How
can I best describe it?
3. Why
do I follow it? (Because my parents did
the same is probably not a very good answer.)
4. How
can I be of service to others as I walk my path?
Peace,
Dr.
Dave / Keisho Ananda
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