Buddhism and Thelema.

[Accipeveldare]

So i just grabbed a copy of "No Death, No fear" by Thich Nhat Hanh at my local bookstore. I have been going deep into the Thelemic system lately and i could use a little insight on how Hanh's teachings could be paired with that system.

 

[BMicic]

Thích Nhất Hạnh's Zen approach and Thelema can complement each other, though they differ in important ways. Zen emphasizes non-self (anatta) and the dissolution of attachment, whereas Thelema focuses on discovering one's unique True Will and often works within a framework of ritual, symbolism, and esoteric practice. While Thích Nhất Hạnh advocated a simple, practical path grounded in mindfulness, Thelema seeks to align desires with True Will rather than transcend them altogether.

 

[solxyz]

Yeah, they're a good complement. The difference between No Self and True Self traditions is not as big a deal as a lot of people make it out to be. They're usually getting at the same thing in different ways. A solid grounding in Buddhist practice will help one understand immediately what Crowley is going on about in his often sprawling symbolic-heavy screeds.

 

[HoldAll]

Just make sure you don't confuse emptiness (shunyata) with the (frequently misunderstood) Hindu concept of maya like I did for a long time. Everything is NOT an illusion, the material world itself is as real and as solid as it gets. It's the observer that suffers from delusion, a purely subjective, perceptual phenomenon; it's not the fault of the physical world that we're fooling ourselves about it so persistently. It continues to exist the way it has always had, it's only our interpretation of it that is at fault. The emptiness as well as the no-self teachings are difficult to understand, and I think it's great that Zen is so strongly experiential and doesn't put much store by words.

The clever thing about Buddhism is that it sometimes doubles back on itself, for example when it says that striving for enlightenment may become one of the very attachments one seeks to eliminate, that it can become an obstacle in your path; it's basically an ego trap, same as devoutly clinging to the teachings of the Buddha, and that goes for other philosophies of self-development as well. Or the Buddhist stock phrase of having compassion "for all sentient beings" - for a long time, I was unaware that this also included myself until I recently read it in several books. Consequently, being hard on oneself and hating oneself for backsliding is ultimately counterproductive.

I'm currently discovering Buddhist psychology, mainly the

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, and man, it's a revelation! Some very nifty thinking has gone into those doctrines, and I think everybody could profit from studying them, not only Thelemites.

 

[Accipeveldare]

Just make sure you don't confuse emptiness (shunyata) with the (frequently misunderstood) Hindu concept of maya like I did for a long time. Everything is NOT an illusion, the material world itself is as real and as solid as it gets. It's the observer that suffers from delusion, a purely subjective, perceptual phenomenon; it's not the fault of the physical world that we're fooling ourselves about it so persistently. It continues to exist the way it has always had, it's only our interpretation of it that is at fault. The emptiness as well as the no-self teachings are difficult to understand, and I think it's great that Zen is so strongly experiential and doesn't put much store by words.

The clever thing about Buddhism is that it sometimes doubles back on itself, for example when it says that striving for enlightenment may become one of the very attachments one seeks to eliminate, that it can become an obstacle in your path; it's basically an ego trap, same as devoutly clinging to the teachings of the Buddha, and that goes for other philosophies of self-development as well. Or the Buddhist stock phrase of having compassion "for all sentient beings" - for a long time, I was unaware that this also included myself until I recently read it in several books. Consequently, being hard on oneself and hating oneself for backsliding is ultimately counterproductive.

I'm currently discovering Buddhist psychology, mainly the

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, and man, it's a revelation! Some very nifty thinking has gone into those doctrines, and I think everybody could profit from studying them, not only Thelemites.

Thank you for the explanation. Yes, I very much agree, the world is not an illusion. I would have thought once you pulled the curtain (crossing the abyss, ego death, samadhi, etc) it would just be seen in its rawest form.