Tag: philosophy

The Eastern tradition emphasizes the need for a spiritual master. As if there were a lot of them… But it is remarkable in the Orientals the living notion that there is a component of knowledge that cannot be transmitted through books, that is, something apprehensible only through the very rare direct experience or through revelation from master to disciple. What impresses is the true veneration for the ancestors, for the wise, and furthermore for the maintenance of the tradition of, through a few individuals, establishing a link between very distant generations through knowledge passed on individually to handpicked disciples. Not even the mighty time seems strong enough to break the solid chain that the Orientals have established to transmit the enlightenment of dozens of centuries ago.

Tsongkhapa, in English translation:

So the freedoms consist in freedom from the eight unfree states. Among the eight unfree states, the four unfree states of humans are (1) living in a remote and savage land where the four kinds of followers of the Buddha do not go (…)

How unfortunate to find much of the West as “savage land”! Looking around, one finds without much difficulty poisonous snakes crossing Western highways; but followers of the Buddha… However, the advice is quite instructive, and although it is often no easy task to follow it, it is supported by the realization that what generates lasting satisfaction and pride is always difficult.

It is said in the Dhammapada: having no companies, it is better to walk alone. And the error of the superior man who disregards this recommendation will be grave. Not being able to surround himself with nobler spirits,—or at least similar ones,—he will have to choose solitude or self-destruction. If he risks an impossible conciliation, if he gives in to the gregarious instinct instead of annulling it, then he will see, over and over again, the infamous manifestations which characterize inferior spirits, culminating in a state where he can no longer distinguish himself from them. Consequently, he will have neutralized his potentialities and, if there is a shred of wisdom left, he will have to face his choices—when it is no longer possible to reverse them—with his mind filled with regret and frustration.

It is interesting to note the description of the demonic man contained in the Bhagavad Gita. Although there is the natural mention of the malicious and cruel model, the emphasis is on the greedy, materialistic one, whose insatiable desire guides him in the incessant search for wealth and power. Having this, having that; success, ambition; pleasure in feeling powerful; infinite vanity… From all this, a lustful and arrogant worldview is extracted, which throws the being into competition with others, giving rise to envy and stinginess. A being that acts and spares no means to achieve what he wants: he subjugates the world to his personal project. Never parsimony, never frugality, never sincere compassion. Needless to conclude…