By Rick Fields — 1997
Given the tangled and still obscure history of yoga and Buddhism, one would hope that in the West these two ancient and venerable paths will once again encounter each other and enter a dialogue that will enrich practitioners of both.
Read on tricycle.org
CLEAR ALL
What does it mean to be a religion without a God? More broadly, what does it mean to live without an exterior savior of any kind?
Like many Westerners, I always assumed that meditation was a “spiritual” phenomenon, which I took to mean that it somehow had to do with realms beyond the physical.
According to Reginald Ray, Buddhist philosophy and practice can’t be separated. Once you understand, through study, what the Buddha is saying about his own awakening, you are already within the fiery process of the path.
If the “self” is ultimately nothing more than a figment of our imagination, what is this figment like and how does it come to seem so real? In the third of four posts on the self, Dr. Reginald “Reggie” Ray breaks it down.
The central teaching of Buddhism, discussed in detail in the psychological descriptions of the Abhidharma (higher dharma), is that of anatman, or “not-self.
Reginald A. Ray discusses the close connection between Buddhist philosophy and practice.
A panel discussion with Phillip Moffitt, Cyndi Lee, Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Reggie Ray. Introduction by Anne Carolyn Klein.
1