“If you meet the Buddha, kill him.” — Linji
This may sound a bit frank for you, but a great and real principle it is. A doctrine of the Tao to go with this is ““The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao.” Or perhaps, In the Kalama Sutta Buddha says, “Do not accept anything because it comes from the mouth of a respected person. Rather, observe closely and if it is to the benefit of all, accept and abide by it.”
How in the world does this apply to me? The way of Buddhism is really undefined, meaning it is individual. A person must seek truth and find unattachment by themselves. The actions and ethos and enlightenment of others do not serve to raise someone else, unless the person purposefully takes them into their own heart. The path of truth is not found in being like or believing in other men. IT is found in finding yourself, recognizing who you are and changing to better fill your eternal role.
Basically, in walking down the path, finding a great teacher, a priest in white clothing, a verbose preacher, or enlightened sage whom you hang your hat on and adore, only serves to hinder your own progress. A man can never progress to eternity when he sets Idols up in men who are imperfect themselves. If then you meet that symbolic man who seems to hold all the answers, a great teacher such as Abraham or Isaiah and are tempted to latch onto him and become him, remember that they did not get to such enlightened status by following or walking in the footsteps of a Man. They did so by listening and following eternity within them. Enlightenment and At oneness come from being one with the Father, seeing as he would have YOU see, not as he would have Joseph Smith see. These men have been there and shared their experience and have given us more than enough light to walk our own paths to the tree.
The path to eternity cannot be seen or beheld in a man, no matter the teacher. The illusion of eternity found in finite men is merely a doctrine of reliance on fallible flesh. The fencing of all men to certain bounds only confines people to earthly existence. Only be seeking and hearing the voice of the Eternal father that all these men have found can a man find for himself the reality of infinite existence.
Thus, if you are walking a path, finding yourself looking forward to Growth, meeting a man who has the answers, who proclaims himself to be the answer, kill him (symbolically of course, lest I find myself in a lawsuit). HE is only a roadblock to your path of eternity. Even Christ invited all men to not call him holy when only the father was. Christ asked men to pray to the father, to not worship him, etc. The reason? That is not our Goal. Christ is our mediator, our exemplar, etc. He provides the way, helps clear the path, gives us strength when weary, but we must walk the path. He told us that he is the gate keeper, something to come to and be passed, to be gone through. The father is the destination, eternal oneness with eternity.
Nephi demonstrated this path well. In hearing his fathers dream, he hungered and thirsted for his own, and thus received far more than he would have relying on his fathers verbal explanation. Peter did the same by receiving his doctrine of Christ form His father, not the master in front of him. Abinadi found his strength in the personal commandment to testify against priesthood. Joseph Smith found his path by hearing Gods word and following. He received commandments and followed them, and is still decried as fallen today in light of them. He followed no organization, he sought the word of God and followed it.
Find that definition of doctrine, that explanation of God, whatever knowledge it may be, then once you do it is merely something to be stepped on to reach greater heights. To become different, to be separate, to be one with eternity, requires us to come out of worldly attachment and sameness and into the doctrine of individuality that Zion embraces.
Amen, brother! You’ve just expressed, most beautifully, this truth that i just recently discovered! thanks for blogging – and making those, like myself, feel less alone with such thoughts!
i hear lots of complaints about the LDS church’s current leaders and particularly that we should not “follow the prophet”. however, I don’t think the early brethren (brigham, hyrum, john taylor, heber) had any problem following joseph. i understand that father and mother are the ultimate goal. i just wonder whether some are not truly ordained to be the pointer/ladder/exemplar back home.
steve
following the prophet is not the problem, provided the direction he is headed is up Jacobs ladder. Blind faith and following of men, now that becomes an issue real quick once you realize that the driver doesn’t have a map and has never been where YOU are headed!
So the problem is that the leaders can/will not provide the correct directions?
The goal is Zion. How and when do we get there, and who is indeed driving that bus headed in that direction. I want no direction from any man contrary to those aims.
Dan…
…on this topic. Your example of Nephi approaching the Lord for the Lord’s interpretations of lehi’s dream raises a question. our people is vastly different from theirs in one distinct aspect (though there are surely many more): books and information. how much of nephi’s learning came from books or other teachers?
Allow me, if you will, to interpret what you said and you can tell me how much it “sticks.”
Given the bounty of information we have accessible at our fingertips (both good, bad and indifferent), certainly we’re able to access tangible information that nephi never would have been able to do. One way we “kill the buddha” is by refusing to be pigeonholed into one specific box. The box, if I may, is metaphorically filled with our favorite teachers, authors and leaders. One way to “kill the buddha” would be to cut down the box, allow the contents to spill on the floor and see how much of a mess we can make. I would probably put Hugh Nibley in this corner…studying and learning from texts, writers, historians, teachers, preachers, whoever, whenever, wherever. No stakes. No bounds set. Just mere insatiable curiosity for knowledge.
Or, conversely, do we throw them all to the side and use Nephi’s approach, in spite of all the information out there? Nephi’s approach being, I’m paraphrasing here, “screw the books, the philosophies of men mingled with scripture, the leaders of this or that church…screw them all. I’m going to the only true source for ALL my information.
Or, am I, in the very writing of this, pigeonholing God as to what, where and how he can teach me?
We are often encouraged to study it out in our minds first, and this in a sense was part of nephi’s preparation – the rehearsing in his mind of what his father taught and perhaps wondering what it meant. i wonder sometimes if this admonition is universally applicable or was only meant for translation, which is the context of the D&C section where it is found.
Also d&c 88:118 118 And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.
That verse could be read to single out learning by faith as superior to learning by study.
What are the limitations and boundaries of receiving revelation? Are there any? Are all things really possible to them that believe?
I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Maybe our only barriers to God are self imposed limitations. Maybe all we really need is childlike faith. I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense to me to put many formalities between a man and his Creator.
If faith formed the universe, what else is needed to find God? We come up with rules and boundaries and limitations and, God forbid, lists and formulas that must be in place to access revelation. It just seems like things were meant to be much less complicated than we make them.
As to following leaders, why do we even consider that as a valid question? If we know God and do his bidding, we would never actually be following man. Even if God told us to heed the words of another person, it is God we are following. The scriptures are always warning us against trusting the flesh. What’s more fleshy than following a man?
Just the phrasing of the question “should we follow our leaders” is deceptive. Why is that even asked? Why would someone who has a direct connection with God ever ask if he should follow anyone but God? People may argue that its semantics, but its not. There is a definite cultural implication to what it means to follow our leaders.
Even if we heed and follow what a man has to say, it is ultimately the spirit and thus God who is doing the leading and confirming of what to do and where to go. So no we should never follow a prophet, a leader, or any man. We should follow God to whatever end.
I think we have developed a strange culture of following leaders, and the more I think about it, the strangerit becomes.
i think we have developed a strange culture of following leaders, and the more i think about it, the strangerit becomes.”
couldn’t agree more!