Sublime

His main claim was that the strong conviction we have that we are different from one another and from God is not false, as Shankara claimed it to be.

This koan resists the totalitarian impulse in spiritual paths.

Philosophy is not Neosporin. It is not some healing balm. It is an irritant, which is why Socrates described himself as a gadfly.

The vast body of Mahayana doctrine arose not so much to satisfy intellectual curiosity as to deal with the practical psychological problems encountered in following the Buddha’s way. Certainly the treatment of these problems is highly scholastic, and the intellectual level of the Mahayana texts is very lofty. But the consistent aim is to bring abou

the only thing that matters is whether Jerusalem exists now, at this very moment!

I am who I am right now. And that very state of being is the Buddha.

Far Eastern Buddhism is much more palatable and “according to nature” than its Indian and Tibetan counterparts, with ideals of life which seem at times to be superhuman, more suited to angels than to men. Even so, all forms of Buddhism subscribe to the Middle Way between the extremes of angel (deva) and demon (preta), ascetic and sensualist, and cl