Meditation in Amsterdam - The Meaning of Kill the Buddha
Hi all!
Welcome to another entry of the Meditation in Amsterdam blog where I want to go into a topic that has marked the biggest distinction between Eastern and western religions and philosophies. It can therefore be read as a little unintelligible quip, or as one of THE most profound quotes ever to have been coined.
Personally I choose for the latter lately.
The phrase is an old Zen quote: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him".
Though there have been more than a few interpretations of the phrase, it can be seen from the get go that this is a far cry from anything that's ever come out of western tradition. Who could ever imagine a priest or pastor ever saying anything similar to this about Jesus? Incidentally the death of Jesus always puts Christians in a weird bind since it's something that should be both abhorred and celebrated.
At any rate, this topic is highly related to the meditation practice as we'll see below, but first what does it mean?
To understand that it's helpful to mention that in both meditation, philosophy and other Eastern traditions the emphasis has always been on practice and much less so on belief. Buddhism, yoga, zen can be practiced "to the letter" (if there is such a thing) without ever learning about the more spiritual or esoteric stories behind them. This puts the buddhist already in a great spot since the Buddha she's supposed to kill once on sight is already acknowledged as not likely to exist, much less be on the tragic road to meet his doom.
But the quote goes further than to emphasise practice over belief. It is in fact a nuclear bomb to blind faith. So whereas doctrines such as Christianity will immunise the believer against doubt, this little Zen phrase does precisely the opposite:
It ensures that the practitioner never confuses the map for the territory and becomes so enamoured with the story, that he misses the message it's trying to convey. In other words if the meditative buddhist finds herself attached to the story, dependent on it and unable to let go of it; it is to this degree that the point of the story has been missed.
So by killing the Buddha we're avoiding a clingy identification with a story that should serve as a metaphor for something much greater. By saying this, Zen philosophy is effectively stating that there is nothing so sacred that it should be an obstacle to enlightenment (hence truth), which is the real spirituality. As with many Zen short sayings this could almost be said to summarise the entire teaching.
Now you're asking how this relates to meditation. It's very simple: a large part of what we're trying to do in meditation is to break the identification with our thoughts and ideas. Some of these have become as sacred as the Buddha in our head and they are a block to our progress. We loose the ability to distinguish between concepts and ideas in our head and the reality of who we are.
Namaste
Pablo
www.meditationamsterdam.com
Welcome to another entry of the Meditation in Amsterdam blog where I want to go into a topic that has marked the biggest distinction between Eastern and western religions and philosophies. It can therefore be read as a little unintelligible quip, or as one of THE most profound quotes ever to have been coined.
Personally I choose for the latter lately.
The phrase is an old Zen quote: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him".
Though there have been more than a few interpretations of the phrase, it can be seen from the get go that this is a far cry from anything that's ever come out of western tradition. Who could ever imagine a priest or pastor ever saying anything similar to this about Jesus? Incidentally the death of Jesus always puts Christians in a weird bind since it's something that should be both abhorred and celebrated.
At any rate, this topic is highly related to the meditation practice as we'll see below, but first what does it mean?
To understand that it's helpful to mention that in both meditation, philosophy and other Eastern traditions the emphasis has always been on practice and much less so on belief. Buddhism, yoga, zen can be practiced "to the letter" (if there is such a thing) without ever learning about the more spiritual or esoteric stories behind them. This puts the buddhist already in a great spot since the Buddha she's supposed to kill once on sight is already acknowledged as not likely to exist, much less be on the tragic road to meet his doom.
But the quote goes further than to emphasise practice over belief. It is in fact a nuclear bomb to blind faith. So whereas doctrines such as Christianity will immunise the believer against doubt, this little Zen phrase does precisely the opposite:
It ensures that the practitioner never confuses the map for the territory and becomes so enamoured with the story, that he misses the message it's trying to convey. In other words if the meditative buddhist finds herself attached to the story, dependent on it and unable to let go of it; it is to this degree that the point of the story has been missed.
So by killing the Buddha we're avoiding a clingy identification with a story that should serve as a metaphor for something much greater. By saying this, Zen philosophy is effectively stating that there is nothing so sacred that it should be an obstacle to enlightenment (hence truth), which is the real spirituality. As with many Zen short sayings this could almost be said to summarise the entire teaching.
Now you're asking how this relates to meditation. It's very simple: a large part of what we're trying to do in meditation is to break the identification with our thoughts and ideas. Some of these have become as sacred as the Buddha in our head and they are a block to our progress. We loose the ability to distinguish between concepts and ideas in our head and the reality of who we are.
Namaste
Pablo
www.meditationamsterdam.com
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