ॐDominicusॐ

Insights from a Christian monk. Esoteric Christianity as a legit Path

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I read an article about a meeting between Buddhist and Christian monks. The Buddhist monk said, it was clear they were brothers, able to pick each other out easily amongst hundred of lay people. The way they walked, spoke, ate..how there eyes perceived the world was in both cases the same.

 

<it may have been an NPR interview a couple of years ago>

Edited by thelerner
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I read an article about a meeting between Buddhist and Christian monks. The Buddhist monk said, it was clear they were brothers, able to pick each other out easily amongst hundred of lay people. The way they walked, spoke, ate..how there eyes perceived the world was in both cases the same.

Sounds like a cool article. Can you provide the link as I would like to read.

 

On a similar note, the Monk I interviewed for this post and am friends with, also is friends with some Buddhist Monks he keeps correspondence with and they discuss, at times, experiences, states, ego etc.

 

He told me when he visits with his Buddhist Monk brothers, 3 things happen: Welcoming embrace, sitting silently in each others presence, then the final farewell. That the time during the silent sitting, there so much said, even though nothing is said at all.

 

......sounds very koanish to me, but I get what he means.....I've had moments like that as well with others!!!! Thanks for chiming in

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A very great share, thank you for doing so.

 

Look forward to more posting of the interview.

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Dominicus :)

Thank you so much for posting that thread. It explains allot.

Yes, the spot is just to the right of the physical heart!

A few years ago, I was reading Ramana and although he says that the true heart is not the physical heart that if he were hard pressed to give a physical location for it, it would be just to the right of the physical heart. At that time, I just kind of casually focused at that spot while dropping everything else for a moment and a 'little me' popped up in that exact location. It was quite a surprise.

It is so nice to read this interview and it has resonated very deeply with me.

 

God Bless the both of you.

 

Thank you

:)

TI

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Thank you :-)

 

This is really interesting. I cannot understand what it is exactly that "external grace" which moves people on this Path.

Also, intellectually I can see how christianity was born as a sort of super-syncretysm for people who didn't like the severe restrictions of judaism (Peter vs. Paul)....

...but, out of this weird thing (that was basically an anti-elitist popularized paganism) later born a monastic movement from Egypt.

 

See how the monk speaks about the teachings of Jesus: basically, his teaching was on morality. He never baptized a single person, nor taught the way of constant prayer. Monks have their own set teachings taken from somewhere.... hardly from the gospels.

Jesus never spoke about the mass. He even spoke against an institutionalized religion when disciples told him that some people were practicing exorcism in his name without authorization!

 

So, imho it's not that christianity got watered down... rather it's genuine spirituality that in some way grew in this weird context.

 

Probably, Jesus' idea of his -possible, but not wanted- religion would be something very similar to this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McAK2dEBSvk

 

 

 

 

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What an interesting interview.

 

Reading some of the points reminded me of Trungpa Rinpoche's concept of Drala.

 

Thanks for sharing!

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Alright, nice one!

 

The part about faith... most everyone has some form of faith to some degree, for instance those that

only have faith in the ways of the world.

Edited by 3bob

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Thanks so much for posting this interview,, was a pleasure to read.. will copy and paste to my document file-- if that is alright?

 

Peace

Edward

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whether perineum up to head or top down - the nondual fundamental level is deep in the heart beyond the body/mind....

oh yes, I agree, still there is an apparent "body/mind" complex........

 

though even that can be argued, at the end of the day, I'm of the school that it is" Everything/Nothing/Both/None .....

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oh yes, I agree, still there is an apparent "body/mind" complex........

 

though even that can be argued, at the end of the day, I'm of the school that it is" Everything/Nothing/Both/None .....

 

what makes Taoism unique is the secret of complementary opposites - -right hand, upper body yang , left hand lower body yin.

 

You actually find this in the hadiths of Islam also - left hand lunar and right hand solar....

 

So this is the secrets of tantra - maybe in the gospel of Phillip or something....

 

But anyway the three gunas of India, etc.

 

So yeah the body-mind is transformed through those dynamics.

 

So the christian monks just do mind yoga - they don't have any full lotus training for example or small universe meditation or standing tai chi exercises....

 

That really slows down the training.

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what makes Taoism unique is the secret of complementary opposites - -right hand, upper body yang , left hand lower body yin.

 

You actually find this in the hadiths of Islam also - left hand lunar and right hand solar....

 

So this is the secrets of tantra - maybe in the gospel of Phillip or something....

 

But anyway the three gunas of India, etc.

 

So yeah the body-mind is transformed through those dynamics.

 

So the christian monks just do mind yoga - they don't have any full lotus training for example or small universe meditation or standing tai chi exercises....

 

That really slows down the training.

I'll just re-quote the Monk as the answer that shows the Gunas are covered:

 

In our school, through the Jesus prayer, all of that is eventually snuffed out and there is a completion stage of perfection where even the body is transformed and filled with light flowing through all the opened channels.

 

Also, I'm a big fan of the Yoga Sutras, Bhagabad Gita, etc.....soon as I read your reply, I pulled up a couple of my bookmarks that I saved on the Guna's. Here's a little tidbit that can link back to what the Monk said:

 

All impressions manifest from the three gunas: All of the subconscious mental impressions discussed in the last section (4.9-4.12) are made of the same stuff. There is no more straightforward, simple English way to say it. All of these subconscious mental impressions manifest from the three primal elements or gunas. (4.13)

So when asking the Monk how is the body and mind transcended, he mentions the 2-fold actions of:

 

Once Grace comes over you, it is a direct experience and a living presence that indwells you from the top of your head and instantly gives you The Timeless Now, Transcendence, Detachment, Destroys the Ego, activated divine Love, and all that's left is you as Awareness devoid of everything else.

along with:

 

As far as the first part above goes, there may still remain some fragments/pieces of ego left over that continue to stir up. With that, we do the Jesus Prayer focused on the Heart area where the access to the Source is. By doing the Jesus Prayer on this specific area, several things are accomplished. The ego is not only busy with the prayer, but also awareness learns pure concentration while ignoring all other subconscious arisings. Eventually, Awareness realizes the Source of thought and enters into it. The place is a few inches to right of the Heart. With Awareness resting at the Source of thought, eventually the whole Ego/Subconscious mechanism is pulled at the root and only Spontaneous Union and Grace remain."

 

Looks to me like all bases are covered as far as your concerns go. I have much more of the interview concerning minor details that I did not post, and from the the years of contact with him, he basically says that the Jesus Mantra Prayer, Grace, and Emptiness Meditation(Surrender/Letting Go) takes care of transcending all the Gunas, all channels open, body transformed, ego/subconscious complex cleared out entirely....

 

Not much else to cover. Granted, I'm not here to argue bias one way or another. Simply to show that the Monks there are covering the bases (albeit different methods and terminologies) the same way as Monks in Monasteries of other paths.

 

I'm of the school of whatever works the best and produces the fastest results!!!!

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Sounds exactly like Ramana Maharshi saying to the right of the heart - again without the yin-yang dynamics of body-mind then sickness kicks in to wipe out the work of the mind energy.

 

So you say at the end all is unified -- unless someone can sit in full lotus for a couple months nonstop without sleeping - then they still got work to do. haha.

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