The Buddhist Question:
HOW ARE YOU DOING?
Do you find that your efforts with Buddhism seem to leave you feeling frustrated?
Do you find that you tend to blame yourself for not being able to let go of your desires?
Do you find that meditation seems to help but when you face the world it doesn’t help enough?
Have you found that your efforts to pursue Buddhism often result in sudden explosions of anger or waves of despair?
If so, perhaps you should consider that Buddhism is incompatible with your true nature.
IMPORTANT!
If you are totally satisfied with your experiences with Buddhism, these words are not intended for you.
We wish all those who are pleased to follow their religions to continue to do so.
We are only interested in finding the very rare few who are dissatisfied with their religions and philosophies, those who therefore remain dissatisfied with the Buddhist approaches.
If you have found that despite your efforts to embrace the various forms of Buddhism you remain dissatisfied or frustrated, then these suggestions are offered to you.
It is possible that the reason you have not found peace and contentment in Buddhism is because your inner nature is not human, but is transhuman.
If so, then what you are about to read could be the most important reading you will ever do in your life.
WHAT IS BUDDHISM?
Buddhism is considered to be a set of teachings intended to enable the practitioner to experience reality based upon the efforts of Siddhartha Gautama (also known as Gautama Buddha) who was born in Nepal and taught in India during the Fifth Century BC.
All forms of Buddhism start with basic assumptions that are fundamentally incompatible with the nature of certain rare individuals who therefore will find the goals of Buddhism counter-productive in practice.
Basically, if you are such a person who has been trying to follow Buddhist teachings then you may have been pursuing a discipline that will not lead to true happiness, contentment or “higher” consciousness because of who and what you are.
This short essay will not be an exhaustive examination of this wildly convoluted group of teachings that has grown and expanded over the last two and a half thousand years.
Instead, this short essay will address the absolute fundamentals with regard to why Buddhism may be, quite literally, a dead end for you to pursue if you are seeking true happiness in your life, and offer you a challenge to discover the older Source behind this religion that could accomplish what you have been seeking.
THE BASIC FLAW
Buddhism begins with the assumption that all experience for the unenlightened individual is “Dukkha” or “pervasive suffering”.
With “Bodhi” or “awakening” or “enlightenment”, the individual is supposed to no longer experience the “pervasive suffering” of life.
Enlightenment is defined in several different ways.
In Theraveda Buddhism it is defined as a mental realization that the personal self is not real but is an illusion.
Mahayana Buddhism generally extends this definition to encompass an experience of mystical oneness with all experience.
In other words, Buddhism makes a broad generalization about the nature of experience and states that all of life is perceived as suffering as long as you have a sense of being an individual.
Having desires ("Tanha") is considered the cause of problems in life.
"Nibbuta" of "Tanha" (the quenching of desire) is considered the answer to the problems of life.
But what if this assumption is simply wrong for you?
THE NATURE OF LIFE
The fact of the matter is that life and living is a process.
In this process one desires things, seeks them, hopefully finds them and is satisfied.
For example, you become hungry, you eat food and you feel satisfaction. The repetition of this process is what living and life is all about.
Buddhism essentially assumes that pervasive dissatisfaction is all that there is unless you lose or transcend the sense of being an individual.
But is this actually true for you?
Desire causes you to seek what is desired and then to feel satisfaction.
To claim that all of life is "pervasive suffering” because you want things, and then to deny that you can ever experience meaningful pleasure or satisfaction, is also the attitude of a four year old child who demands that his every desire be immediately and instantly gratified – or he throws a fit.
From the perspective of the transhuman, the basic premise of Buddhism stems from an incomplete view of life and living.
In point of fact, desire sharpens pleasure and can intensify satisfaction.
If you anticipate a delicious meal or a happy vacation then this anticipation by itself carries a certain degree of pleasure.
Then when the event transpires, you feel the satisfaction caused by the event.
Following the event, the memories of what you enjoyed, such as looking at photographs taken on the vacation, provide even further enjoyment.
Life is not "pervasive suffering" when it is understood in its wider context.
Life is a continuous cycle of desire, seeking, and satisfaction.
Thus life itself when embraced for what it really is can provide unending pleasure through the cyclic repetition of desire.
THE SUGGESTION
The suggestion offered to you is simple and easy to consider if you are perhaps one of those rare individuals We seek.
We suggest that you give life as it is an honest chance instead of assuming that there is something wrong with it or wrong with you.
How?
Simply stop assuming that your desires are bad or that having a sense of being an individual is the cause of your problems.
Then treat your desires as trustworthy signals that are intended to indicate ways to reduce pain and increase pleasure in your life.
Understand that satisfaction can only follow the fulfillment of a desire and that life requires both.
Life is based on a cyclical process of desire followed by satisfaction, in that order.
This has worked successfully for billions of years from single-celled organisms to present-day human beings.
It can work for you too.
MORE THAN HEDONISM
This is not an issue of pursuing any pleasure you want without attention to the consequences. That would be a route to self-destruction.
Instead, the suggestion being offered to you is to actually do what the Buddha asked others to do.
He purportedly questioned everything and finally discovered his enlightenment.
We suggest that there is indeed a form of enlightenment for those rare few who are willing to explore their authentic nature and the nature of the world.
However, this enlightenment does not come from denying the realities of life, but from embracing them and accepting them.
Desire is hard-wired into your nervous system for a reason.
When you stop fighting your nature everything changes for the better.
BUDDHISM AND DEATH
Buddhism suggests that assuming you have a separate self that can die is at the root of your problems in life.
Buddhism suggests that by seeing through this “illusion” the problem of life vanishes.
"Nirvana" refers to the extinguishing of the sense of having a separate self.
We offer something entirely different.
Instead of offering death to the self, we offer an end to death.
Rationally. Realistically. Effectively.
When the threat of death is lifted from your expectations, life itself becomes far more enjoyable.
We do not consider the "illusory" nature of the individual self to be a problem at all.
We see the self as the necessary element for the successful continuation of your life and also as what grants meaning to your experience.
The Buddhist follows the Buddhist Path in order to overcome Dukkha and reach Nirvana.
This state is claimed to be a deathless (immortal) state of being where one is free from the cycle of rebirth in Samsara.
In contrast, the Immortality we can promise is not only possible within the Flesh or Samsara, but it also does not require the dissolution of the Self nor the abdication of both the pleasures and the pains of the Flesh or Samsara.
The true Immortal loves life because life can offer pleasure and satisfaction.
TEST EVERYTHING. BELIEVE NOTHING.
This is the motto of our Temple.
We challenge you to apply this to the Buddhist assumptions regarding the nature of life and the nature of desire.
Buddhism is a means for enabling the human being to accept his lot in life and his inevitable death.
For the mortal human, Buddhism offers solace and consolation but with goals and ideals that will not work for you if your nature is transhuman.
If you have found trouble in pursuing the Buddhist path it may simply be that your innermost nature is not inclined to live in frustration or end in death.
If you are one of us, there is more – much more – awaiting you.
If you are one of us you will find this suggestion enticing.
If you are one of us you will wish to determine if these ideas are true for you.
If you are one of us you will want to discover if what you have been seeking in Buddhism is real but was not what you thought it was.
If you are one of us we hope you will explore this suggestion further.
WE INVITE YOU TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP
It may require some courage.
It may require a willingness to look past surface appearances.
However, if you are serious about discovering the truth we trust that you can do so.
We offer the true enlightenment of eternal life.
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