1. A ZEN STUDENT ARTICULATES THE PARTICULAR DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN THE VISUAL AND ROUTINE PARTS OF PRACTICE. THIS TEXT WAS IN FACT BROUGHT TO OUR NOTICE BY LAMA SURYA DAS WHO'S AN AMERICAN LAMA WITHIN THE TIBETAN BUDDHIST CUSTOM. HE'S A POET, CHANT MASTER, SPIRITUAL ACTIVIST AS WELL AS AUTHOR OF COUNTLESS WELL- LIKED WORKS ON BUDDHISM; A MEDITATION TUTOR AND SPOKESMAN FOR BUDDHISM IN THE WEST. A Spirit of Respect Shared by Lama Surya Das with full credit to John Blofeld

2. Lama Surya DasLama Surya Das keeps us up-to-date about the various areas of buddhism and meditation often with his very own discourse and sometimes via articles in addition to content that sheds light on buddhism. This piece on Buddhism stems from John Blofeld a scholar, writer, and translator of Asian philosophy and religion, specifically Buddhism and Taoism. Read on to read more information on Buddhism along with the dissimilarities involving the conceptual as well as ritual aspects of practice. Since Buddhism arrived in the West, inevitably some individuals have felt, “Zazen is nice, compassion is great, self-discipline is good, but why all this bowing as well as incense? To whom does one provide incense as well as flowers?” To this all the Buddhists of the past as well as Asian ?Buddhists these days could answer with 1 voice: “Dear friends, a spirit of reverence is vital to productive practice. Without them, enlightenment cannot be attained!” Prostrations in addition to offerings are usually admittedly simply forms- just a person's technique of revealing what cats express by rubbing themselves alongside a cherished person’s legs. If this had been natural for individuals to stand on their heads or maybe stick out their rumps to show reverence, then Buddhists would stand on their heads or perhaps stick out their rumps as a matter of course. Forms don't matter in themselves, however the attitude of mind manifested by prostrations and so forth is of fantastic significance to followers of the Way.

3. My Tibetan lama informed me at a very early stage of my training: “Ignorant people follow the attitude of subject to king before a Buddha statue. Higher- level practice is carried out fully inside the mind. Nevertheless even if you reach the highest possible level-hard without a doubt to succeed in in one lifetime-you need to day-to-day alternate formless, wordless, above- conceptual exercise with bowing down as well as making offerings. Under no circumstances fail in that.” My Chinese Chan (Zen) educator told me: “In between your rounds of meditation, practice bowing, providing incense, along with making circumambulations. In case you have no spirit of reverence, virtually no feeling of awe for all which lies beyond the boundaries of that miserably circumscribed illusion you suppose to be your ‘me,’ you will earn simply no development. Why? Because whenever your practice boosts, you may reflect: ‘I did far better inside my meditation just now’ and by so thinking fall back to the lowest level of ignorance owing to the consequent inflation of your devilish ‘I’!” Those Zen priests who said, “Meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha” or perhaps endorsed using Buddha figures as firewood and so on had been talking not to Americans or even to new Buddhists but to Chinese or even Japanese Zen followers that could be counted upon to understand the meaning of these recommendations, that genuinely amounted to this:

4. “Never for one second guess that veneration of sutras or images is of much utilization in itself, consequently don’t let it replace the rest of your own practice, as ignorant people typically do.” I doubt if it ever entered those monks’ minds that one day there'd be individuals in the world who would consider these types of powerful (as well as comical) injunctions actually! If it is wrong to have and to symbolize behaviour of reverence, awe, along with gratitude by prostrations in addition to offerings, then all Buddhists happen to be wrong ever since the dharma was initially preached in this existing kalpa 2,500 and more years ago. Can it be probable that those 100s of millions of men and women at all levels of dedication to the particular practice we so significantly value included no single man or woman of accurate understanding until eventually Buddhism reached America? Article Source - https://lamasuryadasmarried.wordpress.com/2016/04/28/a-spirit-of- reverence-provided-by-lama-surya-das-with-entire-credit-to-john-blofeld/ https://lamasuryadasmarried.wordpress.com/2016/04/28/a-spirit-of- reverence-provided-by-lama-surya-das-with-entire-credit-to-john-blofeld/