and multifaceted that it is utilized as both. It can also be a form of ancient psychology, or medicine, so to speak.
Some people just want to go get blessing from the Lama and have a good feeling or expectation of good fortune in the future. Maybe the read some sutras and try to be more ethical and kind. They may be at a stage where they take literally what is a metaphor or conflate the internal and external. From that religious perspective, they always have an opening to enter the monastic, messianic or apocalyptic vehicles, and not necessarily in any order. They are, even from a religious and devote belief perspective, imprinting something on their mind-streams and, most likely, benefiting in various ways from Dharma. However, the same can be said of sincere followers of any religion.
Philosophy as a basis for understanding what we know and how, as well as an insight into behavior and relationships is valuable for those who sit back and think about things like that and need to appease their minds by way of inquiry and answers to salient questions. The teachings of the Buddhas certainly provide a treasure trove of material in that arena.
Since the basic core of the teachings is about removing the various obscuration of the shining mind, which is understood as liberation in respect to disturbing emotions and enlightenment in respect to disturbing/obscuring thoughts, the philosophy and logic involved in clearing the mind, (clear-light mind) would imply something transcending a merely religious approach, and yet, it does not exclude, at any point or stage, the rather rare, sudden realization of either or both along the way. When you are ripe, you are ripe, no matter how it comes about. In fact, one obscuration can be to expect how and when it will emerge and unfold since it is literally right here now, nothing new, and never goes away.
However, I am not a Buddhist which just means that I don't subscribe to any particular facet of the ism aspect. My practice is Buddha-dharma and largely pragmatic in that it includes whatever works. Exploring the vehicles and their methods as a whole can lead to sudden insights as to how they relate, what Dharma actually is, and what the core essence of liberation and enlightenment is or is not.
So, the flexibility includes that approach as well as investing yourself in a particular vehicle or school of Buddhism in whatever way fits closely to your current proclivities and tendencies.
While wrong and right way are initially important in the relative sense and discernment depends on them as a foundation, eventually that can lead to the kind of clarity that reveals the absolute relationship of that duality and how the relative and absolute coexist.
I think people tend to look at Buddhism and relate to what captivates them where they are conceptually. The various methods and schools may be available to you, but your tendencies will stick quite naturally to one or more. The dynamics are flexible and you could follow one or move from one to another or even try to swallow the whole lot, depending on you, not the teachings themselves. They can fit like spandex, or a baggy pair of jeans. Sometimes you go naked like Samantabhadra, the adibuddha.
I'm not discouraging or encouraging a particular way to practice, though I do encourage a realistic and fair investigation into the methods, logic and means. What I would suggest for us Westerners is to relax more and more and more. Dive into Dharma in a way that feels comfortable and resonant with what you most deeply understand to be your current nature as you are because, that's where you are going, anyway. Worry less and trust that your insights will grow as you continue sincerely and with the right goal in mind. You may find that the provisional teachings will be your ladder to the definitive and that right understanding of the relative, or conventional truth will naturally reveal the essence of the ultimate or absolute truth implicit in your every experience. Then inner clarity will shine on the definitive teaching most brightly!
While it is enjoyable to enter debate on these matters, (is it more like this or more like that) I have found it impossible to pin the tail on the dharma and, rather than finding that frustrating. it turns out to be revealed as not a negation, but a proof of what the dharma actually is. It is quite the mirror and the reflection is what matters until the mirror reflects nothing else, not even itself.
Religion, philosophy, psychology, ontology, cosmology, medicine? That is a matter of imputation of course, Interpolation and repudiation from our side plays a big part in determining that. The degree of compassion that wells up and becomes action is the perfect and unerring barometer of the results, no matter.
Oh my! He who speaks does not know and he knows does not speak. Judging by all that writing, I've given myself away.
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