The renunciate paths have the virtue of showing little danger besides potentially turning you into an emotionally stunted bigot, and making you miss out on some of the finer things in life, an-
I jest, but there's an element of truth to it, I think.
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the dangers of the tantra paths are far, far greater, both to yourself and other people.
Remember the shit the Chinese found in Tibetan dungeons.
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I was about to say that I've only just about ended my life in a profoundly non-useful manner several times with tantric practices!
All the same, it seems to be my path, and is finally working better for me. My name is rooted in old Germanic word for "cinder", after all...
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I think the key turning point was realizing I am more interested in liberation than cessation of suffering.
That really opened some doors.
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My whole life I spent bored and inhibited, miserable. Early brushes with Buddhism had me convinced it was a four noble truths problem.
Now I believe it was conditioning problem. I had strings, but now I'm free, there are no strings on me...
(Ok, still some strings on me, but!)
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Most suffering I experience today is like waves or current. It only has power when it sticks to traumas I haven't released yet, and I can tell when it does.
Sans traumas, it's so small I can barely see it. I care very little about it anymore, except when it gets in my way.
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Yup. I converted, basically. Except I have even less understanding of Hinduism.
Thankfully, vamachara seems to place (much) higher demands on courage and fortitude than on theoretical rectitude per se.
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as I understand it there are points where you can run yourself into real problems. But you're doing fine.
Buddhism has release from conditioning too. It's very clearly there, just come at it from a different angle.
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Yeah, but the enlightened individuals in each tradition seem "enlightened" in rather different ways.
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Seems that way, but it's hard to say given practically everyone shrugs and says "uh, can't describe it in words."
Some of it may be people taking different stages as an end.
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