The Buddha was in the LHP?

[1137]

In Tantric Buddhism it is the opposite: Right Hand is Skillful Means, Left Hand is Wisdom/Contemplation/Meditation. The right is male, the left is female.

Interesting!

 

[nash8]

Actually, this is what Buddha said his teachings were all about:

"And what have I taught? 'This is stress... This is the origination of stress... This is the cessation of stress... This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress': This is what I have taught. And why have I taught these things? Because they are connected with the goal, relate to the rudiments of the holy life, and lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding. This is why I have taught them.

"Therefore your duty is the contemplation, 'This is stress... This is the origination of stress... This is the cessation of stress.' Your duty is the contemplation, 'This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress.'"
-source-​

The point of Buddhism is waking up, developing your mind, and unbinding (liberating) your mind so you can investigate for yourself without mind-produced bias. Where you go from there is then up to you, as you have been liberated.

Very interesting. I have never looked at it this way before. So essentially you could be involved in the world, but just not be affected by the stress that it generally causes to people?

Relying one oneself to reach enlightenment:

Attavagga: The Self

No goal of uniting with universe nor annihilation. The consciousness of one thus-gone (liberated) is said to be untraceable, but they exist in the here & now. (Sutta citation available on request)

Yet again Crossfire, your posts are very enlightening.

In Tantric Buddhism it is the opposite: Right Hand is Skillful Means, Left Hand is Wisdom/Contemplation/Meditation. The right is male, the left is female.

It's interesting to me how this dichotomy is represented in religious thought. It seems as though originally, the right was associated with the female, but also with action, while the left was associated with dark and mystery/contemplation.

It seems as though at some point this representation was switched, and is generally represented in the opposite fashion in many modern religions.

 

[agorman]

The defining element of that (silly) division between Left and Right is the means, in my opinion. Not the end. I couldn't care less if you want to make yourself a god or unite with god - it's how you go about it.

But don't the means lead to an end?

 

[1137]

But don't the means lead to an end?

Of course...

 

[crossfire]

Very interesting. I have never looked at it this way before. So essentially you could be involved in the world, but just not be affected by the stress that it generally causes to people?

For Buddhist laypersons, yes.

Yet again Crossfire, your posts are very enlightening.

Thank you

It's interesting to me how this dichotomy is represented in religious thought. It seems as though originally, the right was associated with the female, but also with action, while the left was associated with dark and mystery/contemplation.

It seems as though at some point this representation was switched, and is generally represented in the opposite fashion in many modern religions.

Do you have a source for feminine originally being on the right?

 

[nash8]

For Buddhist laypersons, yes.

Why not for the Buddhist non layperson?

Thank you

Very welcome. I use a lot of the info I have gleamed from you in real life debates with folks. Congrats on the Mod promotion too. It's been a while since I've been on the forum. Check your mod introduction page over the next week or so. I'm determined to develop some insightful questions for ya.

Do you have a source for feminine originally being on the right?

I'll have to see if I can dig it up again. I got a new computer, and don't have my old favorites list. From what I recall, it was an article regarding Thelema, and it wasn't necessary that feminine necessarily being on the right, but more that the divine feminine was originally considered "the light" and somewhere along the lines of our generally patriarchal societies, the concept got switched around. I guess maybe I just auto-categorized it into the right, because "the light" is so often grouped into the right.

Even after all of your warnings of "labeling" things, I might have been guilty of doing just that lol. However, I will try to find the article again.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I'll have to see if I can dig it up again. I got a new computer, and don't have my old favorites list. From what I recall, it was an article regarding Thelema, and it wasn't necessary that feminine necessarily being on the right, but more that the divine feminine was originally considered "the light" and somewhere along the lines of our generally patriarchal societies, the concept got switched around. I guess maybe I just auto-categorized it into the right, because "the light" is so often grouped into the right.

Sounds like the same sort of pseudo-historical claptrap that Wicca was founded upon.

 

[crossfire]

Why not for the Buddhist non layperson?

Monks and nuns don't even get involved in weddings, much less politics. (In Buddhism, marriage is considered a wholly secular affair.) They have renounced secular life.

Very welcome. I use a lot of the info I have gleamed from you in real life debates with folks. Congrats on the Mod promotion too. It's been a while since I've been on the forum. Check your mod introduction page over the next week or so. I'm determined to develop some insightful questions for ya.




I'll have to see if I can dig it up again. I got a new computer, and don't have my old favorites list. From what I recall, it was an article regarding Thelema, and it wasn't necessary that feminine necessarily being on the right, but more that the divine feminine was originally considered "the light" and somewhere along the lines of our generally patriarchal societies, the concept got switched around. I guess maybe I just auto-categorized it into the right, because "the light" is so often grouped into the right.

Um, please let me remind you that Thelema is a modern religion, not a religion more ancient than tantra with male on right and female on left (to qualify as "original before the switch. ")

Even after all of your warnings of "labeling" things, I might have been guilty of doing just that lol. However, I will try to find the article again.

Thank you.

 

[nash8]

Sounds like the same sort of pseudo-historical claptrap that Wicca was founded upon.

Possibly, but the article didn't talk about the patriarchal societies, and the divine feminine, and such. It was more along the lines that feminine energy was considered the energy of light, the constructive, the analytical, the forceful, and other ideals that much of modern religion/spiritual practice has come to associate more with masculine energy.

Monks and nuns don't even get involved in weddings, much less politics. (In Buddhism, marriage is considered a wholly secular affair.) They have renounced secular life.

Ahh, I see.

Um, please let me remind you that Thelema is a modern religion, not a religion more ancient than tantra with male on right and female on left (to qualify as "original before the switch. ")

I apologize for presenting it as though it were a belief that I held, but that's not how I meant it. Nor did I mean to imply that Thelema was more ancient that Tantra.

And the article, from what I remembered, the associations were switched, not the sides. But by switching the associations, while keeping traditional westernized associations, it switched the sides as well. It associated skillful means/construction/light with the feminine, and meditation/contemplation/dark with the masculine. So female was on the left, and masculine was on the right, according to westernized labels of course.

It seems as though tantra does the opposite, switches the sides, but keeps the associations, at least with regard to westernized conceptions.