The Buddha was in the LHP?

[agorman]

I just read this, taught by the Buddha:

"You must be your own lamp and refuge. Take refuge in nothing outside yourself. Hold firm to the Truth as a lamp and a refuge, and do not look for anything as refuge besides yourself."

Isn't this just what the Left-Hand Path is all about? Or it's RHP because the "self" is considered as Brahman, the All/Nothing, Tao, God, etc.?

Maybe Buddhism was originally LHP?

 

[crossfire]

I just read this, taught by the Buddha:

"You must be your own lamp and refuge. Take refuge in nothing outside yourself. Hold firm to the Truth as a lamp and a refuge, and do not look for anything as refuge besides yourself."

Isn't this just what the Left-Hand Path is all about? Or it's RHP because the "self" is considered as Brahman, the All/Nothing, Tao, God, etc.?

Maybe Buddhism was originally LHP?

Hmm, rebelling against/defying the cultural status quo, seeking liberation, "no one can purify another," hmm, what do you think?

Oh, btw, there is no Brahman teaching in Buddhism--that's a Hindu concept.

Dhammapada 12: Attavagga: The Self

(sorry for the Buddhist scripture link in the LHP forum--he did ask about it.)

 

[crossfire]

You might want to check out this thread in Comparative Religion:

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/comparative-religion/159125-taoism-buddhism-satanism.html

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

There are LHP currents of Buddhism, but in the Eastern sense. I know that Zeena and Nikolas Schreck are both into Vajrayana. (Zeena is one of Anton's LaVey's daughters and both were involved in the Church of Satan until she denounced it and her father. Then both joined the Temple of Set until there was a falling out there and have since gone their own ways.)

 

[1137]

I'd also recommend looking into Thelema which is at the heart of much of Luciferianism, Satanism, and Setianism. To my understanding it's very much a westernization of many eastern ideas and philosophies.

 

[Kemble]

Problem is to me, you'll always need a World as a mirror for the Self. Buddhism loses the World to seek refuge in only the Self. But a Self without anything to interact with is unconscious (asleep).

 

[Desert Snake]

Nope.

 

[crossfire]

Problem is to me, you'll always need a World as a mirror for the Self. Buddhism loses the World to seek refuge in only the Self. But a Self without anything to interact with is unconscious (asleep).

Disagree with your assessment of Buddhism.

 

[crossfire]

I just read this, taught by the Buddha:

"You must be your own lamp and refuge. Take refuge in nothing outside yourself. Hold firm to the Truth as a lamp and a refuge, and do not look for anything as refuge besides yourself."

Isn't this just what the Left-Hand Path is all about? Or it's RHP because the "self" is considered as Brahman, the All/Nothing, Tao, God, etc.?

Maybe Buddhism was originally LHP?

Here's another similar sutta:

Attadiipaa Sutta: An Island to Oneself

 

[Gjallarhorn]

Problem is to me, you'll always need a World as a mirror for the Self. Buddhism loses the World to seek refuge in only the Self. But a Self without anything to interact with is unconscious (asleep).

This is a pretty bad understanding of Buddhism, though I can understand how you would reach that conclusion based solely on the statements in this thread.

 

[ScottySatan]

You're going to find things in common between things so broad as religions and religious categories just from the massive volume of things said if nothing else. To say religions are the same just because of those little things is like saying vegetarians are like Hitler or that Obama's a socialist.

Wait a minute... people totally say those things. Never mind, carry on.

 

[agorman]

You're going to find things in common between things so broad as religions and religious categories just from the massive volume of things said if nothing else. To say religions are the same just because of those little things is like saying vegetarians are like Hitler or that Obama's a socialist.

Wait a minute... people totally say those things. Never mind, carry on.

I started to become racist and antisemite these days but I didn't know why. Now thanks to you I know it's because I don't eat meat.

Now seriously, you're right, I asked because I'm still wondering sometimes what's the real point of Buddhism.

 

[nash8]

I started to become racist and antisemite these days but I didn't know why. Now thanks to you I know it's because I don't eat meat.

Now seriously, you're right, I asked because I'm still wondering sometimes what's the real point of Buddhism.

The point of Buddhism, from what I understand, is to obtain Nirvana. To release yourself from the bonds of Karma, and basically live in a state of pure bliss. The Buddhist perspective is that desire causes suffering, and to eliminate all desire, you subsequently eliminate all suffering. I'm sure Crossfire could elaborate on this much more eloquently than I could though.

What I find interesting about this with regard to LHP, is that, depending on which way you look at it, it could be considered the ultimate expression in self-empowerment. Releasing all involvement with others in order to obtain ultimate personal happiness.

Just my .02 cents

 

[crossfire]

I started to become racist and antisemite these days but I didn't know why. Now thanks to you I know it's because I don't eat meat.

Now seriously, you're right, I asked because I'm still wondering sometimes what's the real point of Buddhism.

The point of Buddhism, from what I understand, is to obtain Nirvana. To release yourself from the bonds of Karma, and basically live in a state of pure bliss. The Buddhist perspective is that desire causes suffering, and to eliminate all desire, you subsequently eliminate all suffering. I'm sure Crossfire could elaborate on this much more eloquently than I could though.

What I find interesting about this with regard to LHP, is that, depending on which way you look at it, it could be considered the ultimate expression in self-empowerment. Releasing all involvement with others in order to obtain ultimate personal happiness.

Just my .02 cents

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.

 

[Leftimies]

After reading the definition for Left-Hand Path, I would have to say - being myself within the Buddhist realm - that Buddha was not. Buddhism adheres to quite profound dogma, and isn't at all about breaking taboos - in fact, one could say that you have to seek hard to find a reality-bound moral dogma more established than that of Buddhism (whether its correct one is another matter).

Buddhism, in my opinion, doesn't fall in line with either Right or Left Hand. Why would it? It comes from a completely different origins than the religions traditionally associated with RHP and LHP.

RHP and LHP are about, as far as I have understood, two possibilities for a individual's spiritual approach to life. But Buddhism attempts to erase the individual in the first place, there is no self. There is no approach.

Just wanted to put that out there.

 

[agorman]

Leftimies, I meant LHP in the sense of only relying in yourself to reach enlightenment. But then if the intention is uniting with the Universe (or annihilation) then it would be RHP I guess. Hard to tell!

 

[crossfire]

Leftimies, I meant LHP in the sense of only relying in yourself to reach enlightenment. But then if the intention is uniting with the Universe (or annihilation) then it would be RHP I guess. Hard to tell!

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)

 

[Leftimies]

Leftimies, I meant LHP in the sense of only relying in yourself to reach enlightenment. But then if the intention is uniting with the Universe (or annihilation) then it would be RHP I guess. Hard to tell!

Yeah, it does depend a lot. Theravada would be most close to that kind of LHP, Mahayana would be somewhere in between, while Shingon would be distinctly RHP?

I don't even know the designations RHP or LHP, so perhaps I won't comment further XD

 

[1137]

Leftimies, I meant LHP in the sense of only relying in yourself to reach enlightenment. But then if the intention is uniting with the Universe (or annihilation) then it would be RHP I guess. Hard to tell!

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.

I'd say the Left is magick and the Right is meditation.

 

[crossfire]

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.

I'd say the Left is magick and the Right is meditation.

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.