By Al G Manning
Gautama, the Buddha preceded Jesus by about 600 years. In his immediate previous incarnation he was said to have given his physical body to a mama lion out of compassion to keep her from starving. Compassion is pretty much the key of his teachings, but of course the clerics have a way of distorting things for their own pleasure or aggrandizement. He also taught the “middle path” which I have interpreted as moderation in all things, including the practice of moderation.
Somehow out of all of this the ideas of the Zen developed. Often called Zen Buddhism, this teaching is of direct experience. How do you really know something? You can read a thousand word essay on apples and know nothing, but bite into one and you know. Similarly the preacher may prattle about eternal life Sunday after Sunday, but it’s meaningless. Then just one astral projection where your picture your physical body being lowered into a hole in the ground, you get the realization “That’s not the real me.”
Zen AND Spirit Contact
When you see, feel or otherwise experience it, Spirit contact is real. Otherwise it’s just a preacher prattling again. There was a time when I called my religion half Zen Buddhist & half Spiritualist. Nowadays I admit to being a complete eclectic and I commend it to you. There is some good in any religion, but also many clergy induced errors and bits of nonsense. Let’s grab the good parts and spit out the rest. It may sometimes seem hard to be a good eclectic, but at least to me it’s the only true source of comfort in a world of would be conflicting religions.