Within Us and Without Us

(Five Buddha Mandala, 2018, original encaustic) Notes on Religion and Faith The superstition of religious content applies to all religions and faiths. They are the context of faith. But the faith itself and how it is focused on (absorbed into) is the true religion free of concepts and conventional knowledge/mythology. Obviously such a true religion is universal, part and parcel of Life itself. In other words, the forms (of devotion and meditation) are important (or true) only in how they get us to engage. And the degree of faith is what determines the degree of engagement/absorption. Once absorbed there is no duality, so no room for distinctions (all the varieties of subjects and objects). For liberation to occur (real freedom from confusion/delusion) absolute engagement/absorption must occur, at least for a moment. Meditation is thus the excuse to become intimately familiar with our true nature. And what is true has no place for what is false; superstition and contrivance. Meditation for one might be very different for another. And thus we can never really tell how accomplished and liberated anyone else is. It’s hard enough just trying to track that for oneself! Within Us and Without Us The world is full of hierarchies, It’s the definition of the world, And yet, what it’s all based on What really matters Is without distinction Without boundary Without limit Without separation Without change Without existence (10/31/23)