A letter to the Buddhist I am enlightened with wonder. I know only two things, that I am part of everything and that I may be wrong about everything. Hence my enlightenment may be from wrong view. However my motivation is of the altruistic path. It is my taste to serve a bridge between existing faiths and the bridge as an auxiliary rather than alternative.
My enlightenment has humbled me with the knowledge that I may be wrong about everything. My witnessing of life by living in and out of meditation has caused me to wonder rather than to know (the serious student should read “preface” to witness how doubt emerged in me). This allows me to view every faith as possibility and every ideal (Buddha) as worthy. Though I take liberty with the understanding of each ideal by believing my medications bring me a more trustworthy guess than any written word, I believe in the possibility of all ideals.
Understanding this possibility I hope will lead to acceptance by elders of inter-religious marriage each child of an inter-religious marriage to replace a child whose parents were struck down by religious hatred.
I would point out that a Buddhist elder lives past the time when he is motivated by reaching Buddhahood. He lives the altruistic path without the motivation (of happiness or Buddhahood attainment). I live the altruistic life without motivation. I am unfamiliar with bliss, have not considered happiness as motivation for 25 years, dynamically alter my meditative techniques regularly and have many other details of difference with Buddhism. I consider the details unimportant. I recognize that a couple marrying need only recognize the possibilities of each other’s details to live in peace and love. It is my life experience that recognizing these possibilities leads to fulfillment through wonder. It is not necessary that anyone else do the same.The two truths and dependent emergence
The perceived truth and the ultimate truth coexist. . It is not necessary to put aside the perceived truth to find the ultimate truth but rather to find each dependent emergence is an identity, every identity balanced between the perceived and ultimate truth. For the serious student read “ the creation of order” and “the gospel according to Joseph”.
Start with any set. Associate the set with any other set in any way. Do it again. Do it until you include everything. What you have now is everything. It has complete meaning but cannot be manipulated. It is one truth. It is the perceived truth.
Start with the same set. Associate the set with its parts in any way. Do it again. Do it again and again until you break it into all the parts imaginable. Then you have an uncountable number of nothings. They are easy to manipulate. They have no meaning. It is the other truth. It is the ultimate truth.
Start with a set called “Diana ”. Bound your associations by reason. It is useful because it’s meaning is less than everything and it can be manipulated. We say that “Diana” has an identity. It is a dependent emergence.
“ Diana “ could be expanded until it includes everything. It would be a perception. However it would be no different than “Joe ” or “everything”. Diana would be perceived as the table where you couldn’t tell the tables apart (of course if you put all the tables together and so on and so on eventually you end up with everything). By itself it is complete but separate.
Go the other way. “Diana” could be divided into an uncountable set of nothings. You could put your hand through “ Diana”. “Diana” would be completely manipulatable yet the symbol would be without meaning. You could not tell whether you are putting your hand through ” Diana” or “Joe ”. It is part.
As you identify yourself as part of everything your concern with everything becomes your self-concern. Eventually your self disappears and you are left with the ultimate truth. Being is nothing, belonging is everything. I am part of everything.
It is interesting to note that Buddhists (who arrive at Buddhahood) have the option of remaining part or escaping the birth death cycle to the emptiness (no thing, nothing).
Rather then transcending or denying the perceived truth for the ultimate truth, include it. When the perceived truth is recognized as part of the ultimate truth balance can be found.
Reality is best viewed from identity. This levels the field. When the field is leveled and my identity is in the way include it.
If bliss be, it is in the grandeur of my insignificance. This places reality in ultimate perspective.