[Buddha-l] Re: buddha-l Digest, Vol 8, Issue 132

[Michael J. Wilson]

The authenticity exists in the buddha, the dharma and the spiritual community (the sangha) and in your spiritual teacher, who represents the embodiment of this triple gem.  It also exists in what transpires when you are sitting practicing mindfulness of breathing meditation.  Find a middle path between absolutes and relativism, emptiness and eternalism.  Call it compassion. 
 
Michael J. Wilson (Sadag Jungpo Chime)

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 05:27:20 -0700
From: John Chamberlin <jchamberl at cox.net>
Subject: [Buddha-l] The authentic Buddha
To: Buddhist Discussion <Buddha-L at mailman.swcp.com>
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I have a question for those of you on this list that have an ongoing  
Buddhist Practice and have found refuge in that practice, and also at  
least flirt with Relativism. I seem to have this persistent and often  
frustrating belief that authenticity of a religious body of knowledge/ 
practice can only be “real” if it constitutes an absolute in the  
world
a Meta Theory in Postmodernist language. Strange I know, but  
nevertheless a source of great struggle for me, and although I  
persist in my practice, and seem to seldom stray from the Eight-Fold  
Path, it often feels as if I’m practicing an act of bad faith in the  
19th century Existentialist sense of the term. This bad faith coupled  
with my long-standing attraction to all forms of Relativism in  
general, results in producing a rather breezy religious refuge for  
me.  The Question: How does one find authenticity in any system of  
beliefs/practices if there are no absolutes? 
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