It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

Hebraism, and Buddhism - Worlds Apart.

page: 1
0

log in

join
share:

posted on Jul, 4 2011 @ 09:20 PM
link   
This is my view on Buddhism and Judaism, and how they conflict, but at the same time, complement one another.

When i study Judaism, or kabbalistic philosophy, the emphasis is on this world, on the way it appears, and on a hidden fundamental pattern - understood theologically (metaphysically) - inherent in every creation.

Studying Kabbalah requires you to think of the world as being made with purpose and meaning; that there are 10 ineffable sefiroth (archetypes) animating every phenomena in creation. Everything is looked at and understood as being expressive of a higher reality - created and designed by the Grand Architect of all.

On the other hand, when studying Buddhism, its as if you look back in time. You recede into a point outside of history, before the creation of Adam; indeed, beyond this world and its meaning, into another, meaningless, or completely quiet realm of existence

I am not deriding Buddhism. The more i study it the more im attracted to its ideas. But unlike those 'new age' types, who completely and utterly submit out of ignorance to this one way of looking at the world, i do not think Buddhism stands alone as truth.

I see Buddhism as expressing reality from mans perspective; without any divine revelation of guidance, Buddhism starts from the premise that life is sufferring, and the only way to conquer sufferring is to acquire correct knowledge. This correct knowledge is knowledge of the mind; its true nature, and living and acting in accord with this knowledge.

But despite Buddhisms lofty accomplishments; its incisive clarifications of mind and consciousness, i cannot sit content with this perception alone. It lacks something. It lacks meaning. It is infact, nihilistic in nature. Meaning can only be projected onto it; but it is not an inherent reality...atleast not objectively inherent.

In Kabbalah, this world is seen as a reflection, or microcosm, of a higher reality.

When the Torah says "In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the Earth", a very deep idea is alluded to here, but often overlooked (people dont expect there to be intellectual depth in the bible..but it is infact a book of metaphysics). the first thing created and the first thing known, and differentiated, is Time. "Bere#h", in the beginning, is the beginning of history. From Adam onwards, a metaphysical theosophy is being discussed. The birth of individualized consciousness, and mans "fall" into physical reality, is ultimately intended to be for mans spiritual perfection.

6 days the world were created, and on the 7th day, G-d rested. The Rabbis of the Talmud (mystics, it should be understood) said the history of the world would be 6000 years, each corresponding to a day of creation. Day 1 created basic things, whereas day 6 culminated in the most advanced creation of all - Adam (woman being the final creation makes her the most perfect creation). 7 is seen as a completion, and the INTEGRATION of the 6. There are 6 sefiroth, and they all coalesce in the sphere of Malkuth. There are 6000 years of creation, and all mans development in these 6000 years, in the spiritual/intuiton (the first 2000 years), individuation (the next 2000 years) and the combination of both in the last 2000 years (this era we live in has pretty much brought all the last 6000 years of human civilization into perspective), all will be revealed in its completeness in the 7000th year, the millenium of Shabbath.

So, with this understanding. Reading Kabbalah, and then reading Buddhism, atleast for me, can be an intellectually disorrienting activity. Youre going from one of looking at things, to an entirely different way of looking at things. And yet as i look deeper, i see how both these modes represent authentic perspectives, and infact complement each other. In kabbalistic terms, Buddhism is 'hokmah', wisdom, and the analysis of preconscious realities. Whereas Hebraism is Binah, the revealed world, in its manifold differentiations, with its explanations.



posted on Jul, 4 2011 @ 09:46 PM
link   
Pure Buddhism and pure Qabbalah seems to me to grasp the same reality but in different ways. Reincarnation is in both of them, but the Buddha stated there is no permanent self that reincarnates - anatman.
The G-d of Judaism is the Voice of total Unity. Obviously everything came from there...
It is almost an intellectual play to compare that in one system you have no g*d but boddhisattvas and something unspeakable at the center, while in the other the unspeakable is of prime satus and it speaks to men and gives advice (do not kill et cetera).
Mystical Buddhism has very similar teachings to the Qabbalah, only, the divisions are different - the pramutpáda. REincarnation is the explicit contest of Buddhism, yet in Qabbalistic writings it is only a secret allusion for the learned. Well, contexts are different for the teaching but I sense a deep similarity. And one more thing: bot schools are uncompromising in their approach to raise men above his state. In Buddhism you do that yourself with teh help of Boddhisattvas (cf. angles, archangels), and in Judaism you simply ask for the mighty one(s) (including the servants of the Everlasting) to intervene, and use the godnames as protection. Both are unitarian religions, that is as opposed to prophetic divisions such as the son, The Father and the Holy Ghost in various Christian liturgies.
The interesting thing is what they can do for liberating people using their own system from bondage in Malkuth - or being attached to rebirth... Go figure. I prefer their mystical systems yet sometimes the most basic sentences can give you enlightment. The Quabbalist in eastern terms would strive to understand G*d and to live by his commands - your body is nothing else but a temple of his commands.



posted on Jul, 5 2011 @ 02:19 AM
link   
They are both interpretations of (experiences within) a very deep meditative/mystical state (which is, consequently, a very easy place to visit with the correct tools and guidance), the interpretations differ as a result of the prior conditioning and beliefs of the respective authors. The same ideas can be conveyed far more efficiently, and with greater accuracy over a ~50 page book.



new topics
 
0

log in

join