Shambala

[one_raven]

I was speaking with a friend over the weekend.
He is very high up in the Shambala organization – he was good friends with Ginsberg and helped him open the Naropa Institue.
He has a beautiful painting in his house.
I thought it represented Siddhartha wrestling with Mara depicted in the Pali Canon, so I asked him about it.
His response surprised me, because he implied that he has never read any of the Pali Canon.

Another friend is also involved in Shambala.
Her parents are practitioners, so she was raised in the Shambala tradition, and I don’t know much about it, so I was asking questions this weekend.
She has been practicing Shambala for about 30 years and has never read the Pali Canon.
I understand that learning Pali and reading all fifty volumes of the Canon is a twenty year dedication at least – but for a devout practitioner of the tradition to never have read any of the Canon really surprised me.
When I asked her about it she said that they do not use the Pali Canon in Shambala at all.
She was talking about the Pali Canon having been written in an entirely different time and culture and Shambala being geared toward Westerners, and presenting the Dahmma in a way that Westerners could understand it better.

I find it hard to wrap my head around this.
To me, that’s like being a Christian and never reading the Bible.
They have teachers that explain what THEIR vision of the Dhamma is.
Doesn’t that directly contradict one of the key tenets of Siddhartha’s teachings of “Kill Your Parents, Kill Your God, Kill Your Teacher”?

If anyone has any experience with or knowledge of Shambala, I would appreciate some insight to this.

[Wakaba]

i know not about Shambala and dont believe i have even heard of it. I believe i read something similar to "kill your parnets, god, teacher" in a zen buddhism book that said something like

"kill the buddha. kill the buddha if he exists somewhere else. kill the buddha and resume your own buddha nature."

From what i understand Siddhartha did not intend anyone to blindly follow his teachings; rather he wished people to use only what worked for them. This mindset is what attracted me strongly to buddhism; the fact that religion is what each person makes it and is a personal journey, not one that can be simply taught.

[islandclimber]

yes and that is why siddhartha rejected all ideas of a god or gods... and that is why he rejected the brahmins and their overwhelming power... he didn't think belief and faith should be forced and based upon authority and blind adherence to doctrine, and upon creator gods, or all powerful gods...

that is the no soul doctrine... I don't think he meant for his teachings to have been corrupted like they have been, where buddhism is now full of gods and authority, and having to follow a certain path.. siddhartha wanted each to blaze their own path, find nirvana or whatever you want to call it in your own way... he believed in love, love for everything, just not desire and possession, more a selfless love...

that is why buddhism, though a wonderful and peaceful religion, is totally off the mark from what he believed and you could say taught... though I don't believe siddhartha would have called himself a teacher or creator of religion.. just a voice, with some ideas that could be a starting point to help others find infinite being... for I think he realized that all human language and definition and shape and form falls apart with regard to infinite being and non being, timeless existence and non existence... that is where "anatta" came from, and "nirvana"... the fact that nothing is everything, everything is nothing... therefore every way of coming to this realization, or "enlightenment" is of the same value, for until death, one cannot comprehend timeless or infinite, they fall apart against human understanding, one can only feel it in the mind or heart, one can only accept... explaining kirillov's statement in Dostoevsky's "The Devils" about how man will not be happy or free until realizing that it is all the same whether one lives or dies... don't cling to either...

find your own way to love and faith,... that is what siddhartha taught...