Chapter 13 Faith, Manners and Superstition

Jean-François - Ceremonial piety, that is, "bigoterie" that people criticize, such as holy water, rosary beads, twigs, efficacy for all forgiveness, for various sacraments or certain prayers 1. The belief in the burning of candles, which is found in most religions, is the exact opposite of the purified aspect which people ascribe to Buddhism.Intellectuals, among many others, can be attracted to the wisdom of Buddhism, yet repelled by the appearance of certain established religions, which seem to them theatrical, too formalistic, or irrational, And this ceremonial piety seems to be one of the things that made them so.But I feel that what is involved here is an idealized image of Buddhism when one observes it from a distance, when one recognizes its teachings and is not present to watch its daily practice .And when one travels in a Buddhist country, when one enters a monastery, one sees an extraordinary variety of spiritual practices, singing, processions, prostrations, etc., which, to an agnostic like me, seem to have nothing to do with superstition or Orthodox, Catholic, Obligatory rituals in Islam or Judaism are of the same kind.I would even say that certain spiritual practices, as they appear to us today in the twentieth century, seem closer to medieval Catholicism than to present-day Catholicism.Could it be that a somewhat irrational, alien, and mechanically ritualistic feature of Buddhist practice would be embedded in the wisdom of the Buddha over thousands of years?

Mathieu – First of all, in Buddhism, as in all spiritual and religious traditions, a distinction should be made between superstition and ritual.Belief becomes superstition when it is opposed to reason and divorced from the understanding of the deep meaning of ritual.Rituals have a meaning (the Latin word ritus also means "righteous action").It requires one kind of reflection, two kinds of contemplation, one kind of prayer, and one kind of contemplation.The meaning of the words chanted in singing is always a call to contemplation.This is especially true in the case of Tibetan Buddhism.As one bows to the content of the ritual itself, to the verse being chanted, one uses it as a guide in which to discover the elements of Buddhist contemplation—emptiness, love, and compassion.A ritual is a guided spiritual practice in the enlightening environment of a monastery, in a peaceful atmosphere enhanced by sacred music designed not to arouse emotions but to calm them And it helps to concentrate the mind.This music was conceived as an offering rather than an artistic expression.Some ceremonies continued day and night for more than a week.Their purpose is to lead practitioners generally into a phase of intense practice.In meditation on a mandala, one emphasizes the technique of concentration and requires a very rich symbolism.

Jean-François - mandala, can you define it exactly?I have only a superficial understanding of it. Mathieu-Mandala is a symbolic representation of the universe and various beings in the form of a perfect place and some gods who live in this place.The "spirits" referred to in the mandala are not gods, because, as I have already emphasized, Buddhism is neither monotheistic nor polytheistic.These are some archetypes, some representations of Buddha nature.Meditation on the mandala is an exercise in what is called "pure vision," that is, an awareness of the Buddha-nature inherent in the heart of all beings.These techniques of visualization help transform our usual perception of the world—a mixture of the pure and the impure, the good and the evil—into a fundamentally complete realization of the phenomenal world.By visualizing ourselves, like the various beings around us, as the perfect archetype of the "spirits" of Tibetan temples, one accustoms oneself to the idea that Buddha-nature resides within every being.One thus no longer distinguishes between the external modes of beings—ugliness or beauty, friend or foe.In short, these techniques are skilled means for rediscovering the perfection inherent in ourselves and in every being.Finally, it must also be emphasized that, in the eyes of the Tibetan masters, ritual had only an entirely relative importance, and that the monks who devoted themselves exclusively to contemplation abandoned all forms of ritual.Some masters, such as the great yogi Mira Lepa, even openly denigrate religious rituals and rituals.The diversity of spiritual techniques is thus adapted to the diversity of adherents and subordinated to different levels of spiritual practice.

Jean-François - Yes, but one day in Kathmandu we noticed a large crowd of Buddhist devotees coming to pray around this huge monument... what is this monument called?I forgot. Mathieu - stupa (stotipa). ① Free translation of Lingmiao, Fangfen, Yuanjia, Gaoxianchu, etc.Bouddha can also be added before Sanskrit, which is transliterated as Buddha Stupa, and its error is slightly floating map, that is, stupa. Jean-François - yes, these devotees lined up for hours around this stupa, always in a clockwise direction, as I learned on a previous trip to Bhutan, When one wants to go around a temple or a stupa, it has to be clockwise, for a mysterious reason that I can't think of at the moment, and of which I've never been given a very surprising reason. satisfactory explanation.Isn't this pure and simple superstition?

Mathieu - this is an important point.Are the vast majority of actions in what people call "ordinary life" merely functional, devoid of any deep meaning?Walking often ends up being moving in order to get somewhere as quickly as possible; eating is about filling one's stomach; labor is about making as much as possible, and so on.Yet even the most ordinary actions have a meaning in a society where the life of the mind pervades the whole of existence.Conceptually, there is actually nothing ordinary anymore.For example, when one walks, he sees it as moving toward awakening; while lighting a fire, one wishes "all the negativity of a human being to be burned away"; delicacy"; in opening a door, "may the door of liberation open to all that exist", etc.In the case of the stupa, Tibetans consider it more meaningful to go around it for an hour than to make some twists and turns.A stupa is a symbol of the Buddha's spirit (the inscriptions symbolize his speech, the statue his body).Because the right side is regarded as a noble position, in order to show their respect for the Buddha and his teachings, they always let the stupa turn around on their right side, that is, walk in a clockwise direction.In doing so, their spirits run toward the Buddha, and thus toward his teachings.

Jean-François - Why are there all these murals showing apparently supernatural beings?I originally believed that there are no gods in Buddhism? Mathieu – again, this is not some god who is supposed to be born with an inherent existence.These deities are symbolic.The face of a "god" represents One, the Absolute.His arms are the awareness of emptiness united with the method of compassion.Some gods have six arms, which symbolize the six perfections: discipline, generosity, tolerance, quickness, concentration, and wisdom.Spirituality has meaning-laden forms that remind the person who visualizes the forms of the various elements of the spiritual path.It is more useful to do so than to inspect some ordinary images.This symbolic paradigm helps us to use our imagination in this way as a motor for spiritual progress, rather than allowing us to be driven by our own unfettered thoughts.One of the main obstacles to the concentration of ideas is actually the barbaric multiplication of ideas.Visualization techniques are proficient means that help those who are constantly agitated and have difficulty calming the flow of their thoughts to direct that flow toward a goal.Visualization can be very complex, but instead of distracting the mind, it stabilizes and calms the mind.A correct visualization requires us to have three qualities: the ability to maintain a clear visualization, which involves bringing the mind continually back to the object of its concentration; awareness of the symbolic meaning of the object one is contemplating; The perception of one's inherent Buddha-nature.

① That is, the six paramitas in Buddhism. Jean-François - but I have seen devotees prostrate before the Buddha's image in some temples!This is what people do when they are confronted with divinity, with a god, with an idol, not with philosophers! Mathieu—prostrate before the Buddha, this is a kind of reverent respect, not to respect a god, but to respect the person who embodies the ultimate wisdom.This wisdom, and the teachings he gave, were of immense value to the man who stooped to pay his respects.Homage to this wisdom is still an act of humility.This is used as an antidote against arrogance, which is a hindrance to all inner transformation.Arrogance prevents wisdom and compassion from springing up.The proverb says: "Water cannot be gathered on the top of the mountain, and true merit cannot be piled up on the top of the arrogant mountain." Besides, prostration is not a mechanical action.Putting the hands, knees and forehead—these are the five points—on the ground, one wishes to purify the five poisons, namely hatred, lust, ignorance, arrogance and envy, transforming them into the five corresponding wisdoms.When one is standing up and sliding his hands across the ground, one thinks, "May I 'collect' the pains of all beings and exhaust them by bearing them." , is not neutral, banal, or ordinary at all, but brings us back to spiritual practice.

Jean-François—In Christian monastic life, however, the only reality is God.The world in which we live, the Stecle, as the seventeenth-century French Catholics (who talked about living in or out of the world) said, compared to the essential being, God, The world is but a deviation of attention.The religious life, therefore, the life of a man, either as Pascale retired to a monastery at Port Royal, or as the Chartreuses to a monastery, is to be free from all distractions— — Pascal calls it a “pastime” — that is, that which turns our attention to the trivialities of everyday gain, the false value of success, vanity, and monetary gratification.Such hours, which weave life in this earthly world, are excluded from them in order to be able to focus all attention on the only relationship that matters, that of God.The monks of the Great Chartres Abbey withdrew from the world in order to be able to concentrate on contemplating God without interruption or distraction.In Buddhism, however, since there is no transcendent God, what is the purpose of monastic life, or this retreat from time and the world?In a word, if Buddhism is not a religion, why is it so like a religion?

Mathieu - I believe we have had some conversations on this the other day.Call it religion, call it metaphysics, it doesn't matter much after all.The spiritual purpose of Buddhism is awakening, and this awakening has been achieved by the Buddha himself.The way is to follow in the footsteps of the Buddha.This requires a profound shift in our stream of consciousness.It can therefore be understood that those who sincerely desire to follow this path devote their whole time to it.It is also understood that, especially for a beginner, external conditions can help or hinder this pursuit.Only the awakened man is not wounded by circumstances, for to him the phenomenal world is a book in which every page is an affirmation of the truth he has discovered.A spiritually realized man is as undisturbed by noise even in a great city as in a monastery in the mountains.But the beginner should seek those favorable conditions which help him to develop his concentration and transform his thought.In the chaos of everyday life, this transformation process takes more time and is likely to be interrupted before it is complete.This is why Tibetan practitioners sometimes spend years in monasteries.Their purpose is to dedicate themselves to spiritual pursuits, not forgetting for a moment that their ultimate purpose is to achieve awakening so that they can then help others.

Jean-Francois - How to define awakening? Mathieu - this is the discovery of the ultimate nature of oneself and of all things. Jean-François – can you explain exactly what people say about faith in Buddhism? Mathieu - On the surface, this word has a very rich connotation in the West.There are four types of beliefs.The first is "shallow faith", or inspired faith, which refers to the faith that wakes up when one hears a spiritual teaching, or the life story of Buddha or a great philosopher. An interest in waking up.The second belief is aspiration, which is the desire to know more, to practice a teaching for oneself, to follow the example of a philosopher in order to gradually attain the perfection he embodies.The third belief becomes a "conviction" which is a certainty gained by personally attesting to the validity of the teachings and the efficacy of the spiritual path from which one derives increasing satisfaction and complete.This discovery is akin to walking through a region that becomes more and more beautiful as one goes along.Finally, when this certainty has never been denied under any circumstances, a stability is attained in practice which enables man to make use of all the conditions of existence, be they favorable or unfavorable, for the sake of progress.This certainty then becomes a second nature.This is "irreversible" belief.Such is the case with the four stages of the Buddhist faith, which is not an intellectual "leap" but the fruit of gradual discovery, the result of the verification of the fact that the spiritual path itself bears fruit.