Two Concepts
Posted byI have found through my study of dozens of spiritual teachers, and religious practices with the objective of enlightenment, or self-realization, that there are two core principles, or concepts, that explain all teachings.
1) From the Buddhist tradition, there is the postulated idea, a reality for those who see, that nothing is real if it is temporary. Only that which is permanent is real. Thus all forms, thoughts, emotions which come and go are not real, but of an illusory nature. Only that which sees them come and go is real. Call that consciousness, awareness, life force, God, or infinity, whatever name, it matters not. All suffering comes from attachment to, or avoidance of, these temporary things.
2) The mind is the problem. The mind objectifies, creates a subject and object distinction, labels, analyzes. It is connected to thoughts and emotions. None of these things are real. They are at best tools of convenience, at worse, mis-identifications and sources of suffering since consciousness mistakenly thinks thinks it is a body, an emotion, a thought. These are all illusions and creations which have no permanence. In that sense this principle derives from the first. The personal sense of "I" is a creation of the mind, which is started as a cultural teaching from time of birth through childhood. The solution to unraveling illusions created by the mind is to stop the compulsive create of the mind, by silencing it. Alternatively, there are practices to focus the mind on one thing, such as breathing, to exclusion of all thought and spurious creation.