Thoughts

In the Empty Mirror, the author decides to do three days of intense meditation. He is warned against it by his spiritual friend. He is insistent. But after half a day, he finds it hard and quit. Then he decides to go home.

I would say that he hasn't prepared himself for such a trial, and sets himself up for failure. There is a relentless obsessive tightening of the screws in the Buddha's path. I'm not sure if just doing what a Buddha would do, fake it till you make it, really works. I think if you're in tune with your progress, and it blossoms organically there is plenty of room for effort and will, but it isn't just railroading yourself through it.

The Buddha is not reborn because he has stepped out of conditionality and abides in the transcendental. That part of him, the Dharmakaya, is deathless. It is trancendental, mystical, beyond conditioning and words.

The karma of his life are the teachings that have somehow miraculously come down to us. For 90% of the history of Buddhism the teachings did not hit the Americas. We are just starting to understand the teachings here.

The shadow of Buddhist spiritual efforts is that I don't want to be enlightened. I don't want to stop feeling lust for women, I don't want to stop enjoying sense desire, from body and mind. I don't want to transcend my conditions.