Is Buddhism the ‘Word of Siddhartha’?
Failures are the pillars of ‘Retreats’ By Paul Hess
“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, with their hearts above their heads”
‘Retreats’ as the term implies are for failures, the subnormal who have lost faith in themselves and ever willing to remain subservient preferring to leave their destiny in the hands of those who offer to save them. They are the cannon fodder of religions and their ‘holy men’, the most precious commodity that keeps their hopes alive. Without them, they are doomed.
To understand the overwhelming popularity of these so-called ‘Retreats’ among the naïve, one has to visit the numerous websites of temples, monasteries and meditation centers that have sprung up like mushrooms all over the world advertising their services to save the so-called unfortunate souls looking for ‘bliss’ in a world of ‘suffering’, unaware bliss and suffering are inseparable. They are the brainchild of so-called ‘Meditation Masters’ a new breed of men that emerged among those Westerners who came to Thailand towards mid-latter part of the nineties who saw in meditation a potential cash cow. So much so some of the ‘retreats’ are five-star resorts catering to the rich to meditate in comfort.
However, the seeker of Dhamma knows his battleground is his ‘Chitta’ his elusive creator where there are no ‘retreats’ to fall back on but to relentlessly pursue the creator to conquer him. Unlike religious, yogic and ascetic meditation practices that involve sitting like statues and walking like robots in meditation centers, jungles, and caves, a seeker transforms his life process into a meditative process a living experience observing his ‘Chitta’ the creator of his world every moment to neutralize it to abandon it.
Take charge of your life process for it is your world and never let others the so-called meditation masters and holy men exploit you. Siddhartha conquered his world by experiencing it within. He never offered to save anyone but Instead revealed the method to conquer our own. Had he ‘retreated’ he would still be looking for the so-called ‘way out of suffering’ stuck in a world of meditation centers and their masters or sitting in jungles and caves totally dependent on the generosity of others for survival and hoping for hope where there is no hope.
‘The ignorant world is the playground of religions and their ‘holy men’.