Theos-Talk Archives (March 2004 Message tt00558)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, James <jamesfox@a...> wrote:

> Separation is punishment. I am not talking physical plane activity 
here. 
> Isn't the spiritual path we would like to think we are on also 
called the 
> path of return?
> 
> James

Separation may be an in-built notion existing in the mind. It may not 
be real. This notion can be fuelled by opinions, more particularly by 
opinionatedness. If you look around, you can see that many of the 
conflicts that are making the world descend faster and faster into 
fragmentation and disorder are rooted in crystallized opinions about 
how the world should be.

Nagarjuna taught that freedom (nirvana) is the rejection of the 
absoluteness of specific views. A very well-known passage from the 
Buddhist canon says the same thing (Majjhimanikaya): "The Tathagata 
(Buddha) has no views."

You mentioned "the path of return" (nivritti marga). It is said that 
on the "path of outgoing" (pravritti marga), the essential keynote 
is "to take, to grasp", while on the path of return it is "to give." 
Perhaps the spiritual path is a way of life in which opinionatedness 
gives way to understanding, insight and wisdom. Perhaps.

Pedro