The Broader View.

I’ve heard people say that all religions teach fundamentally the same thing; that they only differ in terms of source and emphasis. You only have to look at the world’s two major faith systems to see that it isn’t so. The Judaic and Vedic traditions approach the whole concept of spirituality in radically different ways.

The Judaic approach is: ‘You have a life. This is how to live it in order to be afforded a better existence when it’s over.’

The Vedic approach is: ‘You have a constant succession of lives, going round and round on a wheel. This is how to condition your perception so you can come off that wheel.’

I’ve encountered a number of people over the last few years who claim to be Buddhist, but it’s obvious that they misunderstand what Buddhism is about. The problem is that people in the west are conditioned to the Judaic one-life mindset, and that’s the mindset with which they approach their chosen religion. They think that practising Buddhism is about achieving inner peace and harmony in their lives. Well, it can certainly do that, but it’s only a part of the means to the end. The end is about learning how to stop having to be human. And following that road is rather more mentally and emotionally taxing than simply following the conditioned mentality of a one-life culture.

I was sitting in the bath tonight, musing on all those things people obsess about: ambition, high education, wealth, status etc, etc, and I thought:

‘Look beyond the tramlines. There’s more to being than life.’

And then I heard Bob Dylan sing:

Preachers preach of evil fates,

Teachers teach that knowledge waits,

While goodness hides behind its gates.

And the last line of that song is:

It’s life, and life only.