Q1-20100224-Larry_Rosenberg-IMSRC-the_four_noble_truths_a_vehicle_for_self_discovery_part_iii-8336 L

Talk: 20100224-Larry_Rosenberg-IMSRC-the_four_noble_truths_a_vehicle_for_self_discovery_part_iii-8336 Leandra Tejedor.jsonw Start_time: 00:33:44 Display_question: I'm just wondering if God, or the divine, or whatever you call it, has a role in the dharma? Keyword_search: God, divine, dharma, Japanese meditation master Dogen, nontheistic, Buddhadharma, self, awakened, silent, religion, inconceivable Question_content: Questioner: I'm just wondering if God, or the divine, or whatever you call it, has a role in the dharma? Larry: Does it for you? Questioner: Yes. Larry: Fine. But remember, in a certain way, it's a word. And that word has been associated with something very positive for you, let's say. Let me come at it a different way. The teachings of the Buddha are known as nontheistic. Not atheistic, nontheistic. It's not saying there is a God, or there isn't. Now, as you start to get to know yourself…there was a very great Japanese meditation master named, Dogen, and he said, to study Buddhadharma, is to study the self. Another translation is, to learn about Buddhadharma is to learn about the self. To study or learn about the self is, to forget the self. What? See, as you start studying all the things your fears, your angers, your loneliness, your discouragement, your hopes, your joys, that starts to fall away. And then the line, finally it said, so study the Buddhadharma is, to study yourself. To study yourself is, to forget yourself. To forget yourself is, to be awakened, by all things. Break_line: In other words, when you stop being preoccupied with this little world, little enclosure that the thinking mind has made, which we think is us, there's a vast reality that opens up. It's infinite. Now, if you want to call that… and it's not just a philosophic abstraction, it's real, it's silent. Once we open my mouth, and try to put in words, I kill it. But if you want to call it divine, you want to call it God. But in terms of people are killing each other for words, and every religion has a different description of your destination, you'll be on the right hand of God. You won't be. You go to hell. There is no hell. Just goes on and on. So, there's no need to take that away from you. But if you're going to do this practice, the emphasis is going to be on getting to know yourself, as you are. And then, when you open up to that, it's sometimes called the inconceivable. That's not bad, because any name you give to it, including divine, and God, if those words are good words for you, why would I want to take them away from you? But the main thing is not the words. It's the quality of your life, that comes out of this practice. End_time: 00:36:12