Question Everything!; Against The Stream: A Buddhist Manual for Spiritual Revolutionaries

Against The Stream Buddhist Meditation Center, Venice, CA.

Read Part ONE , TWO and THREE of Against The Stream: A Buddhist Manual for Spiritual Revolutionaries here.

QUESTION EVERYTHING!

Nothing must be accepted on blind faith

If any aspect of these teachings doesn’t make sense when thoroughly investigated, reject it

If karma and reincarnation seem too mystical or obscure to you, keep an open mind and continue to trudge the path—but don’t think you have to pretend that you believe something you don’t have direct experience of.

Eventually the truth will be revealed

We don’t have to understand it all at once. I like to think of the path to awakening as cumulative, a step-by-step progression, like going from A to Z. Don’t think you must understand XYZ before you have learned the fundamental ABC’s. As we practice mindfulness, the whole alphabet will begin to make sense. The teachings within the four noble truths and the eightfold path are the ABCs of the path. The training of the mind in present-time investigative awareness and friendliness will reveal the whole alphabet; all of the dharma will be uncovered in our own direct experience, if we are sincere and steadfast in our efforts to find the truth. Only when our fundamental wisdom has developed sufficiently will XYZ be clear.

Accept nothing as true, until you have experienced it as true for yourself!