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one day.. its been a long drive. esoteric buddhism dovetailed with western occult which i was also into for a minute. i know others have traveled this pipeline, its common for a certain archetype
also its a little difficult because naturally i have to talk about what i feel is incorrect about those systems and, aside from people getting mad which im cool with, the nature of buddhism is that 10 people will give you 10 different definitions for any term so, [...]
no matter what i say, its inevitable that people come along and say, well actually thats not really what this means at all, etc., so its very easy for others to make it look like i have no idea what im talking about to people who arent well versed in the ins + outs of the system
if anyone thinks im exaggerating, i used to be in a social circle with a few people at the top of their field with phds who spent their lives studying buddhism (cant name names but if youre in this world youd know their work). [...]
you can ask one top scholar about something [very basic] + theyll say, yeah that is X, anyone who says its Y has no idea what they’re talking about. ask another top of their field scholar the same extremely basic question, theyll say, thats Y, anyone who says its X is misinformed
then you can ask two lamas (two teachers) and theyll give you two other totally conflicting answers. im not even talking about deep theology but about extremely basic aspects of the system. cant really go much deeper without potentially revealing who im talking about. [...]
this isnt an indictment of the system at all, thats not what im saying, my point is that basically if u say anything concrete thats critical of buddhism its very easy to smokescreen + fog and say ah well thats not really what this means, really its like this, its more subtle, etc
i dont think the whole thing is “bad” by any means, there is definitely some wisdom and insight and awesome stuff in there (nagarjuna, bodhidharma, certain observations as to the nature of the mind) but i disagree with some basic aspects of it as a whole, may elaborate one day.
