Tried to edit my previous post but couldn’t find a way to 
is there a time limit for editing posts?
As a Dharma practictioner (more commonly, Buddhist) and having quite seriously and deeply delved in Buddhist studies/practices I would love to explain a few points that, maybe,
could help correct a couple misconceptions. I’ll talk about all of this from the Mahayana perspective.
Please, keep in my mind that my faulty mind can play tricks on me, but I’ll try my best to report things as I understood and remember them. Therefore, don’t take my word for it, as I could be mistaken. It’s also worth mentioning that I learned most of Dharma terms in my mother tongue, and although I’ll try my best to translate it in English, some terms could be slightly different; I hope they’ll convey the meaning just as effectively as the most common sanskrit to english translation.
Firstly I’d like to explain how the Buddha talked about 2 types of phenomena (events, things, everything that can be perceived falls into a category of phenomena. Phenomena are, quite literally, everything you can think of -a leaf, the sun, a computer, the internet, a thought, a feeling, light, a concept- literally anything).
- Clear Phenomena
- Obscure Phenomena
A couple of examples of obscure phenomena are enlightenment, infinity, past lives karmic connections. (there are also Very Obscure Phenomena but we won’t go into that)
The different between them is that Clear Phenomena are easily understood and/or experienced. Obscure Phenomena are harder to understand, and to experience.
Therefore, won’t talk much about obscure and very obscure phenomena, as, mostly, they are to be experienced and can’t be easily understood conceptually in their totality.
For those wondering why, then, the Buddha even talked about them, I’ll briefly explain why these concepts can be useful.
As magick practitioners, when we do a ritual, we often time ‘‘pretend’’ the result has already happened, as in, feeling as though the ritual was successful and our result has come about, even if it hasn’t. This can be useful also as a method to counteract the lust for results.
By ‘‘pretending’’ the result has come about, reality shifts in that direction.
Same thing goes with spirits, by pretending they are there, oftentimes they are called forth by that very feeling of certainty that they are there, or so I heard.
In a similar way, when the Dharma Teacher or Path has earned enough of our trust, can use these concepts to imagine a reality in which these things are true. Therefore making us, eventually, experience them as a reality.
That’s why one of the Tantra practices is to visualize oneself as Buddha. In my understanding, it’s because eventually, that very act will make it become a reality. (I advise against doing this, as it’s fruitless unless there is a thorough conceptual understanding a what a Buddha is).
In summary, I explained there are 2 types of phenomena, but we won’t go into the second type because it’s not useful for the purpose of understand the basics of Dharma. Also, please forgive me but I may be wrong on the classification on certain phenomena (for example, I don’t remember what type of phenomena emptiness is, although I remember there being two types of emptiness, that which is understood and that which is experienced).
I also explained why the Buddha taught about them, so to assure you they were taught for a reason, but that reason doesn’t apply until Dharma has been practiced and studied enough for them to be useful.
Also, it’s worth noting the Buddha, in appearance, contradicted himself. That is widely known, and himself said that the reason was because different beings require different teachings. A Buddha is omniscient, and perfectly knows what each individual or group needs at a given time, based on their intellectual capacities, their dispositions, their past experiences and so on. The teachings, ultimately, were never contradictory, but just had that appearance. Upon closer inspection, one can find that each and every word uttered by the Buddha was but a piece of a puzzle, to make this grand teaching that will be only then understood as non-contradictory.
Ok, after this ample introduction, I’ll try to go through post by post trying to dispel a couple of misconceptions and confirm what people (in my humble, and wrong more often than not, opinion) got right.
I see issues with it in that all of them say basic human existence is something to escape from as it is nothing but misery and the material world is profane and an illusion.
The Buddha said samsara (which is what is associated with ‘‘BASIC human existence’’) is something to go beyond.
Not to escape from without looking back, but something to be fully understood to only then be abandoned, for one cannot escape samsara without knowing it completely (indeed the Buddha taught that one must wholly understand ‘‘conventional reality’’-aka samsara- before having a chance to understand ‘‘ultimate reality’’-aka nirvana).
Human existence, on the other hand, doesn’t need to be samsara. The Buddha was a human, and he was perfectly happy and content.
The material world (as in, material phenomena) was never described as profane, nor an illusion. Deluded is the perception of it from a samsaric mind, but the world itself is not either profane or an illusion.
Interesting little story I heard from one of my Precious Teachers.
One time, hundreds of years ago, a Zen Master pointed at a turd.
He said: ‘‘That is the Buddha’’.
The monks were utterly flabbergasted, they thought their Master had gone crazy.
But one of them smiled.
He understood what the Master was trying to explain: there is nothing profane, nothing filthy in the world itself. It’s our perception, our experience of it, in relation to ourselves.
Now I’m getting a bit tired of writing, I’ll continue my poorly crafted rant tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll be able to find a way to edit the post
