The Lefthand Path of Buddhahood

The path of Buddhahood is normally described as the path one takes to achieve Nirvana. Where one must remove all their earthly and spiritual desires/anger/fear/etc. to become one with the universe. Ultimately finding peace with all of its ebbs and flows.

This seems to be only one of two paths to me. I believe another path can be found by understanding one’s desires/fears/anger/etc., one’s true self, and allowing that to take them to the same place. In this path a person does not become consumed by the resonant state but becomes one with it. Understanding and flowing with it. In this path one can feel and have wants and needs. Yet still achieve the state of Nirvana by understanding why they feel that way.

In other words, the lefthand version of the path of Buddhahood.

Zen

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Tell me more about this. How would you go about understanding these emotions from a neutral space? Does this involve compartmentalization?

I’ve always been told my anger was a problem but to quote Rage Against The Machine; “your anger is a gift”. I’ve never feared my emotions especially not the so called negative ones.

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The Buddha Consciousness is very much like Osirification in Kemetic style spirituality

I don’t really see left hand or right hand anymore, I go more by the daoist style by raising the earth energy and descending the heaven energy Into the heart, and merging the 2, to become god as man instead of destroying the contents of the earthly self, man just needs to trancend the lower nature to harmonize with the higher heavenly nature

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Found this:
https://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2016/03/buddhist-rebirth-in-different-planes-of-existence.html

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Buddhism by default transcends left and right hand path. You have not researched Mahamudra and the Chod tradition. It is beyond dualistic distinctions of there being a “left” or right hand. The Buddhist path of the Bodhisattva makes an aspiration to basically discard the reference point of ego for how they live their lives.

One of the most famous Tibetan Buddhist teachers was an alcoholic that had sex with students and took drugs. What does that say about left and right hand?

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I learned about the Sohei monks a few weeks ago and their concepts are pretty spot on. They view drinking, fighting, gambling and prostitution as part of our journeys and it made me face palm myself XD

You can never really detach from anger and negative emotions fully imo but lots of monks acknowledge that it bothers them and feel it and let it go. There is a Buddhist on YouTube that teaches this.

I think the middle path is ideal. Like in Hindu lore. Indra is a heavenly King who also enjoys pleasures of life indicating balance imo

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One of the issues many people have is they allow desire, anger, fear, etc. to dictate their lives. I am sure you have noticed many people refusing to do something due to a fear of possible consequences. On the other hand, some people destroy their entire lives based on anger. What you have to do is find a way to control the anger and fear. Instead of letting it hinder you. Let it push you forward to your goals.

The problem is many people do not have goals that align with who they truly are. So, the most important first step is to find out who you are. What makes you tick, your positives, your negatives, etc. You must accept everything about who you are. Then once you have you will be able to determine what you want out of your life, what makes you happy.

Once you have your path and direction determined, you must not allow your emotions to push you off on another path. Instead, understand why you feel them and allow them to guide you on your selected path. It takes a lot of reflection and reviewing why you did things that you did. But eventually you will understand your emotions and how to use them to benefit yourself.

Zen

I agree with you, and this same truth is also discussed in something I’m currently reading, as it happens, “The Life and Teachings of the Taoist Masters”.

The path of asceticism is a trap, and a corruption of the original Buddhist teachings, you can’t become aligned with the god within, or ascended, by ignoring half of who you are, or pretending that the flow of yin and yang doesn’t happen. It does, and if you can’t handle that and still be in an enlightened state, you never really were to start with. That’s why it’s a trap, it causes people to stop the work.

I wouldn’t call it “lefthand” myself, that term has some baggage that can be confusing, focusing on ego in some circles and this is more than that. I’d call it the balanced and what in qigong is referred to as leading to “right action from right mind”.

The original buddhist Pali canon teaching is that life is suffering, you should give up everything you own, stop having sex, join a monastary or meditate in a cave, seeking to spiritually annihilate yourself in nirvana. Nirvana is said to be beyond description, in other words you cease to exist since you can’t reincarnate anymore.

This sounds like the exact opposite of LHP self-deification!

However I think taoism is compatible with LHP beliefs, since the founders of taoism became Immortals with magick powers, which is the same thing as what we’re doing. Personally I’m learning chigong and hoping to gain a better understanding of Chi and how to use it in magickal workings. I think there is a lot of good things to learn in eastern occult, but buddhism isnt one of them.

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In as Buddhist phase just these days, my approach is being somewhat RHP but still in a perspective of possibly going beyond that. For example there are those prayers about helping sentient beings: it’s great but a complete Ascent requires to leave behind both evil and good, the latter “as a boat which becomes useless after the other shore is reached”, definitely not like the theories about all initiates having to be selfless etc.

Honestly reading this reminds me of Buddha a bit. When he sat under the tree and attained enlightenment, he first had to face his fears and desires. But he wasn’t facing them as fears or anything sinful, but simply accepting them as something that all humans desired and that he no longer had the need or desire for them.

The Buddhist path honestly is very diverse and have many aspects to it that could fit a good amount. One of the core beliefs is the attain enlightenment through work and sacrifice of sorts. Depending on who you ask it would be different.

I have practiced this a bit in the past and it was very fascinating.

Exactly. People give up their will and who they are in the original string of Buddhism. I believe this enlightenment can be achieved understanding yourself and using your willpower to achieve whatever it is you seek.

Zen

In some ways, I assume so. Although Budda stated he defeated the temptations of Mara. My feeling is such temptations can be useful if aligned to one’s goals and more importantly why one has such temptations in the first place. If you know what you are tempted by then you have part of the image of who you really are.

Zen

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I agree to this. That’s why I personally am using this as a means of growth then to just keep pushing away from.

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i sitlll dont get why anyone, would want to follow the buddha, as he aimed to achieve a state without

form
desire
thought
feeling
perception

you just exist. are nothing. do nothing…
WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT THIS?

If anything, one should learn from mara to be some LHP buddha :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

he is not escaping samsara, he is resetting it, or at best, ending up in another one, as the samsara is the body of a deity, a type of deity which i call “whole beings” they are above the gods.

maybe beocming nothing and therefore gaining the highest form of potential as you literally are nothing …would somehow lead to this brahman/azathoth like state…still so far it seems to be a mere act of self desctruction.

sadhguru was once asked (by a budhdist if i remember correctly?) who had already given that question to hindu and buddhist gurus, and none could answer it.

the question was: “how did i gainn karma, the moment i came into existence?” and sadhguru answered something like:

karma is what you do, but its also what is being done to you.

i found that aligned with something i remembered from years ago, with the book of light, lanoo insisted that… during the next life cycle of the universe, the ascended masters would be dragged out of nirvana (=extinguished) but they would incarnate on such abstract and beyond high levels, that they could easily return to their slumbe, since somehow (even though this doesnt make any sense) would have their monad remember …their prior experiences :face_with_raised_eyebrow: …yeah no that sounds like bs.

but it supports this image im seeing here.
buddhism has as its highest goal, something that wont set you free at all. im not claiming that they dont have useful material (from older traditions) but its pretty clear that buddhism is a beyond literla dead-end.

to me, this lead to a realization.
“all vs nothing”
“good” vs “evil”
“feminien vs masculine”
“lunar vs solar”
“creation, order vs destruction, transformation”
… why dont we just end this talk about supposedly opposing extremes?

nothingness is already a part of you, it is the potential within you.
-how about we dont try to become some buddhist corpse, or a infernal demon or a ooo sooo pure angel or whatever…how about people try to become WHOLE?

breaking dualities.


sorry for that rant, i know that is common on balg but still, i dont like putting up such a display. --but to be honest, buddhism just pisses me off. its obviously is false yet people keep and keep pretending like it has a end goal.

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An unfortunate but true fact is Budda promoted a person becoming nothingness. In way, a person ceases to exist. They exist but have no will, no want, no meaning. Mara on the other hand encouraged people to follow their desires and wants.

Mara is fairly interesting to read about.

Mara - Buddhist Demon of Death and Rebirth | Mythology.net

The Demon Mara, Who Challenged the Buddha (learnreligions.com)

Zen

This is an old thread but still I thought I might post anyway.

There is more than one path in Buddhism. The path of Theravada is to become a monk and to follow strict rules and morals. The path of Mahayana is more accessible to most people but still very regulated. And then there is the path of tantra, the Vajrayana path. In Vajrayana, sex, alcohol, marijuana and other “vices” are used to achieve liberation. Samsara and Nirvana are seen as one and the same and the state of liberation is seen as having already occurred, you just need to access it. “Negative” emotions are transmuted in this path into their opposites, similar in many ways to alchemy.

I thought as well that rather than an eternity of just existing and, at the same time, beyond the duality existence/non existence, maybe it was better a temporary heaven (I also was concerned about those destined to a not eternal existence, at least according to some theories)… but perhaps such a state would be blissful.