I'm off for the weekend

Well, today, I'm leaving for the Buddhist retreat led by the Khenpo brothers. Nobody responded to my last post! Y'all must have heeded the warning at the beginning.

Anyway, just wanted to pass on a bit that I've learned since my last post. It turns out that many of the ideas that I was espousing are very similar to gnostic christianity of the first few centuries. In fact, many scholars have posited that gnosticism was influenced by Buddhism, possibly via Buddhist missionaries in Alexandria. Apparently the early church was widely diverse and had many different sects. However, at some point, the orthodoxy came to political power and used its power to wipe out the heretics, as it saw them. Apparently, one of the hallmarks of the orthodox viewpoint is that knowledge of Christ is not gotten through inward reflection (which is gnosis) but by reading approved scriptures and listening to clergymen who are in a direct line of succession from apostles. Contrariwise, many gnostic sects believed that discovering new spiritual truths is a sign of spiritual maturity, and teachers encouraged their students to come up with such truths. This is strongly reminiscent of the way Zen students are encouraged to compose koans as a sign of their understanding. I strongly believe that the route to spirituality is within, that we all have inherent Buddha nature, and that to contact God, the universal spirit, or the tathagata, we need to look inward. I also strongly believe that spirituality is a living thing, and that I need to interact with it in order to make true progress. I cannot just listen, accept and mimic.