Quote:
Religion I take to be concerned with belief in the claims to
salvation of one faith tradition or another--an aspect of which is
acceptance of some form of meta-physical or philosophical reality,
including perhaps an idea of heaven or hell. Connected with this
are religious teachings or dogma, ritual, prayers and so on.
The Dali Lama is describing elements much cultivated in his schools
of Buddhism. It is interesting to see him contrast all that stuff
with spirituality.
He's in good company though.
The Buddha himself was never too keen:
Quote:
"Vaccha, the position that 'the cosmos is eternal' is a thicket of
views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of
views, a fetter of views. It is accompanied by suffering, distress,
despair, & fever, and it does not lead to disenchantment,
dispassion, cessation; to calm, direct knowledge, full Awakening,
Unbinding.
&
Quote:
"A 'position,' Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata has done away
with. What a Tathagata sees is this: 'Such is form, such its
origin, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origin,
such its disappearance; such is perception... such are mental
fabrications... such is consciousness, such its origin, such its
disappearance.' Because of this, I say, a Tathagata with the
ending, fading out, cessation, renunciation, & relinquishment
of all construings, all excogitations, all I-making &
mine-making & obsession with conceit is, through lack of
clinging/sustenance, released."
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipit....072.than.html
Religions seem to attract people like Vacchagotta