Course XXX - Teaching 9: Buddhist Philosophy

The Aryan Race had to dedicate its efforts to develop the dualistic philosophy like a bridge traced from heaven to the earth to reach man.
But before this overwhelming current could drive the mind of the race, the philosophy of Non-Being gorgeously shone materialized in a man and in an idea to recall its origin ab aeterno.
In spite of all transformations undergone throughout centuries, and in spite of the powerful influence of other ideas and of its own transformation in many lands into one religion, the Buddhist idea kept its fundamental seed about the non-existence of being.
The Buddha established four negative postulates to reach eternity. They are:
Knowledge about the existence of sorrow;
Knowledge that sorrow is caused by desire;
Knowledge that sorrow is just removed by annihilating the desire; and
Knowledge of the path to cessation of sorrow by annihilation of desire.
The Buddhist idea that contains the Great Truth, propagated with extraordinary in human minds comprised the whole world, and even if Buddhism has undergone different phases and changes, the idea remains intact.
Buddhism says “Neither this, nor that, nor that over there” and makes to the mind possible to glimpse its divine and eternal origin.
From the dualistic viewpoint, this concept is totally atheistic because place human mind before the eternal problem but does not try to explain it.
The Buddha never wanted to speak of the eternity and continuously strove to make the mind fitter to achieve a higher understanding.
Also the Buddha denies the existence of the ego, or being, as an entity, because if he had done it, he would establish a leading thread between the eternal and man, which would be then an explanation of what is unexplainable.
His theory is clear and definitive: the Eternal is unexplainable. Existence is the fruit of desire. Several manifestations emerge from a combination of desires, and these manifestations are causes of sorrow.
One reaches Nirvana or perfect happiness and peace, and the Eternal remains unexplainable, by knowing that sorrow can only be removed by the annihilation of desire and by knowing the path to cessation of sorrow by annihilation of desire.
Buddhism as a philosophy was quickly assimilated by other systems and survives in Buddhist religions through their Holy Scriptures and dogmas.
Over all, the pure Buddhist idea was preserved by adepts of the Great Vehicle, later imposed like religion, because it did not considered as much ideas in depth as preferentially tried to practice and fulfill the eight necessary stages to travel through the path to liberation.
Here are the eight stages:
Right Faith;
Right Judgment;
Right Word;
Right Purpose;
Right Action;
Right Effort;
Right Thought;
Right Meditation.
When its founder died (483 b.C.), the Buddhist idea first extended in India, later entered China to settle finally there. The Buddhist idea, assimilated in China by other conceptions, remained almost unrecognizable.
1200 years after the death of the Buddha, Hiouen-Tzeng went from China to India, where he collected numberless texts, and restored again the true doctrine in China.
The Buddhism preached by Padmasambhava entered Tibet in seventh and eight centuries. Mixed with Sivaistic and Tantric ideas already existent in the country, its doctrine remained intact in regard to the non-existence of being.
The Eternal Law had established that the Aryan man had to know his mind and make use of if to make of it the image of his God. Man was able to discover through investigation the secrets of the Universe. But this man that can calculate exactly when an eclipse shall take place, and can determine by calculation the course of tides and what metal there is at such and such meters below earth, cannot answer these questions: “What is your soul? What is your thought? What is this powerful thought that you use?”.
Like in a tabernacle, this negative idea of the Buddha has remained, by which the mind, through successive negations may foresee its destiny and taste beforehand the peace and serenity of the Nirvana. The Buddhist philosophical idea is the highest exemplar of what the human mind can reach through speculation to establish in an infinite and unknown point.
Buddha’s doctrine endures in the world, while transformed into a professed faith in Buddha-Dharma-Sangha: “I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Law, I take refuge in the Order”.