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MZC: There's a combination of what one experiences and comes to understand and a belief perhaps in the sense of a confidence that there is an efficacy to the practice of the teachings. But again it's based in one's own experience, not taken, as Batchelor says and the Buddha teaches, because some authority says so.
MZC: Achaan Chah talks about liberation depending on the recognition of the radical separateness of awareness, the "one who knows and the five skandas" (form, feeling, perception, volition, consciousness). I question this. How can we separate the one who knows and what is known? The meditator, according to Achan Cha, separates awareness from the object and can focus on the awareness.
BN: Yes and I see it now in Burma and in the world. I gave a presentation on ethics recently to the judiciary in Xalapa. We spoke about how institutions can too often act like predators rather than being fair to the people. How can we say we are serving others if we are exploiting them? At the time of the Buddha, you would be brought to the king if you committed some offense. Simple. A punishment or a pardon was swiftly given. Now it's so much more complex. Modern society demands that we apply ethics more broadly.
Over the years, different statues of Gautama Buddha have been built in the various Buddhism-practicing countries. Have you ever wondered how big is the biggest Buddha statue?
MZC: That's wonderful. You are focusing on the individual human being; you are listening and learning as well. You are opening your heart to the retreatants and enquiring with them. You're asking what makes one happy and peaceful in the midst of particular life circumstances. Do you experience that some of the retreatants, even in the midst of problems, which will continue, find some insight into what happiness might be? Perhaps they discover the joy of serving others as well as getting to know their own mind-hearts?
theravada MZC: Batchelor is specifically talking about the rebirth in the Indian philosophy where there is a rebirth of the individual soul or atma, which goes from life to life. Batchelor says that the Buddha was not interested in whether this is true or not, whether there is even a soul, if "the mind is different from the body." And further, we cannot know the answer to such questions.
Why do they do that? What is the meaning of this worship? Well, the Buddha isn't a god. He isn't even present in this world anymore. After his Parinirvana, he passed from the cycle of death and rebirth. He doesn't exist anymore like us. He can't influence this world, at least directly. That is exactly what these worshipers believed.
