Buying Into The Package
– Materially And Spiritually

“The package:
to accept that an idea is right and allow it to influence you.”

The Buddha’s main point was not to take his word that you are pure consciousness; see for yourself!

This is why practitioners finally go into isolation, so as not to be influenced: they drop the package entirely. Until then, his teachings are a generalisation, and we have to make it personal!

There are spiritual teachings, translations, commentaries and rituals on the nature of reality. We may accept this approach and allow it to influence us, or we can take to heart the very essence of those teachings and personally investigate to see if they are true or not, rather than merely accepting what we’ve been told.

It is the same with ordinary life: we can buy into being that job, title or status, and the ethos or custom of our family or country – or we can find the way which genuinelysuits our temperament.

When we look at our ‘temperament’, we find that it is our personal set of confusions. Clearing those confusions is our way, our spiritual path; realising those confusions is our tool for empathy to work for the benefit of others. It is that which is our uniqueness. We may be in a group, but that does not mean we all feel the same way. On observation, we can see people squeezing themselves into a stereotype, which looks very uncomfortable! We have to realise the specific desires and aversions that bind us, and we may discover that these are usually dependant on others.

The Buddha’s teachings are generalised: it is only when we see for ourselves and test for ourselves that those same teachings become personal. They become a reality.

Everything that is created is dependant on parts and conditions, so no thing exists inherently, in its own right. Everything is therefore empty of true reality, because parts and conditions change and rearrange themselves, thus bringing about other creations – and this also applies to that which we refer to as ‘me’ (the package, the skandha). The universe is infinite: there is no one moment in time when everything started.

Meditation = cutting the strings to the package!

This is why practitioners finally go into isolation, so as not to be influenced: they drop the package entirely.