I’ve always been interested in the tensions between Buddhism and magick —i.e. the practice of harnessing one’s True Will in the service of external result.
Insight and non-conceptional awareness is the only real “goal” of Buddhist meditation (well, besides generating compassion). Magick, on the other hand, is all about the impression of one’s spiritual volition upon manifest reality. Naturally, a healthy sitting practice will reveal states of being analogous to magickal absorption. Yet there are also clear differences between the two disciplines, not the least of which is intention.
But there’s nothing wrong with a metaphysical tune-up, right? I mean, if you’re already perceiving subtle energies, you might as well put ‘em to good use. So when does playing with the Powers become unscrupulous reality-hacking?
Buddhist wisdom holds that “the greatest magic is transmuting the passions.” It’s also the most difficult magic, as I can personally attest.
It’s always nice to take counsel from those smarter than myself. The brainiacs at Buddhist Geeks delve into the magick/Buddhism bag in a podcast with Daniel Ingram — a very intelligent physician/practitioner from Northern Alabama (of all places!)
If, like me, you’ve got a compelling interest in dharma and operational metaphysics, you should definitely check it out. Props to George Dvorsky for posting about Buddhist Geeks — their entire podcast series is enlightening, and highly reccomended.
Awesome. Thanks for the tip!
podcast here :
http://www.ancientdragon.org/dharma/dharma_talks_audio
Fantastic, I’m glad you enjoyed the talk with Daniel. He’s one of our favorite guests…
Best,
-Vince Horn
Buddhist Geek
I’m a big fan of the series already, even though I only found out about it last week. Keep up the great work!
The aim of Buddhism is to undermine and destroy the ‘I’. Choice less awareness is not possible to an ‘I’ as it is the picker and chooser, ‘the builder of the house’. Meditation is not enough to destroy the ‘I’ , it is part of a complete regimen . It requires a hard and bitter training to develop insight, it is not created on a cushion but in the application of the complete eightfold path. In the end who gets enlightened? Noone as there is nobody really there. But fully dying what the old zen masters called the great death takes more than sitting on a cushion and visualisations. The Buddha lost everything, even his disciples before the ego died finally, never to return. Meditation is just part of the story.
Thank you for the reminder.
casey, thought you might be interested in this dharma talk podcast by one of my favorite zen teachers / writers, taigen dan leighton.
http://audio.ancientdragon.org/20070402DT_ADZG_Dylans_Song_About_Zen_Mind.mp3
i just listened to it on the plane to cali, its really great. the topic is “Bob Dylan’s Song about Sesshin and Zen Mind”. a thorough buddhist analysis of ‘visions of johanna’. pretty revealing and great….i recommend his other dharma talks too.