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The matter
of Practical Verification can best be expressed like they do in the system
of Gurdjeff:
"Believe nothing until
you have experienced it or practically verified it for yourself."
The same is said in
Buddhism;
| The Kalamas were a people very much
like us in our modern day when we are exposed to so many different teachings.
They went to the Buddha and enquired that as there were so many different
teachers and as all of them claimed that their doctrine was true, how were
they to know who was telling the truth. The Buddha told them not to accept
anything out of authority, not to accept anything because it happens to
be written down; not to accept anything out of reverence for their teacher;
or out of hearsay; or because it sounds reasonable. But to verify, test
what they have heard in the light of their own experience. When they know
for themselves that certain things are harmful then they should abandon
them. When they know for themselves that certain things are beneficial,
that they lead to happiness and calm, then they should follow them. The
Buddha gives this advice that one has to verify what one hears in the light
of one's experience. In the context of the Buddha's advice to the Kalamas,
I think what the Buddha is saying is to use your own rnind as a test tube.
-Dr Peter D Santina
Practical Buddhism
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Or in the words of
someone more controversial:
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When you know too much -- you have known the scriptures, you have known
the past, the tradition, you have known all that can be known -- then suddenly
you become aware of the futility of it all, suddenly you become aware that
this is not knowledge. This is borrowed! This is not your own existential
experience, this is not what you have come to know. Others may have known
it, you have simply gathered it. Your gathering is mechanical. It has not
arisen out of you, it is not a growth. It is just rubbish gathered from
other doors, borrowed, dead.
Remember, knowing is alive only when you know, when it is your immediate,
direct experience. But when you know from others it is just memory, not
knowledge. Memory is dead.
-Osho
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The same thing can
be said in the Castanedian System. It is easy to entangle oneself in the
meaning of words and interpretations (how did Castanedas
car end up under don Genaros hat?). The only way to actually gain real
knowledge is to practice. There's really nothing more to be said about
the subject, it is covered thouroughly in Castanedas first books.
It requires a certain
'intelligence' or skill to study and to structure things into a rational
system. But any fool can be a sorcerer (that's the castanedian view),
just by practicing. Only energy matters, not intelligence. This simple
'fact' puts things into their proper perspective.
The almost classical
example is the scholars studying Taoism. They
know very much about taoism, it's influences and history etc, but any child
know more about Tao than they do. The scholar knows about Taoism,
the child knows Tao directly...
Zen contains a welth
of stories about the confusion with ideas, symbols and descriptions on
the one side, and direct experience and the 'suchness' of things on the
other.
The Will: an example!
In the Castanedian
system, the will is said to be situated somewhere below the navel.
Don't go around and tell everybody this, unless you know it for a fact.
How will you know it for a fact? By experiencing and using the will situated
in the center below the navel. To be able to do and feel this, one needs
to practice.
Once the feeling/experience/result
is there, the knowledge is yours, you can rightfukky claim it. Before that,
the knowledge is only superficial. Nothing wrong with 'superficial' knowledge,
but one must know that it is only superficial!
What is the most
important practice?
The castanedian would
say that proper use of energy is the most imortant thing. For the novice
this means to redeploy available energy. Tracking down and changing habits,
which locks up enormous amounts of energy, is one way. I recommend 'The
Teachings of don Carlos' for some help on this subject.
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