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WAYNE TEASDALE
L.M.: That's not to say that you deliberately think that when Rather it's unexpected, it's a gift.
W.T.: Yes, it is a gift. What does liberation really mean? Moksha, or nirvana, is not all the lights, and flashes, and illuminations. It is a movement of your will in which you let go of your desires; it is when you let go of your selfishness. When you're not self-centered, and fixated on your self all the time.
you
Bede once made a statement concerning the nature of sanctity that would today sound very Buddhist; though it is really very Christian. He said that sanctity, or holiness, is being very much aware of how we are conditioned by the ego of how much our ego-self is a problem. It is a problem for everyone. But to be aware of it as the problem is half the battle. Holiness is being aware; holiness does not mean that you don't have an ego. And that you don't allow the ego to get in the way of love and compassion. That you're able to set the ego aside, and respond to others.
L.M.: It's learning to act.
W.T.: You cannot kill it though. I mean, you cannot emasculate your being. You have to integrate everything.
meditate.
L.M.: Religion has led us to believe that being religious means an emasculation, almost a castration of the person.
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W.T.: Actually, it is also denying your body. The rejection of the body which so epitomizes Christian monasticism was once put into the neat little aphorism: "When you enter the monastery, you leave your body at the gate." That is a complete denial of your humanity. You can't do that; you have to integrate it. Liberation or moksha is what Jesus really means by self-denial. It is an aspiration, yes; but it is also existentially true of In the Tibetan tradition, getting beyond karma simply means letting go of your attachments. When you let go of your attachments, and the things that are binding you here, the impermanent things-then you are liberated. Then you have moksha, then you are free of samsara.
you.
L.M.: Reincarnation?
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