6. What’s Buddhism got to do with this?

On one level, nothing at all. The placebo effect? Amazonian shaman? Buddhism hasn’t anything to do with either of them. But on a different level it speaks with the same voice.

Perhaps the most central concept in Buddhism is the fact and that everything in the universe relies on everything else in the universe in order to exist in itself.

One of the commonest hallucinations shared by many people who have taken ayahuasca is that of the Web. A web that connects everything in the universe with everything else in the universe. Ayahuasca forces you to see those connections. You see them as gray lines. Gray lines connecting everything to everything else.

This vision is precisely the same vision described as “Indra’s net”. Imagine a three dimensional spider’s web. At every place where the webs intersect there is a jewel. Each jewel reflects all the other jewels. In each reflection in each jewel is contained the reflection of all the other jewels. Ad infinitum…

This underlying reality of Buddhism was labeled by Aldus Huxley as the “perennial philosophy”. According to Huxley this is the same underlying reality that touched Christian saints as well as pagan shaman.

What it all comes down to is the realization that there is no way that one thing or event can exist with out every other thing or event – whenever it happened – for all time…

According to Buddhist philosophy, each one of us is “all there is” meaning “the entire universe” pretending it’s just little old me.

Well, that certainly reinforces the notion that each of us has the power to cure ourselves. I mean, if we are everything, we ought to be able to fix something as simple as multiple sclerosis. Right?

I have been studying Buddhism, most specifically Zen, but all other variations as well for the last four years. My Guru is Alan Watts who has been dead since 1973. He would never have allowed me to call him a guru. Since he’s dead, I’ll do as I please.

The truth is I’ve never heard of Zen miracle cures.

Never the less, why not try for one? Is there any conceivable advantage in playing along with consensus reality this time? Consensus reality tells me there is no cure for my multiple sclerosis. The shaman holds out a potential cure. Even if the chances of it working are very small, it’s better than anything else that’s being offered.

Western society emphasizes the importance of the individual. By overdoing this, we have lost track of how we are connected to everything else in the universe. Balance is what is needed. We are individuals, and yet, we are all that there is.

Somehow shamanism seems to tap into this truth. “Wo…….!”

“What are you trying to tell me? That these primitives somehow know more truth than did Plato or Aristotle or Moses or Jesus or Einstein… gimme a break!”

The rationalist wakes out of his stupor…

“It’s all crap! Crap made to seem like reality. Stop looking for false hopes! Accept the fact that you are screwed. Enough of this already…”

Despair…

Oh to hell with you, rationalist… I’d rather be cured than be intellectually honest. Or would I? I’m actually not sure…

Is a happy lie better than a painful truth?

I had faced this question before… On the swing by the barn. I chose the happy lie then. I guess I still see no advantage in changing that position. Do you?

“Damn the torpedoes…. I’ll cure myself! Scientists and Doctors… Fair warning. Here comes another “spontaneous remission“!