Originally Posted by
Stephanie
I think I understand what you're saying, Rich; I haven't read The Sound of Silence, but I have read Sumedho's The Mind and the Way, and had a similar reaction to it. His writing/speaking style has an excellent manner of pointing to "just this." He's not one of those Therevadin teachers that's all tripped out on jhana experiences, or intent on proving "what the Buddha really taught about the concept of Muladharmavasta as expressed in the Brahmawhackalacka Sutra, Middle Discourses III: 37." He teaches about just this, even if in "Therevada language." How the mind shapes our experience of "reality," how we mistake the gyrations of the mind for experience itself.
I personally find reading teachings from different traditions and perspectives, rather than muddying or complicating my practice or perspective, clarifies the essential or basic teachings of the lineage to which I am committed. Using different words or a different framework to express the same basic experience or teaching actually does a lot to illuminate which is the frame and which is the picture. Although if we were to Dogenize this, we would have to say the frame is the picture... but the frame/picture is just this moment; if something helps us drop the thinking that places a gap between us and the experience of this moment, who cares exactly in which style the frame is carved?