Another look at Buddhism
It needs to be repeated that the Buddha did not attain his enlightenment or awakening by following a particular dogma, following certain rules or by dint of rituals. The Buddhas awakening came by means of deep introspection, or the same, it came by means of gnosis which is at the heart of true mysticism and Buddhism.
Buddhist enlightenment (bodhi) comes, foremost, through our own efforts at introspection. Just how far we are willing to look within depends almost entirely on our own faith in the gnostic path. This opens the door to the fact that with the study of Buddhism we are dealing with a subtlety far beyond the reach of most people. It would not be wrong to say that the huge majority of people do not care about gnosiseven practicing Buddhists. Certainly modern religion has marginalized gnosis, and with it mysticism, to such an extent that it has become somewhat of an odd relic of the past.
Unlike with most religions, the fact that Buddhism is mysticism; which requires of its adepts that they have the capacity to attain gnosis, makes it difficult to categorize the Buddha. He was certainly not a pragmatist who stressed that the goal of religion is to help solve the problems of everyday life, for example, how to get along with a difficult person. The Buddha was certainly not an agnostic or like a modern day scientist. There is no evidence in the Buddhist canon that the Buddha wanted to transform the world by utilizing all the resources of human intelligence. Far from it. The Buddha was completely removed from the world. He realized that it was unstable. He saw it as an illusion which if tenaciously and persistently clung to would cause profound suffering in proportion. In addition, the life of the Buddha doesnt show any signs of a man who was dependent on God.
It is by means of gnosis which wins enlightenment that one is finally able to escape from the world of suffering including the psychophysical body with all of its anxieties, neuroses, drives, and disorders. Thi! s also i ncludes escape from the terror of death that annihilates the psychophysical body. Turing to the notion of the eternal atman (P., att) found in Indian religion, the Buddha taught his followers not to mistake the psychophysical body for the self. He constantly taught his followers that the components which make up the psychophysical body are not the atman (S., antman)they can never be the atman because they are impermanent and suffering whereas the atman is not.
