Mahayana Buddhism offers a healing depth of field.
It may find its counterpart in the Judeo-Christian tradition, as Divine Mercy.
In either case, this space must be approached from within to reveal its saving power,here, or its potential for dissolution, there.
From the inside, the images of Buddhism and the visual, linguistic, conceptual Christian representations no longer really matter.
As such, they have little more importance upstream of this inner experience, since they present the surfaces of adhesion to the trigger receptors of the attachment reflex.
©FJ August 2022 —
Groupe de Pratique
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Notes & Silence 
So much of doctrinal, sectarian religion – anything that calls itself an « ism », and is supported by « ists » or « ians » – is, indeed, irrelevant.
The attachment to it causes suffering not only to those who are so attached, but to those with whom they come into contact.
Whether you see representations and symbolism in Buddhist or Christian traditions amounts to putting a structure on the pictures they paint that have meaning to you.
Use them as you will.
But never forget that they are unnecessary.
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Hello Simon,
What you’re pointing to is at the heart of this post.
Space heals.
Lock-downs wither and dry up the soul.
Within those isms there is a healing space to be found.
This finding dissolves isms and ians alike.
They stop being a matter of focus.
Let those who have built identity upon such structures be…whatever they can be at that moment.
The issue is not isms and ians but the focusing.
Mahayana offers keys to go past those focusing issues.
The trap is that, the human mind being that it is, you’ll find people to endlessly comment on those keys (creating an ism-like stagnation) and never use them to open the door that is in front of them.
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I cannot comment on what Mahayana does, as it is outside of my experience, at least in any form categorised as « Mahayana ».
What one might find or do via any other road – that is another matter.
If I cannot find a key, perhaps I’ll just kick down the door.
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The categorization you refer to is an external layer without real interest, unless for theologians and scholars.
Mahayana is not the key
Mahayana is the key-spirit.
The key-spirit is not Mahayana.
By the way, Yana means ‘vehicle’, not ‘destination’
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Then the boots with which I kick down the door are my « vehicle »
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