Eastern Orthodox search for God: Mt. Athos

(harmony) He spent 70 years as an Eastern Orthodox Christian monk on the Holy Mountain in Greece, and this is what he said about God

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The "Holy Mountain"

Mount Athos [a] is "Holy Mountain" on the Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece on the Aegean Sea. It is an important center of Eastern Orthodox Christian monasticism.

Holy Mountain and most of the Athos peninsula are governed as an autonomous region in Greece by the monastic community of Mt. Athos, which is ecclesiastically under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

The remainder of the peninsula forms part of the Aristotelis municipality. By Greek law and by religious tradition, women are prohibited from entering the area governed by the monastic community [2].

Like Mt. Olympus, gods, angels may rest here.

Mt. Athos has been inhabited since ancient times and is known for its long Christian presence and historical monastic traditions, which date back to at least the 9th century during the Byzantine era.

Because of its long history of religious importance, the well-preserved architecture of its monasteries, and the preservation of the natural environment of the peninsula, the monastic community of Mt. Athos was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1988 [3].

NAMES: In the classical era, Mt. Athos was called Athos and the peninsula Acté (Latin) or Akté (Koine Greek Ἀκτή). In modern Greek, the mountain is Oros Athos (Greek Όρος Άθως) and the peninsula Hersonisos tou Atho (Χερσόνησος του Άθω), while the designation Agio Oros (Άγιο Όρος), translating as "Holy Mountain," is also used [4].

Some languages in the Eastern Orthodox tradition use names that translate as "Holy Mountain," including Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Serbian (Света Гора, Sveta Gora) [5] and Georgian (მთაწმინდა, mtats'minda) [6].

However, not all languages spoken in the Eastern Orthodox world use this name: In the East Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian) it is simply called Афон (Afon, meaning "Athos"), while in Romanian it is called "Mount Athos" (Muntele Athos or Muntele Atos) [7]. More

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Manjushri Bodhisattva cuts our ignorance

(Buddha's Wisdom with Matt) MANJUSHRI: The bodhisattva who cuts through ignorance

Thousand-Armed Manjushri

Manjushri (Sanskrit 𑀫𑀜𑁆𑀚𑀼𑀰𑁆𑀭𑀻, Romanized Mañjuśrī) is a bodhisattva who represents transcendental wisdom (prajñā) of the "Cosmic Buddhas" [like Vairocana] in Mahāyāna Buddhism.

The name "Mañjuśrī" is a combination of Sanskrit word mañju and the honorific -śhrī. It can therefore be literally translated as "Beautiful One with Glory" or "Beautiful One with Auspiciousness."

Namasangiti Manjushri

Mañjuśrī is also known by the fuller name of Mañjuśrī-kumāra-bhūta (मञ्जुश्रीकुमारभूत) [1], literally "Mañjuśrī, Still a Youth" or, less literally, "Youthful Prince Mañjuśrī." Another name of Mañjuśrī is Mañjughōṣa.

In Mahāyāna Buddhism

Scholars have identified Mañjuśrī as the oldest and most significant bodhisattva in Mahāyāna Buddhist literature [2]. Notable traits of Mañjuśhrī include: More

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It's impersonal: My EGO is an illusion?

Anattā: "not-self," "non-self," "non-ego," "egolessness," "selflessness," "soullessness," the fact that ultimately all is "impersonal" is the last and most difficult of the three fetters or wrong views to cut.

It is one of the Universal Characteristics of All Existence (ti-lakkhana). The anattā doctrine taught by the historical Buddha is that neither within the bodily and mental phenomena of existence (the Five Aggregates clung to as self: form, feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousness), nor outside of them, can there be found anything that in the ultimate sense can ever be regarded as a self or independently-existing real ego-entity, soul, self, or any other abiding essence, substance, or atman.

This is the central doctrine of Buddhism, without the understanding of which any real knowledge of Buddhism is altogether impossible.

It is the only really specific Buddhist doctrine, with which the entire structure of the Buddhist Teaching (Dharma, Dhamma) stands or falls.

All the remaining Buddhist doctrines might, more or less, be found in other philosophical systems or religions, but the anattā-doctrine is only clearly and unreservedly taught by the Buddha (or buddhas before him), wherefore the Buddha is known as the anattā-vādi, or "Teacher of Egolessness."

Whoever has not penetrated this impersonal characteristic of all existence and does not comprehend that in reality there exists only this continually self-consuming process of arising and passing bodily and mental phenomena, that there is no separate ego-entity within or without this process, that person will not be able to understand Buddhism, that is, the teaching of the Four Ennobling (Enlightening) Truths (sacca) in the correct light.

One will think that it is one's ego or personality that experiences suffering, one's person that performs good and harmful karma and will be reborn according to those actions, one's personality that will enter into nirvana, one's personality that practices the Ennobling Eightfold Path. More

Tibetan Buddhism: real meaning of 'refuge'

(Tsem Rinpoche) The real meaning of Buddhist "refuge"

The Buddhist Catechism (Amazon)

[The Pali/Sanskrit word sarana actually means "Going for GUIDANCE," NOT "going for refuge," which is a bad English translation. Early Buddhist reformer Col. Henry Steel Olcott tried to straighten out this misunderstanding more than a century ago in The Buddhist Catechism (sacred-texts.com).

But people still misunderstand and scholar mindlessly repeat the mistake without ever taking a closer look at the word and the potential confusion they are causing.

There is only one real "refuge" in the phenomenal universe, and the historical Buddha called that nirvana. Nirvana is the further shore, the real place of safety beyond rebirth. Everything in samsara is beset by disappointments and dangers on all sides.

Aside from nirvana, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the [Enlightened] Sangha are precious jewels we can resort to for GUIDANCE on the path, for encouragement, inspiration, and clarification.

We ourselves must make the effort. No one saves us but ourselves. No one can, and no one may. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha merely POINT the way.]

Going for Guidance?

Saranam or "guidance," Col. Olcott explains: "This word has been hitherto very inappropriately and erroneously rendered 'refuge' by European Pali scholars and thoughtlessly so accepted by native Pali scholars," Wijesinha Mudaliyar writes to him to point out.

Neither Pali etymology nor Buddhist philosophy justifies the translation. "Refuge," in the sense of a fleeing back or a place of shelter, is quite foreign to true Buddhism, which insists on every person working out one's own emancipation [liberation, salvation, enlightenment].

The root Sṛ in Sanskrit (sara in Pali) means to move, to go, so that saranam would denote a moving, or one or that which goes before or with another—a Guide or Helper.

I construe the passage thus: Gacchāmi, "I go," Buddham, "to the Buddha," Sâranam, "as my Guide."

The translation of the Ti-saraṇa as the "Three Refuges" has given rise to much misapprehension and has been made by anti-Buddhists a fertile pretext for taunting Buddhists with the absurdity of taking refuge in non-entities and believing in unrealities.

The term "refuge" is more applicable to Nirvaṇa, of which saranam is a synonym.

The [Abbot] Sumangala also calls my attention to the fact that the Pali root sara has the secondary meaning of killing, or that which destroys.

Buddham saranam gacchami [Dhammam saranam gacchami, Sangham saranam gacchami] might thus be rendered "I go to the Buddha, the Doctrine, and the [Noble] Order as the destroyers of my fears—the first by his teaching, the second by its axiomatic truth, the third by their various [enlightened] examples and precepts." Source

• Singalong: The Three Jewels of Buddhism: Mantra and Meaning
• Tsem Rinpoche (video); Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, The Buddhist Catechism (BPS.lk); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly