In an era of witch hunts, we’re the witches. We stand for a world of wonder, beyond explanation, that offers what the mainstream cannot. We offer truth and meaning.
The global machine is not a viable alternative to what we’re doing here. Its views and values, from post-modernism to economic growth, are naive and unrealistic. We are not naive or unrealistic. That’s why it fears us. It has destroyed countless communities and it doesn’t hesitate to destroy us. If you believe in its views and its values, you will burn us at the stake. You will feed us to the lions. But those views and values are driving life itself to extinction. They have been revealed as naive. Those who believe in them have been revealed as gullible. Those who have seen through those views and values don’t know what to do now. Therefore, they ask us to lead this civilization beyond itself.
We have a viable path forward. It is thousands of years old. We are creating it as you read this sentence. We need your help to find each next step of this path and offer it to the world. You must throw away the petty concerns that feed the machine.
We can help you do that.
This is a place where we cut through hope and fear. Attacks on this place come from hope and fear. Hope and fear are petty. Wisdom and compassion are not petty. Please consider: the opposite of compassion is pettiness. Harm is justified and valorized by petty aspirations that claim to protect you from harm.
We, here in this community, lost our lives by seeing that we are the ones who must do what must be done. We do not wait for someone else to do it. We tried that, and lost faith, so we stepped forward. This is the first blow to arrogance that we know for ourselves.
Then, our lives were taken from us. We saw that what must be done cannot in any way ever be done by us. It certainly cannot be done by notions such as “myself” and “intelligence.” This is the second blow to arrogance that we know for ourselves.
We tried to let go to a larger self or a larger intelligence. But we saw that absolutely no kind of self, and no kind of intelligence, can ever do what must be done. This is the third blow to arrogance that we know for ourselves, and this is how we take full responsibility for doing what must be done.
There is a world beyond belief beyond the confines of your mind.
Centuries have passed since our society last accessed this world. The West has recoiled from this world, and has built structures to hold this world at bay, and cut down everything that reminded it of it. This has meant cutting down everything without exception.
The result is the global crisis. The global crisis is your call to the path of liberation.
That means that if you come here, your first step is to discover the Dharma for yourself.
Your second step is to realize it so clearly that you can design a version of the eternal Dharma for this digital age.
Religions have always given rise to and been distributed through new telecommunications technologies. Your third step is to become so clear that you can distribute the Dharma in the midst of the worst delusions.
If you alone could do this, you would have. We need to do this together. We need a teacher and friends and the courage to do what we have proven so many times that we cannot do.
You enter this training to become a member of a team that really does this. If you want to be on this team, you must be committed to making it the most important team that has ever existed. If we can function with the same clarity in this time of global crisis that the Buddhist sangha did at the time of the Buddha, we can do this.
Pay attention to how you feel right now. If you are uncomfortable with this, you’ll hold us back. If this is exciting to you regardless of whether you’re uncomfortable, you’re needed here.
People who train here often say, “Before I came here, no one had ever told me, ‘Yeah, this is real, and it’s possible, and you can do it, and we can help you.’ That’s why I gave up everything to enter this training.”
Here, we are actually committed to saving life on Earth. Everything we do is explained by this. If you don’t believe that anyone could really aspire to saving life on Earth, then you will think we’re crazy. Naive. Malicious. That thought is based on a lifetime in a world that is crazy, naive, malicious. It claims there is no other world. But there is another world. The world we live in here is sane. Realistic. Compassionate.
Here, we are actually committed to realizing Buddhahood. Everything we do is explained by this. If you don’t believe that anyone could really be committed to realizing Buddhahood, then you will think we’re crazy. Naive. Malicious. That thought is based on a lifetime in a world that is crazy, naive, malicious. It claims there is no other world. But there is another world. The world we live in here is sane. Realistic. Compassionate.
There is a real path. Saving the world is just the first step.
