buddha01 wrote on Nov 8^th, 2008 at 4:47pm:

I could be facetious and say "ask Buddha"?How can anyone know what he did focus on??.However a good question anyway..At the very least I could say he would have focused on the inner self beyond all external Earthly matters.He would have gone deeper and deeper into the "Inner Self".He knew there was no answer by being focused on "Outer Matters" Is that your concern?.I would think that Buddha who was saddened by world consciousness went into meditation that took him far from the worlds pain.And then he awoke to the true beauty of Divine Mind.I only say this because I have seen it.
LOve Devayan.

Who knows indeed. But the the teaching is that he sought release from suffering through an end to grasping (the pursuit of that deemed pleasurable, and the avoidance of that deemed unpleasant - through the replacement of these with equanimity towards all happenings), which entailed the dropping of attachment to self. (you care deeply about  everything that may affect you if you are attached to self, and become prone to justifying all sorts of selfish actions)

This entailed training the mind through endless meditation, and practices leading to the dropping of cares about personal comfort or anything else - in the hope that ego (the whole belief system as to the existence  of an objective self, soul and reality that follows from the mistaken perception that there is a self to be fearful about) and the karmic effects it gives rise to via the creative capability of mind would atrophy.

In this sense you could say he was actually avoiding focusing on anything - that he was groping towards what turned out to be the letting go of everything existing within this dream reality and existence as illusion. Actually seeking to awaken from the dream to return to the absolute or non dual existence outside of it.

The story goes that he determined to achieve this or die, and tried all of the usual sorts of extreme methods of fasting and so on that were taught in his day. But along the way discovered that excessive zeal is counterproductive, and becomes a trap in itself.

e.g. it leads to caring about the objective. If the personal objective is all that matters, then all kinds of unloving and other behaviours that lead deeper into suffering for the self and others can be justified - this is a  subtle form of attachment to self.

The other interesting aspect of his life was that coming from a background where for all of his very unhappy early life he had wealth beyond dreams, and was protected from exposure to all forms of suffering by being imprisoned by his father in a palace he learned that the usual pursuit of material wealth does not lead to happiness either.

As a result of his experience he taught a 'middle way', one that seeks release by lightly threading between the polarities in any issue, and seeking a higher, more loving, more developed view.

Hence Buddhism is known as the middle way.

The later Mahayana schools (perhaps risking excessive intellectualisation of what is essential a process of emergence - getting overly attached to intellectual views blocks the process as above) developed more detailed  representations of what this higher view means - most especially how the dropping of attachment and intellect (development of equanimity, or the forgiving of everybody and anything as ACIM teaches) leads to the emergence of wisdom, compassion and the other higher ways of being that enable loving behaviours.

Deepak Chopra has a very readable but also very insightful life of the Buddha out now - the title is 'Buddha'. It explores many of these issues in the telling of the story, and finishes by setting out the teaching in a more explicit manner. Well worth the read....

For sure to focus on enlightenment as an objectively defined state is regarded as counter productive Recoverer. Buddhism teaches that to objectify it just drives more grasping after a mind made conception which inevitably is not the reality.

Growing in love seems indeed to be the outcome of the progressive falling away of our hang ups, these (hang ups) the result of our identification with self and this reality. But it seems that to be loving cannot be pursued as an objective either, or we end up grasping after that and falling into all sorts of traps too.

The approach is oblique. We work with meditation, study, realities, mindfulness of self and other practices which while not overtly aimed at such an objective indirectly result in the falling away of ego. Not by attacking it, but by not providing it with the fuel it feeds on to grow. (avoiding me, my, mine, they, them, that etc and the forms of judgement that drive separation and mental intensity -  progressively settling back into equanimity and just being)

To reveal our deeper loving spiritual nature - a nature which likewise cannot be and is not generated by pursuing it as an objective. It initially emerges in a slightly naive form, but with further insight and life experience this native compassion (which flows with related qualities from the higher self) gets combined with an emerging wisdom and knowing as to what represents the highest good in any situation.

This is the caring but not caring that often gets talked about, or indeed another expression of the middle way mentioned above. Finding a wisdom and compassion led path somewhere between but applying a higher level (more nuanced and wiser) view than the two extremes of an uncaring attitude, and an overly zealous attempts to behave in a loving way. Neither of the extremes is likely to lead to the highest good..

Pardon my banging away on this, but more from Janis that has so much relevance to what we're talking about, to what's entailed in becoming love:

'When I'm there I'm not here. I can't talk about my singing, I'm inside it. How can you describe something you're inside of?'

This is the way with all that comes from the heart, from the higher self. All else is just mime, acting. An attempt to play out a mind made  concept. The real thing is spontaneous, emergent, intuitive, unthinking and instinctive.

We're typically conditioned to respond selfishly. Our task is to work without worrying about achievement or objectives to shed this conditioning. This is subtly very different to role playing something that externally appears similar...

identcat wrote on Nov 15^th, 2008 at 12:45am:

Interesting Identcat, 
It is reported that in NDE's from Japan people report to have a choice to cross a river/stream or go back. A metaphoric interpretation based on the culture one assumes.
No "Pearly Gates" in Japan