Why Spirituality Should Welcome Intellectuals, Philosophers and Radicals ?

Abstract: The general belief is that there is no space for Intellectuals, Philosophers or Radicals to express themselves, their revolutionary ideas in a religious arena. However certain religious traditions welcome such people. i.e. Buddhism has produced such extraordinary philosophers in the past. And they represent themselves as free thinkers within this tradition. The freedom and the depth they held attracted both wise as well as enemies. Even today, Hinayana Buddhists do not accept the teachings of great philosophers such as Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu and Asanga. This story is about the greatest non-dualist who ever appeared on the earth, Nagarjunapada.    

Fig. 1: Nagarjuna and Aryadeva Working on Madhyamaka Philosophy Studies

Mahayanists (and the practitioners of this lineage) consider Nagarjunapada as the second Buddha whose wisdom and intellect is more or less comparable to Gautham Buddha's. In my opinion, Gautham Buddha cannot be understood without studying all three yanas in Buddhism. In Hinayana, Buddha is venerated as a supreme being and his basic teachings were revealed to the disciples. In Mahayana, Buddha is considered as the greatest intellect of all of times, delivering the most profound philosophical teachings such as non-duality, emptiness and incomprehensible nature of Thathagata (Dharmakaya aspect). In Tantrayana, we see his Yogic aspects. His tantric knowledge, the initiations he received from the universe. In Tantric viewpoint, he is the supreme Yogi to Buddhists.

Another great master (a 10th level Bodhisattva) who followed the same footsteps of Buddha was Nagarjuna. His original name was Arjuna and later due to his relation with non-physical Naga beings, he came to be known as Nagarjuna. Before becoming enlightened, he was a great scholar, a great debater and a non-dualist. Following the footsteps of Buddha, he stood against the religious faculties, hierarchies, caste system, religious maniacs, occultists, etc. Even though Buddha's non-dualistic teachings were not so popular at that time, Nagarjuna was so inspired by it. To its depth. There are some mythical incidents that led Nagarjuna to find certain hidden scriptures of Buddha's teachings. We do not want to talk about it here. 

Nagarjuna was questioning everything in his youth. He was not the favourite student among the teachers due to this reason. One great quality Nagarjuna possessed was his thirst to know the truth. He was a great debater too. Due to the natural ability of analysing, dissecting things deeply, he won many of his debates. At the age of 20, he abandoned the traditional brahmic ways of living and its beliefs. He left home searching for truth. After meeting a few Nalanda masters, he realized that the truth he searched throughout his life is well beyond his mind. He then diligently practiced meditation with these masters and found the absolute truth within him.

To fill the gap of Buddhist teachings at that time, he picked up the emptiness and non-dualistic teachings and augmented it with his own extra-ordinary understanding. One can only do such things before reaching out to great empty nature of mind. But it is said, both Gautham Buddha and Nagarjuna possessed the ability to make a mind portal to deliver great Dharma matters, teachings while being fully enlightened, realizing the great empty nature of the mind at the same time. Not many masters have this quality. And not many Buddhists realize the great depth of the non-dualistic, emptiness nature of these teachings. It is said that only with a transcendental wisdom, and with the eradication of the knowledge obstructions, one can understand the 2nd and  3rd turnings of the wheel.

The key takeaway here is, that the real spirituality welcomes everybody to taste it. It never condemns intellectuals, philosophers and radical thinkers. Only with them, we can lead people into truth. Only such people have the potential to change the world. But religiously identified people hate them. The diehard Buddhists hated Nagarjuna. Even today some Sri Lankans do. 

Thousands of years ago, Abhayagiri monastery in Sri Lanka was the heart center for Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings in the world. But the Hinayanists from Mahavihara tradition wanted to wipe out this great teachings, and we believe that we lost most profound teachings of Buddha at that time due to the political tensions caused by these incidents.

In East, luckily such bright people were not crucified. Therefore even the greatest non-dualist Nagarjuna had the potential, luck to become fully enlightened. After that he became nobody, and only because of that he was everybody too. He played multiple roles, as a yogi who is immersed in no-mind, as a philosopher, an alchemist, a bodhisattva, a non-dualist, a writer and composer and sometimes the advisor to the king. His enlightenment didn't cripple him to be a small character !