A Buddhist Purgatory?

I remember all too well the mad clowns of my boyhood who called themselves "Brothers of the Sacred Heart" and/or "The Christian Brothers". In between beatings and molestations, they terrorized me and the other little boys in their "care" with hideous visions of Purgatory and eternal damnation in hell. I knew even then that if there was a Purgatory or hell, it was their schools and I was already in it. But I loved Jesus Christ then and I still do.

Graduating in 1965, I fell into the toxic swamps of the "sixties" and I staggered around until 1969 when I encountered the Tao Te Ching which had recently been translated by St. John's University NYC.It set me on a journey, a forty year journey through the eastern scriptural traditions and then back to Jesus Christ with a whole different vision of the "Guru of Gurus", the great Teacher from Nazareth.

Recently, my wife bought me the "Bardo Thodol", a Tibetan Book of the Dead. This particular illustrated edition of the ancient scripture is published by Metro Books New York, NY. It was compiled and edited by W.Y. Evans-Wentz who also offers the most amazing introduction one can imagine. Sadly for you and me both, Evans-Wentz died in 1965. What is this book about? It is a Buddhist tourist guide through what the Church used to call Purgatory, the place of purgation of one's shadow self.

Buddhism, like all religions, has an exoteric Trinity- Buddha, Dharma, Sangha: The Buddha Mind, the path of teachings, and the gathering or brotherhood. We could call this Trinity the Trinity in Time. Wentz notes that there is also a Trinity in Eternity, the "Source Trinity" for the "reflected Trinity in time". The Eternal dimension is Dharma-kaya, Nirvana-kaya and Sambhoga-kaya. Wentz notes that while the Catholics were forming heresy panels to burn "gnostic heretics", the Buddhists were explaining eternity in a pre-spatial, pre-temporal Trinity of Being. While the good brothers were terrifying little boys with threats of hell engendered in their midsts, the Buddhists were charting the map past and through such states of being. That new rock band called "Sarah Palin and the Tea Baggers" know all about heresy panels and can be reached for more information at www.frompurgatorytohell.com. Or, you can contact Brit Hume at Fox News. Mr. Hume is a Buddhist master who converted to Christianity. He's in the know!