The 'Yana'

The Buddha, Siddartha Guatama, likened his teaching to a 'yana', or 'vehicle'. The picture that best describes this is that of a boat that is used to get from one riverbank to another. Once one has safely crossed to the other side of the river, they can leave the raft behind them and carry on with their journey. This is much like the way a good Medical Doctor treats his/her patients. The good Doctor hopes to fully heal his patients so that they will not have to continue to receive care from him. In doing so, his/her former patients will say to their friends, "If you need to become well, you should see the doctor that helped me to heal."

Sadly, the majority of spiritual teachers (which happen to be Christian Ministers in my neck of the woods) do everything they can to keep people within the doors of the particular house of worship. They rely on the continual donations, because without them they would go broke. But what if they were to adopt the method of the Buddha? What if they preached the gospel and then said, "Now that you have heard the good news, go and live your life without fear! Tell everyone you know about this good news." This would create, as our old friend Alan Watts puts it, a vacuum effect. People would poor in to churches to be set free, and then send others to do the same. But no one would be bound to the church. People would not have to "work out their salvation", but rather, REALIZE it.