The Scarlet Lama: Religion and meditation

Free Buddhist thoughts on meditation, religion, science, and the universe.As a child, the one who would become the ＂Scarlet Lama＂ spilled a substance into a dyer’s vat containing two hundred sheets for the local monastery. The substance’s exact nature is unknown, but it had the effect of permanently changing the color of the dye to a deep, vibrant, almost luminous shade of red. The punishment for the novice was that he would be the sole owner of the two hundred scarlet sheets, to be worn for the rest of his life as a colored sign of his transgression. He came to be called ＂Scarlet Lama,＂ and his true name was eventually forgotten.

＂The dead religion is that which is fixed in its certainties forever. Living religion is that which perpetuates and nourishes the questioning of the human soul.＂

Later, Scarlet Lama was forced to emigrate to the United States to escape the Chinese invasion and its atrocities. There, he made use of the aid given by the great Western country and pursued advanced studies in theoretical physics and psychology. He gained advanced knowledge in philosophy, comparative religion, and many other fields of Western knowledge. This work of spiritual fiction was created from the compilation of talks and Q&A sessions with Scarlet Lama Rinpoche. Through his illuminating and prophetic words and responses (first part), Scarlet Lama invites us to understand the true ＂structure＂ of the Ego and the foundations of the diversion of the purity of the religious spirit to serve the endless desires of this Ego, what could be called a ＂religious materialism.＂ In the second part, Scarlet Lama answers by email to his correspondents who question him about meditation, the practice of Buddhism, religion, and science. Scarlet Lama’s answers are always original, somewhat iconoclastic, and come from an original Buddhism marked by his particular personality.

One day a disciple came to see his master.
- Disciple: Master, what is the best way to meditate? Is it meditation on the mantra? On the breath? On the heart ? On the mandala? On...
- Master (interrupting): Nothing! Meditation is doing nothing.
- Disciple (perplexed): Well, okay. But what does meditation do? I am told that it allows you to relax, that it improves sleep, the state of health, that it allows you to better manage relationships, that you can reach Nirvāṇa...
- Master (interrupting): Nothing! Meditation doesn’t do anything.
- Disciple (increasingly disturbed): Well, okay. But if meditation is doing nothing and it doesn’t do anything, what is the point of meditating? Why meditate?
- Master: Do you ever do nothing?
- Disciple (thinking for a moment): Uh, no. Honestly, I’m always doing something, and even when I’m sleeping, I sometimes fidget and dream.
- Master: Do you ever not want to get anything?
- Disciple (thinking for a moment): Uh, no. Honestly, all I do is get something, all the time.
- Master: O zealous disciple, do you understand that this thing called ＂meditation,＂ which consists in doing nothing in order to get nothing, is the most precious, the most sublime, the most formidable and the most revolutionary in the universe?!
It was then that the disciple was enlightened...