https://newbuddhist.com/ Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:38:56 +0000 en Faith & Religion — NewBuddhist https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/19026/great-video-on-hindu-mystic Tue, 25 Jun 2013 00:53:57 +0000 Faith & Religion alexwilliam 19026@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18380/tara-and-lakshmi Sun, 07 Apr 2013 20:56:19 +0000 Faith & Religion Daiva 18380@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17718/if-there-is-a-hinduist-i-wanna-tell-you-buddha-was-not-an-avatar-of-vishnu Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:01:37 +0000 Faith & Religion absolute 17718@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18988/to-be-or-not-to-be Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:50:44 +0000 Faith & Religion Silouan 18988@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18961/esoteric-mystical-non-vajrayana-schools Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:26:36 +0000 Faith & Religion DaftChris 18961@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18845/my-misguided-christian-ethic-intersection Wed, 29 May 2013 12:36:39 +0000 Faith & Religion nenkohai 18845@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18843/the-nature-of-existence Tue, 28 May 2013 22:33:57 +0000 Faith & Religion person 18843@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17164/what-are-the-major-differences-between-hinduism-and-buddhism Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:17:20 +0000 Faith & Religion Lotus21 17164@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17829/why-buddhism Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:13:44 +0000 Faith & Religion Invincible_summer 17829@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18018/a-summary-of-the-spiritual-journey-as-told-by-thomas-keating Sat, 02 Mar 2013 21:50:48 +0000 Faith & Religion Invincible_summer 18018@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/16809/archbishop-of-canterbury-endorses-meditation-silent-prayer Thu, 11 Oct 2012 08:29:11 +0000 Faith & Religion PrairieGhost 16809@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18634/all-road-leads-to-rome Thu, 02 May 2013 16:03:15 +0000 Faith & Religion cptshrk 18634@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18713/attending-a-krishna-meditation-service Sat, 11 May 2013 10:20:37 +0000 Faith & Religion DaftChris 18713@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18671/jainism-and-buddha Mon, 06 May 2013 12:35:59 +0000 Faith & Religion DaftChris 18671@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18453/intelligence-squared-science-refutes-god Sat, 13 Apr 2013 12:57:51 +0000 Faith & Religion person 18453@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17878/is-there-a-common-ground-between-buddhism-and-islam Sun, 17 Feb 2013 19:57:46 +0000 Faith & Religion Silouan 17878@/discussions berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/study/islam/general/elab_common_ground_bsm_islam/transcript.html]]> https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18247/buddhism-and-christianity Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:14:12 +0000 Faith & Religion Sabby 18247@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18221/buddha-all-around Sat, 23 Mar 2013 22:18:41 +0000 Faith & Religion lobster 18221@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18128/learning-from-others Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:44:52 +0000 Faith & Religion lobster 18128@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/18087/are-you-a-mason Sun, 10 Mar 2013 06:43:30 +0000 Faith & Religion lobster 18087@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17488/what-do-you-believe-buddhism-has-that-other-philosophies-havent Sat, 29 Dec 2012 10:22:16 +0000 Faith & Religion zenmyste 17488@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17825/pope-benedict-xvi-resigns Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:53:50 +0000 Faith & Religion Brian 17825@/discussions Pope Benedict announced his resignation, to the apparent surprise of even his "inner circle". This led to a conversation with my roommate, also a former Catholic. We both commented on the global decline of the Catholic Church and speculated that a new Pope may have to come from Latin America or Asia; if I remember correctly (and I admit to not keeping up with Catholic news), the Church is declining world-wide except for Latin America and Asia. This is a global community; what are the reactions of your local Catholic population or friends?]]> https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17468/passionate-preaching Wed, 26 Dec 2012 23:39:15 +0000 Faith & Religion Amida 17468@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17243/rainn-wilson-on-being-a-baha-i-and-the-upcoming-spiritual-revolution Thu, 29 Nov 2012 09:43:01 +0000 Faith & Religion DaftChris 17243@/discussions The Office...at all. However, I do find Mr. Wilson to be an interesting, informative and rationally spiritual man. Being a Baha'i http://youtu.be/79QBzxH-aOw The upcoming Spiritual Revolution http://youtu.be/ei_iguwwQ_0]]> https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17552/god-is-not-a-christian Tue, 08 Jan 2013 08:15:16 +0000 Faith & Religion Patr 17552@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/15778/being-a-hindu-and-a-buddhist Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:35:58 +0000 Faith & Religion DaftChris 15778@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17464/whats-are-the-major-differences-between-zen-and-other-buddhist-sects Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:09:48 +0000 Faith & Religion howarda 17464@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17418/heart-chakra-chakras-and-buddhism Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:35:15 +0000 Faith & Religion Jeffrey 17418@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17170/is-the-goal-of-every-religion-the-same Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:32:58 +0000 Faith & Religion music 17170@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17257/just-wondering-converts-what-led-you-to-buddhism Sat, 01 Dec 2012 18:21:52 +0000 Faith & Religion TheEccentric 17257@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17303/converts-have-any-of-you-given-up-your-old-holiday-traditions Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:56:02 +0000 Faith & Religion RebeccaS 17303@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17334/creation-v-evolution-lair-of-the-unicorns Mon, 10 Dec 2012 09:25:49 +0000 Faith & Religion mfranzdorf 17334@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17168/friend-of-a-friend Wed, 21 Nov 2012 01:07:44 +0000 Faith & Religion lobster 17168@/discussions http://www.chishti.ru/ I have on occasion hung out with these heretic Buddhists. Should we be friendly with other whirls? Will we be entranced by their wailing and poetry? Should we follow them on Face Book? What happens if we end up Quran teened? la-ilaha-illa-allah :wave: ]]> https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17301/the-immovable-spot-mount-calvary Thu, 06 Dec 2012 09:05:57 +0000 Faith & Religion Silouan 17301@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17195/hatred-for-this-world Sun, 25 Nov 2012 11:43:47 +0000 Faith & Religion music 17195@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17194/interesting-articles-from-cracked-com-about-atheists-and-believers Sun, 25 Nov 2012 09:46:42 +0000 Faith & Religion DaftChris 17194@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17144/the-great-song-to-mani Sun, 18 Nov 2012 19:45:59 +0000 Faith & Religion Sile 17144@/discussions The Gnostic Bible, editors Barnstone an Meyer give the following intro: "The Great Song to Mani is a late piece of Manichaean poetry, probably composed in the thirteenth or fourteenth century...In the Great Song, Mani is described as teacher of what Jesus taught and author of a gospel book (probably the Living Gospel), but he is also addressed as Buddha Mani." The following version is taken from a Manichaean Book of Psalms. The Great Song to Mani O teacher of the original doctrine of the noble Jesus! We are here to worship and revere you. O my respected and famous father, my Buddha Mani! We are here alone to worship you from our heart of humility. Be our hope and refuge and receive the worship of each one of us. Before you we bow with internal faith. May each of our prayers be pure. You told us the consequences of evil . . . you blocked the road to hell . . . preaching good laws. . . . You rescued eight kinds of suffering beings in poisonous savage animals. . . . Unendingly submerged in the dust of forgetting rebirths and in a state of poisonous savage animals, they were always mad. When the passion of greed poisoned them and they were dying, you prepared a medicine for them from the herb of meditation. They raved in the passion of anger; they lacked sense or coherent thought and you assembled their thoughts, and so they understood their origin in the realm of light. Those living beings in the five states of existence you freed from ignorance and gave them wisdom, leading them to parinirvana. Many differing passions—hatred and bitterness— troubled these thinking beings and scattered their thought, but holy father, when you descended from the sky, the families of all thinking beings reached the peace of nirvana. We who are miserable and with no hope would have stayed in the torture of samsara, not finding the end of your path. You set up the ladder of wisdom, you let us supersede the five forms of being, and you delivered us. We who were fettered in suffering were rescued from rebirth to see the Buddha-like sun god who is like you. For those tied to transitory pleasure, you preached the true law. You carried them across the sea of suffering to the good nirvana. For those tied to the root of attachment to the world, you revealed the road to the realm of the Buddhas, you raised a Sumeru mountain of virtue, you let them find endless happiness. For those plunged in the water of pride, you showed the bridge of the true law. You took understanding of the good law into their hearts. You entrusted them to the holy assembly. For those confused by the six organs of perception you showed the rising and falling states of being. You revealed what is the suffering of those in the Avici, the deepest Buddhist hell. You let them be reborn in the blessed fivefold heaven of light. Look[ing?] for the ways of salvation, you crossed lands going to every side. When you found humans needing salvation, you rescued all. To those like us who were lazy, you preached details of the jewel of the gospel book. We come on the ways of freedom and salvation when we know them in the book. If you hadn't preached the pure law so fully, wouldn't the world and its thinking beings have come to an end by now? After the four Buddhas you went down and attained truly incomparable buddhahood. You saved thousands and saved them from dark hell. You purged them of masterly cunning and deception and caused them to help others. You were a guide leading those in error. You saved them from the claws of evil Mara. You rescued the malevolent, you healed the blind, you caused them to do works of honor, you showed them the right path to the land of the gods, You were born the hope and refuge of the world. You taught the seven precious books and held back those about to join evil. Walking on foot and calling your name, praising you with their tongues, they would all love the same as children who love their mothers and fathers. Hugging them with your compassionate heart, you brought them great help and prosperity. Not distinguishing between relative and stranger, you made them yours. You counseled numberless people. With your heart you do good to all, and through your good the afflicted overcome their sorrow. You brought them great help and prosperity in this way always. Because of your virtue you come into full buddhahood. Through your insuperable tongue and generosity you gave the jewel of the good law to us the miserable. The families of the living lost their minds through their dark passions, yet they were reborn. Through your great and compassionate heart you put your arms around everyone and rescued them from the cycle of rebirth, saving them from samsara. The blessed of pure heart slowly came upon insight, overcame malevolence, and came to the statue of the arhats. But pleasure, tying them to the world, gave them mastery of cunning and trickery. You brought them help and prosperity. For those who forgot their origin, you revealed who you are, changing your form. When all living beings saw your revelation, they were inspired and desired only to escape from the suffering of cyclical samsara. To children you came in a benevolent form and turned them from evil and love of the world, to which they had succumbed. Before the blue sky of the whole kingdom you were born as the Buddha god of teachers. On seeing you, the living were happy and with firm minds no longer doubted. They obeyed your commandments. Their good thoughts increased every day and shone like the sun god. The knowledge of light shone. In their hearts compassion grew. They obeyed the commandment to be sinless and escaped the unending burning fires of hell. They tried to keep the true law, observe the true commandment, and not fall into impure sin. After knowing the transience of the body, they left their houses and homes. Following the good law, they were pure in body. They made every effort to follow pure laws and avoid the dangerous places. To be reborn in the palace of immortality, they observed the commandment to be pure in mouth. They prayed for blessing and to walk along the road of blessing and escape terrible samsara. They followed the commandment of blessed poverty. In fear of the perceived transitory doctrines and of the three evil ways, they followed the three seals to be reborn in the highest place. You agreed to command them, to praise and sing songs, to repeal their evil, to gather and meditate. The living had been confused, but when they heard your command, their virtue was a teeming stream and river, and they were reborn in the land of the Buddhas. Other unworldly people walked in pure paths and meditated and were reborn in the palace of immortality. We bow our heads and we worship before you, our highest god. May the living on earth be forever reborn in nirvana! We worship. Our heart is steady. May all the living on earth escape dangers. May they find the peace of nirvana. So through the virtue of our praise and worship may all holy forces of the gods above and below and of the diverse spirits be magnified.]]> https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/13626/taoism Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:27:07 +0000 Faith & Religion Bekenze 13626@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/5502/buddhism-christianity-not-reconciliable Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:04:22 +0000 Faith & Religion Transmetaphysical 5502@/discussions
I agree that both religions teach compassion and good deeds. But I simply have to say that Buddhism is not, has not, and never will be compatible with Christianity. The philosophies are entirely different and that's actually something I can appreciate. I don't feel that there should be one single philosophy that everyone agrees on. As Dalai Lama said, everyone has different mental dispositions and different philosophies satisfy different people.

There is no need to strip down Christianity or Buddhism just to blend them into one agreeable philosophy. It's not even possible to do so. Just like there is no need to reconcile the philosophy of Spinoza with the philosophy of Kant. Accept that they are different and appreciate them for what they are. (I am a formal debater and I may debate til my death over which is better, but i would be disappointed if I were to actually succeed to convince you.)

Contrast:

- Buddha says God is irrelevant and Enlightenment and Nirvana is the purpose. Christianity says eternal life with God is the ultimate goal.

- Buddha says believe nothing, even if he has said it, unless it agrees with your own reasoning. Jesus says believe and have faith, only in him, and he will grant you salvation.

- Buddha said all beliefs are barriers to knowing the truth; be silent and know. Christianity says belief is a virtue and required to get to heaven.

- Buddhism transcends the fight between good and evil and accepts that both are necessary because one can't exist without the other. Christianity wants good to triumph over evil.

There are many other differences, but these are some major reasons why they're incompatible.

(This is something I felt that needs to be said, because if I see something that doesn't seem right to me, I will not hesitate to point it out and express my views.)

Edit: I would like to clarify that I am referring to Orthodox Christianity (fundamentalist as opposed to mystical or Gnostic).


.]]> https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17124/all-along-the-watchtower Fri, 16 Nov 2012 06:54:13 +0000 Faith & Religion lobster 17124@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/5741/eckhart-tolle Sun, 02 May 2010 12:50:39 +0000 Faith & Religion David_2009 5741@/discussions .

Anyway, I was wondering, has anyone read any of Eckhart Tolle's books?, I've seen them around in the shops and everything, and, apparantly, a lot of people like them, but, are they any good?, do you think his message is, kind of, similar to Buddhism in any way?.

Do you recommend his books?.]]> https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17029/how-many-gnostic-christians-are-left-in-the-world Mon, 05 Nov 2012 14:17:00 +0000 Faith & Religion DaftChris 17029@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/16227/for-those-of-you-who-still-believe-in-jesus-christ Tue, 14 Aug 2012 18:31:12 +0000 Faith & Religion vlrox 16227@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/17038/bishop-john-shelby-spong Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:51:54 +0000 Faith & Religion DaftChris 17038@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/16650/pure-materialism-vs-pure-metaphysicalism Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:31:42 +0000 Faith & Religion DaftChris 16650@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/16980/as-a-part-christian-this-kind-of-christian-tripe-annoys-me-to-no-end Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:18:14 +0000 Faith & Religion vinlyn 16980@/discussions I consider myself sorta half-Christian and half-Buddhist. But it just irks me when a Christian says or writes something like I just found from a friend of mine on Facebook: "Survived Frankenstorm- able to keep electricity and no damage. God's blessing!" So let's see, God blessed you folks in northern Virginia but decided to make people in the NYC and NJ areas suffer flooded homes, wind damage, no electricity, isolation, etc. I may believe in God, but I certainly don't believe God makes that kind of decision. ]]> https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/16951/j-krishnamurti Sat, 27 Oct 2012 01:53:15 +0000 Faith & Religion music 16951@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/16681/gnostic-christianity Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:09:25 +0000 Faith & Religion music 16681@/discussions https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/10807/a-sufi-essay Fri, 27 May 2011 09:54:38 +0000 Faith & Religion Floating_Abu 10807@/discussions Love's Universe, by Kabir Helminski The School of Love We are all students in the school of love, although it may take us a long time and much suffering to admit this fact. Something obstinately refuses to see the obvious. Its amazing how stubborn and slow we are, and how often we still forget. We forget whenever we think ourselves more important than others, whenever we see our own desires and goals as more important than the feelings and well-being of those we love. We forget whenever we blame others for what we ourselves have been guilty of. We forget whenever we lose sight of the fact that in this school of love it is love that we all are trying to learn. Yunus Emre, the first and greatest Turkish Sufi poet, says, "Let us master this science and read this book of love. God instructs; Love is His school." We have all been failures in love. This is our conscious starting point. Only a saint is an expert and complete lover, because only a saint has been freed by God of what stands in the way of love. We can practice meditation and seek spiritual knowledge for years and still overlook the central importance of love. One of the subtlest forms of egoism is when we engage ourselves in a practice to be more spiritual than others, when we turn spirituality into an arena for our ambition. But loves eventually forgives even that. I do not really know if this modern world is further from the truth than many civilizations that have preceded it. Yet so much of what occupies our attention is a fiction, and through these fictions we live a life of delusion, of separation, of selfishness, of loneliness. Behind our sadness and anxiety is a simple lack of love, which translates into a lack of meaning and purpose. Unless we look with the eyes of love we cannot see things as they are. We have searched for love in all the wrong places: in building ourselves up, in making ourselves more special, more perfect, more powerful. Love's substitutes are driving the world. We strive after anything but love, because love is so close we overlook it. Full link: http://www.sufism.org/books/sacred/loveuni.html]]> https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/16233/why-are-you-against-christianity Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:25:36 +0000 Faith & Religion vlrox 16233@/discussions