Dear Cool Friends,
We are in sort of Fall/Autumn AND summer. Bit colder at night. Pleasant sunny summer. It means I am wearing shorts for comfort but using a sleeping bag, mostly unzipped, at night. Due to my one Buddhist precept to sleep on a low bed, I sleep on a floor.
Hope everyone is keeping Tummo warm
lobster
for the record im a gnostic christian buddhist, for me the buddha/christ nature is in us.
our nature override the power structure of blind men. through our gnosis our power is in us
christ or buddha taught us to see knowledge as empowerment that dont need the authority of the church that blind its followers. its really unenlighten men who teach fear and control by a blind god who we gnostic call the archons ruler of illusion. buddha christ taught us to see the illusion of emptyness in form. and be awake to the true source of it all, the barbello or the dharmakya who is not a man who should lie like these blind men of paulene gospel men rule and woman shut up attitude.
in gnostic christ/buddha all is equal in our inner search for truth and love.
While I haven't viewed the video, the header caused me to reflect upon an encounter I had with some folks with a "God" Centered ideology.
I answered the door today to be met with a trio from the local megachurch. During our discussion, the inevitable question arose regarding my Buddhist faith vs their faith in "God". "What if you are wrong?" My response was, "What if you are wrong?", to which their immediate response was, "We're not!"
I was a practicing Christian and converted to Buddhism. I saw and experienced the effects of both belief systems.
The Evangelical Christians at my door expressed their absolutist view that only by accepting Christ and their God without reservation will one be "Forgiven" and be allowed to join their God in Heaven. According to them, failure to accept their God means one is condemned to Hell, no matter how many good deed or how good a person he or she is. Entrance to their "Heaven" relies only upon accepting their God and "His Son" as supreme and absolute. They condemned certain people as evil, automaticall condemed to the Christian Hell based upon their sexual orientation, or life style or "refusal to take faith".
Belief is based upon ab solute faith and absolute faith only - Blind Faith.
In my Buddhism, (simplified) faith arises from proof derived of study and action. Study to understand the concept - the theory and doctrine. Practice produces the proof from action. Faith is not blind; question, seek, learn, apply, grow.
We begin practice without committed faith. We have real world experiences. We study.
As we practice and study, our understanding and faith emerges and grows with actual proof derived from our own action and learning. The power comes not from an external hand reaching down but from within as we merge, as it were, with our environment, internal and external, the world, the universe, however one wishes to express it. We thus awaken to that which can be called Buddha from within. A perfunctery and incomplete statement for sure. But enough, I hope, to transmit the jist of it across to you.
I must add, Buddhism does not judge. One's sexual orientation, one's sex, cultural or ethnic background are not a basis for judgement of worth for any individual. And there is no "Guilt". There is, rather, causation - What one does, as a person for self and others.
Just to be clear, While I clearly believe Buddhism to be the better way, I am not putting forth, "Christianity (or aay other religious or phylisophical belief) Bad, Buddhism Good, My way or the highway." This is just a quick, if incomplete reflection based upon today's encounter.
Peace to all
My godfather: best person I've had the luck to know and be around often.