Mind is comfort food for God
Will I bother watching the video? Maybe. When I have a mind to...
https://mindowl.org/tonglen-meditation/
lobster
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
"A society that tolerates all, even the intolerant, risks losing the very tolerance it seeks to protect"
~The paradox of tolerance- Karl Popper~
Shoshin1
God is Comfort Food For Mind
And as most of us know, comfort food is not the healthiest thing for the mind to indulge in
Shoshin1
For your perusal and debate…
Gautama the Buddha
Lao Tzu
Mevlana Rumi
Jesus Christ
Chuang Tzu
Socrates
Diogenes
Bodhidharma
Kabir
…
Maybe people would like to add?
Jeroen
Well, it's not an argument. It's a simple response, disagreeing with your assertion.
Death is not "perfection". Rather, like all phenomena, death is conditioned, relying on birth to occur. Therefore, it is not perfection. It isn't even real. Just a part of the cycle of birth, old age sickness and death, that the Buddha taught to free us from.
Yes, a case of thoughts feeding feelings & feelings feeding thoughts .
Shoshin1
@Jeroen said:
@Vastmind said:
More of what Osho thought/said about something
. * rolls eyes *So @Shoshin1, what do you think about honour killings? There was a recent case in the Netherlands about a Syrian father and two sons who killed a young adult daughter/sister. The religious climate does shape people’s expectations and behaviour.
If you look at things like the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, or the Charlie Hebdo murders, or the rape incidents in Germany from Syrian refugees, there seems to be a lot of more extreme and more violent mindsets amongst these people. I can’t say I approve.
Honor killing, similar to female circumcision, is not something inherently Islamic and happens rarely. Have you never read the Old Testament, which has lots of killing for stuff like this?
So rape has never happened in the West by white people? So its the Islamic world and not the West that has a free internet full of pornography with debased sexual acts of gang sex?
So IDF soldiers were not really captured on video gang raping a Gaza man? It was a fake?
So one of the Hostages was not raped after she returned to Israel? This was just a fake media article?
What's ironic is these gang rapes are not common in countries like Syria but happen when foreigners turn up in the West. Possibly these refugees are naive, watch the Western internet and develop the idea gang rape is something normal in the West.
I would suggest you jump on a plane & travel to Iran before its destroyed by the West and its Wahhabi Allies.