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I don't know what to believe in anymore, I really need advice
The Bible, that connection to a higher power, isn't it important?
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Then, confirm for yourself that it is an actual, concrete definite entity.
Then think about connecting to it.
We can think of a higher power as something like karma which rules over our life, there are many rules of the universe we do cannnot comprehend as human beings, or unenlightened beings for that matter, but a creator god is negated in buddhism.
Believe what you want, if you do not want to fully commit to buddhism, then take what parts of it are beneficial to you and add them to your life. Your opinion on religions may change in the future, mine did as I was probably one of the most radical atheists you would have ever come across a few years ago.
The post is titled you don't know what to believe, and that's a good start. In my tradition, we are taught this "don't know" mind must appear before anyone can grow and learn.
Beliefs are comforting, but as we grow and mature in our spiritual and intellectual lives, we need to re-examine what we were taught and question our beliefs. All you've done is grown and matured to a point the beliefs no longer fit who you are. It's part of what makes us human, this questioning. It's not wrong, no matter what the people invested in the beliefs might try to tell you.
You see, beliefs that support the truth can withstand questioning. Beliefs that don't withstand your questioning aren't worthy of you in the first place and should be discarded. Don't worry that your mind doesn't know all the answers. You'll find not knowing is a perfectly valid and satisfying place to operate from, if in fact you don't know. You will have joined the rest of us with active, questioning minds.
Now to that pesky tendency for people to scream about how something is sacred, which since you mention the Bible might be your problem. Sacred means it's above questioning. Sacred means all you're supposed to do is worship and believe in it and even looking elsewhere for more answers is a sin. It's a subtle trap. Even in Buddhism, some monk who should have known better long ago wrote about how slandering the Dharma (meaning disagreeing with the writings) is morally wrong. What nonsense! Most Buddhists have the good sense to ignore this. You can't slander a page full of writing, nor can you slander an idea. It's either the truth or it isn't, and you are either convinced by the idea stated or you aren't. So if you don't believe, fine, honest disagreement is how humanity learns. It's how it should be.
So rejoice that you don't know. It means you can examine new ideas and probe deeper into old ones. It means you're growing and learning. Welcome to the club.
Its human nature that we need to have a secure base before we can venture out to the unknown. Of course some people can plunge into the depth without a firm ground, but they are not the majority. So to answer the OP, I think the question here is not whether the higher power is important (or real) or not, but whether you can START on the (Buddhist) path without any faith or belief. I think many people can not, we usually need solid stepping stones before doing the more demanding plunges later.
Using the metaphor of Buddha in reaching the other shore, you might have just decided to discard your old raft (a higher power). Now while you are struggling in the river, yet to find your next raft, you might need a temporary life jacket. They could be:
- A real life teacher. One who does not just guide you by words, but from whom you can feel peace, joy and liberation, this should strengthen your will on the search.
- An idol. E.g. Buddha, HH Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh. Read about their life and their direct words, there's certainly firmness in everyone of them.
- If you work better with a companion, then a good friend or a lover who understand and support your search.
- Neuroscience and psychology. Now this might not be for everyone, but it certainly lead me here. For example, its certainly reassuring to know that compared to the brain of normal people, veteran Tibetan monks do have a smaller amygdala (less fear), thicker prefrontal cortex (more control) and more active left brain (happier mood) from the right.
Hold into them as long as you need to, but keep in mind that eventually as you get stronger you have to discard the life jacket and do it alone.
For me the connection to higher power is at the heart of practice. You might think of your innate Buddha-nature as the higher power within you. It may be helpful to find a practice that connects you to that. If you feel you need a channel for your feelings of devotion, I would suggest looking into Tibetan (tantra) or Pure Land traditions. It is also very helpful to have a teacher.
My sister is a pentecostal Christian. I used to feel a little envious of the way they can put trust in a higher power than themselves and it certainly brought a lot of comfort, direction and peace into their lives. I realised there is no reason we cannot have a similar connection to the sacred in our Dharma practice. The only difference is that we understand it's not some being outside of ourselves, but our own mind.
The suggestions above by @pweic are excellent too.
Take care.
The Buddha
are the same as those from the Buddha:
To seek.... and find.
To be still... and know.
If you wish to know
you must cease running in circles grasping
and seek the stillness.
What did Jesus of Nazareth teach his followers?
He took them on camping trips out into the desert!
They went praying, fasting, and seeking the silence, the stillness of the wilderness, of the desert,
and very much indeed
in the manner of Buddhists.
Call it God.
Call it the enlightenment.
Call it the higher power.
Whatever you wish, as you wish.
In all cases it manifests as the Light.
It isn't a matter of belief
any more than the force of gravity is a matter of belief.
You will see it quite plainly when you die, everyone does.
Been there, done that, got the t shirt.
Still have issues to resolve, lessons to learn.
Everyone here does.
You needn't believe me.
You needn't believe anyone.
Simply seek.... and find
Be still....and know.
Exactly! Thank you!
I believe I've been fucked so much by society to waste time thinking about my life after death on such a waste of faith is destructive to my awareness
Just one line of thought:
Christians believe in God, a divine creator and all-powerful entity. In Genesis it talks about how after we eat from the Tree of Knowledge (discerning right from wrong) that we are expelled from the Garden of Eden. However, we were expelled for a different reason than merely falling to temptation. “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” (NIV|Genesis 3:21). To me, this means that God and the angelic congregation are eternal and knowing good and evil. We only have one half of the equation (the knowing).
To build off this, God is suffering. Because we are constantly discerning and judging, we cannot be happy. Taking Good and Evil, we can remove "Evil". What we are left with is Good and Evil.
We cannot know just good. It will always be better and worse. Prefferred and less prefferred. Better and worse. Good and 'evil'.
Many seek knowledge as shelter, a place to be safe from the unreasoned world. What we find does not free us but binds us ever more tightly. We begin judging everything in a more intricate manner and become more unsatisfied with the mundane. Only when knowledge is rightly approached does it become wisdom, a positive aspect. Such a delicate complexity. Man tends to see this ability to judge as a blessing. But indeed, that is not true. It is our downfall.
And this is where Buddhism transcends it all. Attaining enlightenment is to stop the better and worse, good and bad, etc. We can free ourselves from the fetters, freedom from attachment, to become higher than God. This, in my opinion, is why Buddha attained something higher than God/angels/etc. What awaits those who are enlightened in the afterlife? Well, that is imponderable. To be un-eternal and un-"knowing" is truly our greatest gift. If anything, the story of Adam and Eve demonstrates our fall from enlightenment.
I probably didn't explain myself too well, but I just started reading through the Bible again. Maybe I can better formulate my thoughts later on.
~____~
Sounds an awful lot like new-age hokum....
For me, "higher power" simply means the part inside that is strong - it's conscience, ethics, morals, strength, etc.
For some, it's a religious term, but for others (like myself) it's not.
There's no need to get bogged down in a puddle of letters.
In yogacara the buddhanature is viewed as obscured. The path would then be to overcome the obscuring anger, craiving, and delusion.
For example when buddha overcame suffering there was something left. That something had enlightened qualities. To say there is no higher power would be to say that there is no wisdom and compassion discovered in beings and perfected in buddha.