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Religious cliches (including Buddhist)
vinlyn
Colorado...for now Veteran
There's another thread right now that is chock full of cliches, which got me thinking -- what are some religious "lines" (hopefully from a variety of religions) that have gotten to be cliches.
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Spare the rod, spoil the child
An eye for an eye
(sorry, I'm only familiar enough with Christian sayings to be able to say whether they sound cliched to me)
Let go and let God
God has a plan
Sit with it
The Lord works in mysterious ways
Existence is Suffering [lobster puts on Hinayana dunce cap and goes stand in the corner]
When one door closes one door opens.
Overused and misappropriated, allahu akbar. Proclaiming God is great while committing acts of atrocity. Not all uses, of course, so perhaps not a cliche exactly. But along the same vein of "God is good!" when one gets what they want even if what they want is bad for someone else.
Shakespeare was one of the primary scribes giving us many clichés in use today.
Many people believe these to have originated Biblically.
"Everything happens for a reason"
Good one. This is one of my personal mantras/dikr. 'Allah Akbar' means to the devout, 'God is Greater'. Which means 'more than the mind can conceptualise'.
It is similar to the 'Christian' use of
OMG = 'Oh My God'
or the Klingon, 'Today is a good day to die'
Can be a formulaic cliche as you say ...
"Things are not always what they seem.
Nor are they otherwise."
The assumption that the consequences of a spiritual life -- especially my own -- are invariably good and beneficial and, if necessary, holy.
"What goes around comes around."
"As you sow, so shall you reap."
"Live by the sword, die by the sword."
"God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked."
"You get what you deserve."
and other expressions of oversimplified karma.
Hate the sin, love the sinner.
God Bless America.
Roarrr: We are not animals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Imagine many Hollywood cinemas like "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes". It's a cliche that the humanity is a sacred thing. (Yes, we are not animals but little slimy mushrooms.)
You don't half talk some doo-dah sometimes, Polja....
This video spoof of the Duggars' child-sexual-abuse revelations has some pretty nifty cliches, though it may cut a bit close to the bone for some.
"Life is what you make it" which may well be true, but fails to take into account the countless millions also making it.....
Thanks... for ..... that... ferderica.....
In ways, humanity is sacred. We remain the only beings on our planet with particular abilities. We also fail miserably, daily, at using them wisely/skillfully.
I've been thinking for a while of any Buddhist cliches. I don't know about phrases. But mindfulness as a whole has become a cliche, at least in the US. Corporations practicing "mindfulness" to make their workers produce even more in the time they are there. In all the articles about Google and others using mindfulness, it is almost always mentioned that it is a Buddhist practice...and beyond that, the entire idea of what mindfulness is, is lost. America is one place we multitask our mindfulness, lol.
Canada too!
"It pays to keep this in mind" ...As if our garbage bin mind is going to keep it anywhere else...
It's all good (no it's not)
Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger (sack that doctor)
In your next life ... (heaven substitute?)
OM MANI PEME HUNG
I appreciate really your posts. They are insightful views of an adult, temperate and civilised person without arrogance.
Hmmm, how would I express again my thoughts in this language? it's so much easier to give "one liners". In ways, life is sacred. Millions of years of evolution and this glorious diversity of life. Respect life, don't think you are superior (you = passive form). Dolphins, bees, hawks, cats, etc. have abilities we don't have. And there are some other animal species that recognise themselves from a mirror. I've seen a nature document in which a vain elephant spent a lot of time in front of a big mirror adoring his (?) tusks.
However, the Abrahamic dualism is deep in our culture. And those roots go to Zarathusrism and even further. God cursed the ground. Man is a picture of God. We have to control nature. And so on. Cinemas reflect our views with accidental comic art ways continually. Is it possible that a Buddhist character is raging "We Are Not Animals!!!"
a cliche : this is a ch ch. what's missing? u r
as far as human beings being sacred, I have given this much thought and believe that yes, the human race is sacred. But not for any physical quality. What I found that makes us expnentially different / sacred is the ability & drive to comprehend the way this universe works, and to others, to comprehend God and form a relationship there. most animals, maybe there are a few exceptions (dolphins?), aren't capable of this critical thinking/philosophy/spirituality/knowledge of self (or the non self)
Isn't that a Blessing in disguise? We should be grateful for small mercies, God moves in strange ways his wonders to perform, but don't worry, be happy. There's light at the end of the tunnel, this too shall pass, and tomorrow is another day.
(How many is that....? )
As a cliché-copying-machine all I do is add to the reproduction and variation of clichés; dictated by the selfish-cliché and leading to the survival of the fittest cliché.
Soon computers will be able to fill threads on internet-forums in our place and they will do it better.
I think that -secretly - threads on rebirth are automated already and Lincoln runs the program now and then to keep the subject under attention.
Red pill or blue pill?
@Polja Thank you for your kind comment
I certainly don't believe us superior to other beings (I realize you were not talking about me, just saying I agree with you). All beings just have different strengths and weaknesses, but many of ours are not easily identifiable as necessary to our survival. Other animals have many strengths we do not, but theirs are almost entirely designed to aid in their survival. We, somewhere along the line, seem to have developed a lot of stuff that isn't necessary to survival thanks to our ability to ponder things in a different way. It's usually easy to identify the top few strengths another animal has. But humans try so hard to take on the strengths of everything and everyone they come across, that we can't identify a a couple of strengths we (as a race) excel at.
I've sometimes wondered if perhaps we have it backwards. Perhaps the human real is really a lower realm while animals are not. They certain struggle to survive in ways most humans cannot relate to anymore. But they also don't suffer with constant fear and anxiety and depression and everything else we do. Not to say some animals don't experience those things, but not to the extreme people do, it seems. Our dog lives like royalty. She's happier than most people I know. Perhaps they are the ones that have it right, lol
@karasti -- Without any snarky intentions from here, I wonder if you would say how and why humanity might be "sacred?"
The Great God Google delivers up this definition of the word "sacred:"
But no matter which way I twist this, "sacred" ends up self-referential in my mind ... sort of like the Jews or the (is it?) Hopis who refer to themselves as "the chosen." I just wonder if there is some aspect in which sacredness stands outside the realm of self-congratulation.
I don't apply "holy" meanings to it. Or even as a sense of superiority. I think all life, including humans (even the "bad" ones) is sacred; to be respected and revered. That is all. I think some people tend to get a negative attitude about humanity as a whole because of the actions of some. I know a lot of people who are environmentalists to the point they think humans no longer have a place on the planet, that somehow we are not part of nature and don't belong here. Yes, we cause damage and destruction on a level other animals cannot, but that doesn't mean we don't have a place, and it doesn't mean we can't make better choices. Anyhow, a lot of people I know with that attitude don't even consider humans as part of the web of life, they consider us only an intrusion. I don't share that view. All life is special/revered/to be respected/sacred. Not more special than any other life. But to be included in it.
@karasti -- So the sacredness is conveyed by that which is itself sacred? Is that a fair understanding of what you said?
I guess? I haven't finished my coffee yet, LOL.
I think it's just how I was raised. I was raised in a family that hunted and fished for food when my dad was laid off his mine job (often). But there was always a great respect for all of the life around us, including even the plants and we walked with caution to avoid unnecessarily stomping on berries and other things that animals rely on for food. The overall view of all living things was always taught as sacredness to me, even though it certainly doesn't align with a religious definition. Last night I walked our dog in a steady rain, and wished I could do something to help all the worms that had their holes flooded out and were taking refuge on fast-draining roads. Obviously not a safe place but not within my ability to save them all. But it was a time to reflect on that same understanding of respecting their lives, I made sure not to step on them, which was about the best I could do considering the number of them. It doesn't occur to me that they are less important than my dog, or myself though most people disagree and enjoy stomping on them or don't even think about running them over. It's a consideration for me always when it's raining. When I was a small child, walking to the bus stop, I used to pick them up from puddles and put them in my pocket. Obviously, that didn't go so well for them, lol.
When I berry pick, I never clear an area out. I take what I know I can use, and I leave the rest for the animals who rely on them. For me, that kind of stuff is about respecting the equal right to life that all beings have, and as I said it was taught to me as a sacredness of life, an inherent value that isn't something we can wantonly apply when it is convenient for us. It causes me conflict often that I haven't entirely worked through, but is a work in progress. But is still something I feel strongly about despite my personal conflict in some areas.
Speaking of cliches, here's one I love: This too shall pass.
It is best to remember it every day, whether we're having good times or bad times.
@karasti -- I hear you on that one! And I certainly admire your outlook/upbringing. There is something visceral about caring for things even if the word "sacred," like any other word, is likely to fall short of describing it.
Namaste.
I like the old Hindu & Buddhist cliché on Reincarnation and Rebirth.....
"Been there, done that...Got the memory to prove it"
"The universe is giving us what we need right now"
Yes, all too often good and hard
(Yeah, I've heard that one quite recently.... Can't think where.....)
Do or do not.There IS no 'try'.
and
There IS no spoon.....
Matrix, I get it.
There is no free lunch..
Maybe we need a Phrase Association Game thread
Feel free....