Interfaith teachings and principles

tlish

Hello Friends.

I would like to thank you for all that I have learned from you the past couple of weeks that I have been roaming the board. I have compiled a list of teachings that I feel correlate with certain principles. I have taken texts from buddhists teachings and would love your response to know if I selected accurate texts. Feel free to tear it apart and give critical feedback. I would really appreciate it! There is a link to the principle vs. buddhist text comparison below. This should take less than 10 minutes.

https://qtrial2014.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_87DRlzKx0gsZq2F

(you can click the link up to 8 times and receive a different set of principle vs. buddhist text comparison. feel free to participate as much as you'd like!)

Thank you.

Jeffrey

In the first example the Lord blessing us if we have faith was related to:

1) lust for riches ruins someone (with Buddhist scripture link)

2) faith in the dharma etc. enriches us (with Buddhist scripture link)

3) none of above

I would say that it is different from the Christian principle because faith in the dharma does not reward us with health or riches or whatever as in a power of the universe that grants us these things. Rather the dharma helps us deal with an uncertain reality, but it doesn't grant wealth. Similarly #1 lust for riches just lead to a value system where are upset if we lose money. Of course everyone is upset when they lose money but if you are obsessed with money then it hurts more and again it is an uncertain world and you may have to find a way to be happy without wealth and even in this world you may even have extreme poverty.

Some people in Buddhism do believe that the universe does contain like an intelligence that meets us and grants us blessings but it would be the blessing to remove obstacles to learning the dharma and might not be a blessing of money to build a business or whatever unless that experience has something to do with the dharma. Of course no one would be able to practice dharma if there were no businesses making food, clothing, housing, medicine, computers, etc and part of the dharma might be to provide these to others so they learn the dharma. For example someone might work the kitchen and cleaning at a retreat and might be working while others are not working and free to hear the dharma in the other room.

Bunks

While i don't have enough understanding of the Christian faith or the Pali Canon to complete your survey, I applaud what you're doing @tlish

BhanteLucky

There was one set of quotes in there that was Bahai. Did you put that in there by mistake?

tlish

@BhanteLucky said:
There was one set of quotes in there that was Bahai. Did you put that in there by mistake?

Yeah that would be a mistake on my part. Sorry about that. I have also been looking at the Bahai faith. I must have let that quote slip in.

BhanteLucky

@tlish said:

@BhanteLucky said:
There was one set of quotes in there that was Bahai. Did you put that in there by mistake?

Yeah that would be a mistake on my part. Sorry about that. I have also been looking at the Bahai faith. I must have let that quote slip in.

Cool. It's awesome that you are educating yourself about other faiths. It enriches your own faith, paradoxically, and helps you understand your own beliefs better.

tlish

"Whoever nurses the sick serves me," said the Buddha

Does anyone know if this is an authentic quotation?

genkaku

Without disrespect @tlish: I hate surveys largely because they do not ask for my opinion: They ask for my opinion as filtered through someone else's views as if some actual truth could be gleaned in that way. The five-year-old tantrum king within me rejects the foundation. It's not serious, but it may be something to consider.

Further: Imagine that you knew how to ride a bike or play the piano. Then imagine that I, as someone who didn't know how to ride a bike or play the piano, approached you and told you about all the books and pamphlets I had read about riding a bike or playing piano. As a kindly soul, you might listen to my wisdom and understanding for a while, but even the most patient of (wo)men might crack after a while and suggest I try actually riding the bike or putting my fingers on the keys.

What does anyone want from spiritual persuasion. Isn't it "happiness" or "peace" or "indubitable understanding" or something similar? When have such things ever arisen from a text? There's nothing wrong with texts, but there is something definitely wrong with imagining texts could make things right.

As I say ... just a not-too-serious footnote.

federica

@tlish said:
"Whoever nurses the sick serves me," said the Buddha

Does anyone know if this is an authentic quotation?

Yes. (Part Two: The Action, 2.1 Giving and helping.)
Scroll down....

Once, the Buddha and his disciple Ananda visited a monastery where a monk was suffering from a
contagious disease. The poor man lay in a mess with no one looking after him. The Buddha himself
washed the sick monk and placed him on a new bed. Afterwards, he admonished the other monks:
"Monks, you have neither mother nor father to look after you. If you do not look after each other,
who will look after you? Whoever serves the sick and suffering, serves me."

federica

Also:

The Buddhist emphasis on compassion finds natural expression in the care of the sick, and >according to the Vinaya the Buddha himself stated "Whoever, O monks, would nurse me, he
should nurse the sick" (Zysk, 1991:41).

lobster

^^^ Maybe the Buddha was not just a 'naughty boy' but was the Messiah? However then he would be non human ...
I votes for humane and human Buddhas.

Lionduck

@lobster said:
^^^ Maybe the Buddha was not just a 'naughty boy' but was the Messiah? However then he would be non human ...
I votes for humane and human Buddhas.

Me too.