The Buddha and God?

Summeroflove85

Dear Friends,

I feel like I'm in a very strange place at present 'spiritually'. On the one hand I feel deeply attracted to the message of the Buddha, but, like so many Westerners find the lack of 'divine presence' a bit of a culture-shock. This is really my problem in a nutshell. As a practising Quaker, I have a deep sense of a power of creative love which informs my life. It has upheld me in times of difficulty and offered me wonderful insight when things seemed utterly barren. I call this power 'God', but of course it is Being/Consciousness beyond words. I have conventionally found expression for this ineffable presence through the person of Jesus, but I am not to hung up by dogmas and creeds. If I attempted to follow the Buddha would I have to 'throw away' so to speak that 'creative' power as 'delusion'? I was recently reading an article on the web by a 'Pureland' Buddhist Quaker (Jim Pym) called 'Buddha' and God'. In it he points out that:

'One of the unique teachings of the Quakers is that all beings$ have ‘That of God’ within them. This is best expressed through what they call the “Inward Light” in the Pure Land tradition of Buddhism. The Buddha tells us the story of Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, while the Christian Epistle of John states that, “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all”. The obvious philosophical (theological? buddhalogical?) question that arises is; “Can there be two Infinite Lights?” As the answer is obviously “No”, then it becomes clear that the Apostle John and the writers of the Pure Land scriptures are talking about the same thing, though using slightly different language. The Christian scriptures also state that “God is Love”, and I have yet to meet a Buddhist who does not believe in Love'.

I have found this view very helpful in coming to the Buddha's teaching, but I have found the different views expressed among Buddhists quite bewildering. I suppose what I'm asking is: Can one be a follower of the Dharma and hold to the kind of thing Pym is suggesting? Maybe this is one of those unanswerable questions but I would be interested in hearing another's point of view.

federica

I too have read Jim Pym's "You don't have to sit on the floor!" and the bottom line is that - it's up to you.
Nobody can change your mind-frame but you.
The Buddha recommends we test every 'truth' that comes our way to the Nth degree, and examine it from every angle, tearing it to pieces layer by layer, until we can do no more - then to do one of three things.
Accept, reject, or lay aside as an imponderable.

But if you accept it, accept it with all your heart, and live by it 100%, and 100% of the time.

If you reject it, reject it, knowing and respecting that others may have accepted this as their truth, and they believe it.
You just don't.
labour not the point, leave it at that.

If you lay it aside as an imponderable, it may receive an answer, at one point, or it may not.
So what?

The 'so what?' is answered by another question:
"Does knowing this for sure affect how I practice and lead my daily life, amongst others?
To what extent?
Does it matter, NOW?"

Relax.

fivebells

Summeroflove85 wrote: »

Can one be a follower of the Dharma and hold to the kind of thing Pym is suggesting?

Yes. My girlfriend is Church of the Brethren, and hangs out with Quakers a lot, as many displaced CoB members do. She also does Buddhist meditation.

Don't worry about the plethora of views regarding Buddhist teachings. One doesn't receive these views from on high. Test each view against your own reason and experience. The Buddha was very explicit about the importance of approaching spiritual practice in this way.

KarmaDondrupTashi

We all need stories around the campfire. "Buddha", "God", "atheism", "theism", "existence", "nonexistence" - they're all just stories. Just because something is mythic truth doesn't mean it's not truth. But we also have to let all the dualities go - drop it, be crucified. That way the temple veil is torn. That way the murderer reveals himself as savior. That's also mythic, but also true.

Subjectivity9

The reason that you find the teachings of Buddhist very confusing at times IMO is because many Buddhists are often confused, and this comes out in their words.

But, they are no more confused than any other human beings on earth. You get a any large group of people together in a room, and you are bound to get a large group of different opinions. We are all growing at different rates.

Jesus, the Christ, was my first Guru/teacher.

I see no difference between the Christ, and the Buddha, when they are understood correctly. I believe they were both 100% Enlightened/Realized beings.

Now, I know that this will make the hair on the back of some folks neck stand up, but I believe they are simply being way too narrow in their views.

I would not suggest anyone giving up anything they believe in, in any present moment. In a way, that would be dishonest.

And:

That would be far too forced.

I would rather suggest that one follow their highest inclination towards their own personal truth, as they (personally) see it, and allow what has proven itself incorrect, not useful, or painful to fall away naturally.

What’s the hurry? : ^ )

This path to Realization can be a great pleasure, if we "follow our bliss."

After all, we are not being chased by a tiger. ; ^ )

Love IS the answer,
S9

Summeroflove85

Thank you all for your insightful and generous words, they have given me much to ponder over.

Quiet_witness

I would recommend you read a book by Thich Nhat Hanh called, "Living Buddha, Living Christ". He gives some very indepth insight about the correlation between Christ's teachings and the Buddha's from a Buddhist perspective. It has helped me on my path as I came from a Christian background. Personally, I agree with what has been said above and the beautiful thing about the Dharma is the teaching to be open to truth; from wherever it comes.