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Christianity and how it relates to Buddhism
taiyaki
Veteran
To show how Christianity and Buddhism (Indian/Japanese) relate I will redefine Christianity the way I interpret it. I would like to argue that the story of Christ is a story about each and every one of us. It is a story about a human being (Jesus) becoming a Christ (God). A blend between human and spirit and a Jesus Christ’s story being the metaphor for the path we all walk. The birth of Christ from a Virgin Mary should not be taken literally. The virgin birth is pointing at a non-duality, a place before opposites.
Christ ultimately represents God’s awakening or God becoming conscious of himself. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Word in Greek is logos. Word in this context means God consciousness. Sin is duality. Sin’s translation means missing the mark. In this translation there is no morality attached to sin. Sin simply means you’ve missed the mark. I would assert that to attach to duality is to sin. To not sin is to move beyond duality. The way to move beyond duality is to become aware of consciousness.
So the story of Jesus Christ is a story about a human being becoming aware of his consciousness and thus bringing him to the divine that he already was. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. When spirit or consciousness wakes up from the life of the human being, the human life becomes irrelevant and the life becomes a dedication to being the living spirit. Life is a movement, which goes back to its original source, which is consciousness. You are the light of the world. You are the light of consciousness. You are the self conscious, awakened. Humanity is saying that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. Jesus Christ is saying that you are the light of the world. When consciousness returns to the source, identity with the mind and body is severed. So again when awareness is back to the source you are hitting the mark and when it isn’t (stuck in duality) you are sinning. Repent and its correct translation is to turn around. An asleep mind will put a moralistic framework on top of concepts. An ego can only judge. So what does it mean to repent? Simply, it means to go back to the source. Go back to the unknown. Keep going back to the place where distinction never gazed. To the normal mind, we appear as this and that, as female and male but what we truly are that place with no distinctions.
Whoever finds his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Whoever finds his actual life is going to lose his life. To the mind this is confusing. To awakened consciousness it could not be put more beautifully and clearly. When the seeker is returned to the source, the seeker is extinguished. You wake up from the seeker and you lose what you thought life was. The moment you lose yourself is the moment you find yourself. Spirituality is all about the mystery. What am I really? What am I actually? You are not your mind or thoughts or feelings. What am I? When you look there is nothing there. That is the answer. You are the formless. You are the empty space. You are consciousness itself. You are the watcher of your mental formations. You are that before all that arises.
The story of Jesus Christ is a story about you. It is the journey you are on. It is the journey from a false construction of an ego to the awakening of your true nature. It is from here that you see that everything is one and nothing is separate. It is from this point that Jesus Christ stood and brought freedom to this world.
Jesus being human begged God to take this cup out of his lips after realizing his destiny and it is Christ who speaks thy will be done at the end. Humanity will struggle and fail but our awareness/spirit/consciousness will awaken and triumph in the end. Divine will always wins out.
The story of Jesus puts everything right on the table. Jesus speaks of the present moment. Open your eyes and ears right now. The kingdom of heaven is right here within you. Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. Man's idea of rich is based on his ideas, thoughts, and concepts, fixed points of views. Throw out all concepts and all opinions. What are you left with? The mystery, the unknown, the vast space of nothingness.
God is everywhere, inside, outside, from where you are looking from, etc. Become like a child again. Become innocent again. Come to the heart of unknowing. In this unknowing everything is possible. If you think you know, very little is possible. Go to the place where the mind cannot go. Go where nothing is. Only nothing can pass through the eye of a needle. The second coming of Christ is you. It is the story of you returning to God right now. Heaven is right now and not somewhere else. With the complete surrendering to right now, comes a new life, an end to the old view. In this new life right now, there is peace, love, stillness, truth, and God. Everything ultimately is perfect and is a reflection of God. Even humanity in is sleeping form is a manifestation of truth. Original sin was nothing but our blindness to what is. We were never expelled out of the garden and God never left us. We just got caught up in our separateness, in our concepts and language, in our dualist mind. In repentance (turning around and seeing our true nature) we see that God is. Ultimately, there is no death because there is no one to die. There is no birth because there is no one being born. All religions point to the same place, but the mind divides and confuses.
Buddhism points to the same truth, but in the form of emptiness. This emptiness is another word for God and the Absolute reality. This Absolute reality only exists in the present moment. Original sin is seen as Saṃsāra, the endless wheel of birth and death, which stems from desire. To see oneself as separate from the emptiness or God is to miss the mark (sin). Original sin is nothing but the attachment to mind. Buddhanature is synonymous with the kingdom of heaven, which exists in the present. The Buddha pointed at our true nature, which was pure and indefinable.
The dog goes bark, bark, bark.
The cat goes meow, meow, meow.
So many words and fingers point to the truth.
Truth exists right in between the spaces.
Much love.
Christ ultimately represents God’s awakening or God becoming conscious of himself. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Word in Greek is logos. Word in this context means God consciousness. Sin is duality. Sin’s translation means missing the mark. In this translation there is no morality attached to sin. Sin simply means you’ve missed the mark. I would assert that to attach to duality is to sin. To not sin is to move beyond duality. The way to move beyond duality is to become aware of consciousness.
So the story of Jesus Christ is a story about a human being becoming aware of his consciousness and thus bringing him to the divine that he already was. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. When spirit or consciousness wakes up from the life of the human being, the human life becomes irrelevant and the life becomes a dedication to being the living spirit. Life is a movement, which goes back to its original source, which is consciousness. You are the light of the world. You are the light of consciousness. You are the self conscious, awakened. Humanity is saying that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. Jesus Christ is saying that you are the light of the world. When consciousness returns to the source, identity with the mind and body is severed. So again when awareness is back to the source you are hitting the mark and when it isn’t (stuck in duality) you are sinning. Repent and its correct translation is to turn around. An asleep mind will put a moralistic framework on top of concepts. An ego can only judge. So what does it mean to repent? Simply, it means to go back to the source. Go back to the unknown. Keep going back to the place where distinction never gazed. To the normal mind, we appear as this and that, as female and male but what we truly are that place with no distinctions.
Whoever finds his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Whoever finds his actual life is going to lose his life. To the mind this is confusing. To awakened consciousness it could not be put more beautifully and clearly. When the seeker is returned to the source, the seeker is extinguished. You wake up from the seeker and you lose what you thought life was. The moment you lose yourself is the moment you find yourself. Spirituality is all about the mystery. What am I really? What am I actually? You are not your mind or thoughts or feelings. What am I? When you look there is nothing there. That is the answer. You are the formless. You are the empty space. You are consciousness itself. You are the watcher of your mental formations. You are that before all that arises.
The story of Jesus Christ is a story about you. It is the journey you are on. It is the journey from a false construction of an ego to the awakening of your true nature. It is from here that you see that everything is one and nothing is separate. It is from this point that Jesus Christ stood and brought freedom to this world.
Jesus being human begged God to take this cup out of his lips after realizing his destiny and it is Christ who speaks thy will be done at the end. Humanity will struggle and fail but our awareness/spirit/consciousness will awaken and triumph in the end. Divine will always wins out.
The story of Jesus puts everything right on the table. Jesus speaks of the present moment. Open your eyes and ears right now. The kingdom of heaven is right here within you. Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. Man's idea of rich is based on his ideas, thoughts, and concepts, fixed points of views. Throw out all concepts and all opinions. What are you left with? The mystery, the unknown, the vast space of nothingness.
God is everywhere, inside, outside, from where you are looking from, etc. Become like a child again. Become innocent again. Come to the heart of unknowing. In this unknowing everything is possible. If you think you know, very little is possible. Go to the place where the mind cannot go. Go where nothing is. Only nothing can pass through the eye of a needle. The second coming of Christ is you. It is the story of you returning to God right now. Heaven is right now and not somewhere else. With the complete surrendering to right now, comes a new life, an end to the old view. In this new life right now, there is peace, love, stillness, truth, and God. Everything ultimately is perfect and is a reflection of God. Even humanity in is sleeping form is a manifestation of truth. Original sin was nothing but our blindness to what is. We were never expelled out of the garden and God never left us. We just got caught up in our separateness, in our concepts and language, in our dualist mind. In repentance (turning around and seeing our true nature) we see that God is. Ultimately, there is no death because there is no one to die. There is no birth because there is no one being born. All religions point to the same place, but the mind divides and confuses.
Buddhism points to the same truth, but in the form of emptiness. This emptiness is another word for God and the Absolute reality. This Absolute reality only exists in the present moment. Original sin is seen as Saṃsāra, the endless wheel of birth and death, which stems from desire. To see oneself as separate from the emptiness or God is to miss the mark (sin). Original sin is nothing but the attachment to mind. Buddhanature is synonymous with the kingdom of heaven, which exists in the present. The Buddha pointed at our true nature, which was pure and indefinable.
The dog goes bark, bark, bark.
The cat goes meow, meow, meow.
So many words and fingers point to the truth.
Truth exists right in between the spaces.
Much love.
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
1. the Jews taught punishment for sin
2. the Buddhists & Hindus taught hellish rebirth for sin
3. Jesus demonstrated he was "godly" by performing a few miracles including surviving the cross by entering into the cessation of perception & feeling or some other meditative state
4. in demonstrating he was something special, Jesus then taught if you have faith & love in him, he returns equally your faith & love & also promises eternal life
5. in doing so, Jesus provided an easy path to alleviate human suffering, simply via faith in his love
6. in Mahayana Buddhist terms, Jesus was a "Bodhisatva" who did the work for all sentient beings so he could save them
The Buddha did not teach 'unknowing'.
The Buddha named things according to their nature.
For example, consciousness he called 'consciousness' because it cognises.
Perception he called 'perception' because it perceives.
The perfect peace & stillness he called 'Nirvana', which means 'without pain or burning'.
For human beings who have special powers, he called them 'gods'.
But, apart from that, the Buddha, the one who knows, did not call peace, stillness or pure consciousness "God"
The Buddha is the one who knows but your mind's ignorance seems beyond help.
:screwy:
Well Matreya is Boddhisattva and many Buddhists believe he is "waiting in heaven" to be reborn at precisely the necessary time for turning the wheel of dharma as a fully enlightened Buddha.
reincarnation cannot be proved so it is best to focus on the salient matter
with love, i can only suggest that you learn to help yourself
jesus said: when the blind lead the blind, they both fall into a ditch
buddha said: one stuck in the mud cannot pull another out of the mud
your hindhism is fine but it is neither Buddhism or Christianity
:screwy:
What are you left with? That is real Buddhism. NOT SCRIPTURE.
truth is something universal but not every human being can experience pure consciousness
if each human being had pure consciousness, the world would be at perfect peace & humanity would cease due to the cessation of sexual activity
the Buddha taught truth is all conditioned things are impermanent, unsatisfactory & not-self (they cannot be possessed)
the truth of the Buddha is NOT THE SAME as what you are describing as "truth"
Jesus did NOT share the same (highest) truth as the Buddha
:wave:
As a Prince, he left home and mastered two meditations of non-conceptual mind called the sphere of nothingness & the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception. These two states of mind are higher or more subtle than the sphere of infinite consciousness & the sphere of infinite space
The Prince REJECTED these states of mind as the truth or as nirvana
so what you are trying to sell, the Buddha REJECTED as the final goal
Did the Buddha have sexual activity?
No.
However, the Buddha did not teach pure consciousness is the truth.
The Buddha taught, so people could benefit, that impermanence was the truth.
This allows people to let go.
"What do you think, Anuradha? Can you find the Tathagata in form?"
"No, world-honored one."
"Can you find the Tathagata outside of form?"
"No, world-honored one."
Can you find the Tathagata in feelings, perceptions, mental formations, or consciousness?"
"No, world-honored one."
"Well then, Anuradha, do you think that the tathagata transcends form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness?"
"No, world-honored one."
"Anuradha, if you cannot find the Tathagata even while he is still alive, can you find the Tathagata within the four propositions?"
"No, world-honored one."
"Quite so, Anuradha."
the four propositions being: being, nonbeing, both being and non-being, neither being or non-being.
So you see, none of them are true. And yet the truth is inseparable from them.
If we actually have love, we would study deeply the various religions to learn about their true nature.
Then we can act towards the different religious with mutual respect.
But now, you are not loving the various religions.
Instead, you are imposing your own subjective opinions upon them.
In Buddhism, such basic dishonesty does not even pass "go" on the spiritual path.
:buck:
Also, Gotama did have sex, with his wife, I'm sure on many occasions. He eventually abstained in order to avoid any and all distractions in order to attain Buddhahood as quickly as possible for the sake of all sentient life.
However, you still do not understand what I posted because your mind is overcome by defending its sexual needs.
I said the Buddha did not teach "pure mind" is universal truth.
So your fears about not having sex & breast feeding children are unfounded.
So much for your claims of dwelling in non-duality.
:rolleyes:
Also, the Prince only had one child and then left home.
My view is the Prince only had sex with his wife late in his marriage to bear an heir for his father so he, The Prince, could leave home.
Also, after Buddhahood, the Buddha did not have sex.
The Buddha taught it is impossible for a Buddha or arahant to have sex.
The highest love is metta-karuna or agape (self-sacrificing love).
A fully enlightened being is free from all lust, hatred & ignorance.
To instruct the path to full enlightenment is the highest love.
But your love is on the level of pema or filo (affection, instinctual love).
The Buddha taught from this love comes grief & fear.
Jesus was required to question Peter three times because Peter could not commit himself to self-sacrificing love. Peter could only commit himself to philo, namely, filial love or family love.
:-/
I erred in using the word "Buddhism".
Today, "Buddhism" is so many things.
The Prince entered into an arranged marriage at 16 years old, per tradition.
The Prince had his first & only child 13 years after his marriage and then left home immediately when he learned a son was born.
He called his son "Rahula", which means 'chain' or 'fetter".
I think your assumptions about "the woman he loved" are just that.
Buddho Susuddho Karuna Mahanavo, meaning: the Buddha, absolutely pure, with ocean like compassion.
The Buddha declared his mind was absolutely purified of every stain of greed, hatred & delusion; of sensuality, becoming & ignorance.
Yes. Your Buddha is "your" Buddha.
I was asserting historically and what has been reported historically.
Truth is not something subjective or personal.
For example, that all conditioned things undergo change is truth.
All you appear to have found are the wishes or desires of your heart.
You appear to have found "your true self".