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I follow Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, and Buddhism
betaboy
Veteran
Namaste/Salam/Shalom 
I kind of follow all these religions. I believe that all humans are evil, conceived in sin (Christianity), and that Buddhism is a skillful method of suppressing that evil. I also believe, as many Islamic fatalists (and the Hindu bhagwat gita) do, that what will be, will be - and that the results are not in our hands. Everything is predetermined, whether by God or by preceding causes in the long chain of cause and effect.
So there you have it - four religions.
BB
I kind of follow all these religions. I believe that all humans are evil, conceived in sin (Christianity), and that Buddhism is a skillful method of suppressing that evil. I also believe, as many Islamic fatalists (and the Hindu bhagwat gita) do, that what will be, will be - and that the results are not in our hands. Everything is predetermined, whether by God or by preceding causes in the long chain of cause and effect.
So there you have it - four religions.
BB
0
Comments
I think your mind needs sorting, personally....
If results are not in our hands, then we will always be evil.
It's either God, or the Cause and effect.
It can't be both.
Take your pick, plant your mast and be decisive.
Religion is not a pick 'n' mix of "I like this, but ain't so keen on that...."
Prevarication is the sign of an unsettled Mind with no grounding.
I speak from experience, you see.
never have I been so miserable or confused, as when I tried to accommodate all masters, and found myself an unworthy servant to all of them.
If you cannot follow one path decisively, then you will forever be caught in a whirling maelstrom of confusion.
"He who deliberates fully before taking each step will forever spend his life on one leg".
Hop to it, soldier.
@Fede, you may have been miserable and confused but some of us have found peace, light and love in the ground we share, at the deepest level. It is not prevarication to understand that all 'good news', dharmas, etc. are only shadows in a mirror, darkly glimpsed.
Good luck!
When it comes to an honest peace, beliefs are limited, tentative. This is not to say they are bad or naughty or stupid: Beliefs can instill a willingness to take action and that action can be very nourishing. But as spiritual practice gains ground, beliefs are transmuted into experience -- and experience trumps belief every time because experience is not limited.
The best thing anyone can do with belief is to really dig in -- really study and then put that study into an actual-factual practice. In this way, an honest peace can take shape and we can all go about our business.
Best wishes.
It's commendable.
but not possible.....
So every religion has something to offer - something which other religions have missed. So let's learn from them all.
That's the point we're making.....
Let us know how you get on if you decide to follow this method.
OR, maybe I was just injecting a little humor.
I think that when one looks past language, culture and metaphor one can find a great deal of commonality in the worlds religions. Certainly it is not difficult to find many parallels in Hinduism and Buddhism.
I've said it before, I think in many ways religion is like music...each culture and epoch has it's own that speaks to it, but it all serves the same purpose.
That said, it seems like (at least in a couple posts in this thread) the OP is reducing the teachings of each religion into a phrase or two and therefore obviously missing out on the vast vast majority of what each religion teaches.
It might seem self serving, but I think you (the OP) should maybe look into the teachings of Jodo Shinshu. Start by reading the Tannisho
http://www.shinranworks.com/relatedworks/tannisho1.htm
I think this form of Buddhism might speak to you.
chocolate, vanilla, strawberry...
Yeah they are all awesome, and you can't really say that any of them doesn't have a special kind of "tastiness" to it. But at one point most of us tend to realize that chocolate is actually better then the other ones, regardless of all of them tasting pretty great.
That doesn't mean pianos are good and violins are bad, and it doesn't mean you can't learn some things from violinists. But concentration, dedication and hard work is what will distinguish the musician, not dividing his or her discipline by switching instruments. You can't play the piano like a violin. You can't play the violin like a clarinet. You can't play the clarinet like a snare drum.
Certainly there are certain common ideas in many religions, but there are also differences. The common ideas may even be helpful for a specific discipline. But by ignoring the differences you do a disservice to all these religions in understanding them.
As with those here who study and practise Buddhism, sincerely and with commitment, we 'pluralists' do too, if we are at all serious. Of course, there are the dilettantes, as there are within religions, political parties, science, etc., the people who see it as an easy option. After all, many have come to Buddhism as an easy way to happiness, misled often by the sort of semi-magical titles that even the soberest teachers use for their books, e.g TNH's subtitles. They soon learn that this is not an easy path and some wander off or trim their practice until there is nothing left. Precisely the same thing happens in Christianity, as witnessed on these boards time and again: some among us have tried Christianity or grown up with it and now find it wanting. What I have tried to avoid, as far as possible, is losing whatever is valuable in the various traditions and teachings. None of them, I have to admit, be they a Christ, a Buddha, a Prophet, a Republican, a Democrat, a capitalist, a communist, a Freudian, a Jungian or whatever, has seemed entirely satisfactory.
Time and again, I have gone to the best teachers I could find, studied under them and persevered, and gained some 'qualifications' or recognition. As Omar Khayyam put it (yes, old friends here, it's that quotation again!)
" Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same Door as in I went."
For years, I worried that this was unskillful arrogance and resistance - as many of those same teachers were swift to point out when I questioned their certainties and presuppositions. More recently, I have seen it as something else: by accepting that I 'walk in a cloud of unknowing' is what I do and that, in that very acceptance is the peace that goes beyond what I imagined.
From there, I can stand in awe and deep reverence in a cathedral or a mosque or a henge or simply in a garden. To finish this long ramble with an analogy, however limited, consider the garden. I have some trees, many flowers, a couple of ponds, grasses, shrubs. If I only grew one sort of plant, it would not be gardening, it would be horticulture. I am very grateful to those who do specialise deeply and bring new cultivars to market. I don't want to be one of them, I want to go on having a pleasure, not a market, garden.
It does strike me that I have rarely come across, say, a flautist who might want to exterminate all tympanists. An orchestra is made up of many different instruments, a choir many voices, working together and co-operating. So unlike the home-life of so many of our dear old world religions. I do agree that we cannot simply stop on the ground we share. We have to dare to go into the places where we disagree and to walk into the Shadow places. Perhaps we have to accept our Christ-nature and harrow Hell. As Rilke warns us, angels which are refused in our hearts will return as demons.
But, Mindgate -- who said?
Say: He is Allah, He is One; The Self-Sufficient,
The Eternal God; He begets not,
nor was He begotten;
There is none equal to Him.
[The Holy Qur'an, Surah 112:1-4]
Jesus is not his son. Jesus is not Him. God is God and Jesus was just a human. To believe Jesus is God means you are NOT a Muslim. This belief is as much important to Muslims as the 4 Noble Truths is to Buddhists.
I could say I was 57 years old. I could say that I'm Australian. I could say that I follow Native American religions.
I could say all that and decide that I am those things - but the simple fact is, if I am not those things, then I am not those things!
If a Muslim says they are a Muslim without holding Muslim beliefs, then they aren't a Muslim! Simple as that. If the OP wants to say they are a Muslim, they can do that. But if they aren't a Muslim, then I'm allowed to tell them so.
... :banghead:
Now, having said all that, I believe the OP didn't express himself well at all. But I'm willing to be a little open-minded about his mindset.
Do either of you actually know any Muslims personally?
I have a soft spot for UUs (Unitarian Universalists) and for some years I was one and my first Zen meditation teacher was a UU minister. But Lordy how they could talk something to death! To be a UUer was to be a humanist, and beyond that, everyone was doing their own thing, and that thing was arguing mostly and getting involved in various causes. The lack of focus eventually caused me to concentrate on a Buddhist practice. The UUers were a fine bunch of people, but their motto "To question is the answer." is flawed. Eventually you have to find answers, and not every answer is equally valid.
But I digress. You may of course find much to admire in any religious teaching or practice. But, a religion isn't just a set of observations about life, humanity, or God for that matter. People who claim to be all things end up being nothing in particular. It's all about fear, really. People are afraid of losing their individuality and freedom. In order to transform your life and give it meaning, you have to overcome this fear at some point. At the heart of each religious practice is a sacrifice of some sort.
You may call yourself a Buddhist or whatever. But unless you take refuge in the Buddha, the Sangha, and the Dharma, and focus on this, you're not really taking advantage of this particular life transforming practice. I think it must be the same with the other religions.
My two cents worth.
To be a Muslim, you have to AT LEAST believe the basis for which the Muslim belief system is grounded in - and you can't do that if you believe Jesus is God too. I'm sorry. That's a fact. A VAST majority of Muslims would agree. Go to some Islam chatroom. You can ask. To officially convert to Islam is to say that you believe "there is one, single, God (not Jesus)" to an Imam.
You can label yourself whatever the Hell you want, but if you aren't what you say you are, then you're wrong. If you label a jar of applesauce as "strawberry jelly," then you're wrong! You can do that. Sure, go ahead, but its not true.
You can agree with some parts of the Qur'an, but unless you believe the BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR WHICH ISLAM WAS FOUNDED ON, then you are NOT a Muslim by definition.
It's not up to YOU to say about any individual what their belief system is.
It may be up to their church or mosque or synagogue or temple to say if they are formal members.
But it is not up to "Mindgate" to say or define anything about another religion or another person. You're not the gatekeeper. In the case of theistic religions, it's up to the individual and God. Not "Mindgate".
They could be some offshoot of Islam, but not an actual Muslim.
It has to do with:
1. intellectual freedom
2. making personal choices
3. a person of one religion telling a person of another religion that he or she is or isn't entitled to call himself or herself a member of a religion
Those are some of the points.
If tonight MindGate goes out and has a beer with the boys, do I get to tell him he's not a Buddhist? I don't think so.
This is not the same thing as pointing to certain areas of all these religions what they do hold in common but articulate differently (as Huxley did in The Perennial Philosophy, for example). It merely begs the question: WHY would someone feel the need to claim they are a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Christian and a Hindu?