Living the Life, Our small Buddhist Sangha had a 2 day retreat in the country near the edge of Austin this Easter weekend. It had been a little over 3 years since we had any retreat to sit, meditate, chant and reflect upon teachings from Anam Thubten, our Tibetan teacher.
I appreciate your sharing this, but would say that my own journey in Buddhism was ultimately unsatisfactory. There is no real answer, the best I could find was an existentialist view of life. But how are we to describe or define EVIL? Yea, life is suffering ... but WHY?
This fits well into something I will post soon. It has been so clear that there IS such a thing as evil, TRUE EVIL has been on display for 3.5+ years.
The benefit I found in the Buddhist beliefs was that of “being in the moment.” The ‘Muddy Road’ koan is something I have used with a number of patients over the years. You & I spent much time LOOKING TO THE FUTURE through all of our schooling, being brought back into the moment was something I had to learn. Even now I still drift into a world of “what if” too often.
I have had, and still have a question of how I should usefully, practically view, approach and deal with sadistic people who take pleasure in torturing other people to death.
I discussed this with several people at the retreat, and presented it to our Buddhist teacher for his consideration.
The people, such as Jesus of Nazareth, blessing and forgiving the people who were torturing him to death continuously for 2 days, who have come to some understanding of this, might be able to explain it to me.
Perhaps my teacher's teacher, who had lived so long in the re-education camp, could answer that for me. I really, really would like to find an answer which I could work with, which would be useful and constructive to our world. I can avoid "hating" from this distance, but neither inaction, nor killing sprees are "solutions", as history shows.
I will come out and clearly state that I recoil from the prospect of directly learning this answer myself, which may be "un-Buddhist", but it is also my real, human response.
It is TOUGH to be a human, John ;) And that is the entire underpinning of Biblical Christianity. Man is fallen, we constantly do bad things. We are by nature enemies of God. The question is HOW are we to rectify the situation?
The answer is WE CAN'T! Every man-made religion is about how man can get right with God, can approach God, BECOME God. The Scriptures reveal a different answer: we are utterly incapable of being reconciled to God, so God the Father and His Son (yeah, 3 persons = 1 God is impossible to fully grasp) in what has been termed 'The Covenant of Redemption' made before the creation itself, chose for the Son to take on human form, and pay for the price of His people. We all intuitively understand the need for evil to be punished, we cheer when (choose your favorite action hero!) kicks the bad guys' posteriors! We WANT a just world, we complain "it's not fair!"
But justice demands that rebellion from the God who created us MUST be punished. Every single one of us stands guilty before God. What is offered is a trade: Christ took my sins upon Himself on the cross, and imputed His righteousness to me. So God can look at me & see the righteousness of the Son. In this Covenant relationship with God, we do have obligations, not to earn anything, but 'positional' if you will. Just as a child in your family has certain rights & obligations in virtue as being a member of your family, thus it is with the people of God.
I'll add one other tidbit, and intend to elaborate all of this in future posts as I attempt to weave medicine, philosophy, faith, politics, and economics (did I miss anything?) together: during the Reformation there was an effort to remove all of the man-made, non-Scriptural elements from worship. The songbook of God is found in the OT - Psalms. For roughly the first 200 years after the Reformation almost ALL that was sung in protestant churches were Psalms (put in a metrical form to be more easily sung). There have been many that came later that said the Psalms are 'sub-Christian' because there are themes of vengeance & retribution. But these ARE the Word of God! And He will ultimately bring true justice upon evil. Punishment is a very real concept. This helps me when I think about all those who keep "getting away with ..." as I remind myself: they are just getting away with it in this temporal realm. There are many whom God has given over to their evil, they SEEM to be past any possibility of redemption. But God is astonishing ... shoot, he choose a sinful, rebellious idiot like me! None-the-less I do not doubt that the true purveyors of evil who remain unrepentant will experience far greater retribution than I could even imagine.
Each of us seeks understanding and communion with the Divine, yet each of us is bioogically unique (within boundaries) and has had specific human relationships and life experiences at specific times. Jesus taught that God is Love, and embodied the "Father" for man to comprehend.
Much of what he did teach, and all of the Christian traditions of understanding and worship, which were not deemed "orthodox" by the Roman Church, were systematically destroyed. There were few to write his words, and he may have preferred them not to be written. Some think he preferred a living communication to one written down.
At any rate, we have different models of personal relation to the Divine, which does not make either path better, but just the path of the individual.
I was raised in a "fundamentalist" Christian tradition, but could not accept eternal-hell for those who never heard the gospel as being consistent with God being Love.
As I have written elsewhere, Buddhism presented to me as a living path of truth, not at odds with the techings of Jesus, in my comprehension, a path that helps me work on my own misunderstandings and negative habits.
I felt guided by Jesus to Buddhism after years of seeking for his lost teachings.
This just explains my personal path, and is not advice for anybody.
Wonderful experiences, John thank you. I share some of your peace and serenity found in a quiet place when I too go on retreat to recharge my spiritual batteries drained by the ceaseless secularism of our modern world.
My choice, as a Christian Deist, is a Friary deep in the rural Dorset countryside where a nature farm is tended by some 25 friars and welcome guests. We work in return for our keep and it is a joy to know that there remain places of supreme peace in manic Britain today: https://www.hilfieldfriary.org.uk/abouthilfield/
Christian Deist is self-contradictory! Christ was the ultimate INTRUSION of God into His creation, the Son becoming incarnate to redeem His people. I truly don’t know what you mean, but your use of Christ in your name for your belief system is illegitimate IF you see God as not acting on this world (= deism). Feel free to elaborate, I am genuinely puzzled.
I have long had trouble with the presentation that "God gave his only begotten son...", which assumes a separation, likened to the sacrifice of first children to Moloch in pre-Christian times.
To my analysis God experience(d/s) all the suffering of human life, all aspects of human life, without turning away, becoming fully-human for the entire duration of the incarnation as Jesus (and I think experiences my thoughts, feelings, successes and mistakes, also).
"God" as I personally comprehend, could not separate from complete union.
I acknowledge that such full realization is elusive to any human, but separatism of consciousness is the opposite of the teachings of divine unity.
But the Scriptures are quite clear of different Persons in the Godhead. Jesus was put to death primarily because he DID declare Himself equal to the Father (as God), and said He would send 'another paraclete (comforter, advocate, counsel, etc)'. We see in the early church councils efforts to clarify both issues of the Trinity & the Incarnation. Jesus has TWO natures: one Divine, one human.
The issue of Moloch was that of MAN deciding to sacrifice children to appease the wrath of God. God NEVER commanded this! Abraham took Isaac up to Mt Moriah to offer him as God commanded, yet he knew that "we" would come back down from the mountain. At the last moment God provided a substitute ... as He has provided a substitute for us IF we are willing to accept it.
The problem is we want to do it ourselves. We want to run the show, come up with our own rules.
You infer intention where there are other options. "Why" was Jesus crucified?
There are lots of interpretations, most of which arose and were refined much after the events of his death.
It is likely, in the actual timing, that he was crucified for driving the money changers out of the temple with a whip, which he did about a week before his crucifixion, though that is not immediately apparent from reading the Gospels as ordered in the Bible.
Crucifixion was not for eccentric rabbis. It was a Roman punishment for one crime alon, not theft, nor murder, but "threatening the system", "troublemaker".
There is another early interpretation that Jesus had one, unified nature, and that Jesus/God-the-Son completely experienced all of the suffering, which the 2-natures explanation distances from.
So, keep in mind that no written doctrine can be fully rellied upon as "truth", but all of them are products of long political process, between human factions of power and belief.
Here is an example of something thought destroyed, but discovered buried in a large pot almost 2000 years later. There were other Gnostic scriptures in the pot. This is a teaching of St. Valentine, the Tripartite Tractate: http://gnosis.org/naghamm/tripart.htm
I understand your confusion, Old Doc, it does appear to be an oxymoron. Simply put, I believe in a 'Creator' by virtue of what I see around me - man cannot create what I witness every day - eg nature - thus there must be something greater than me, and that is what some call God. This convinced me: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gods-Undertaker-Has-Science-Buried/dp/0745953719
I see the Bible (NT) as a record of a man, yes not a God, who had remarkable insights into the depths of humanity and illustrated his truth with a philosophy to which I am able to adhere. Thus i have my moral code for living this life - to follow his guidance as best I can without fear (that's important).
So summary - a Creator (with no frills) and a moral code (with no questions). can you defeat the works of Christ? I would be most grateful to hear such an argument because my journey of discovery is not complete until I respond to the call of what some refer to as death. (I am 78 so quite near this natural transmogrification!)
IF you believe that the Scriptures are the work of man, I would ignore them completely, you & I have both lived long enough to know MAN! However, if you were to allow the idea that this IS the Word of God, it changes everything.
I would suggest a reading of Francis Schaeffer, The God Who is There, and He is There and He is Not Silent. These books were written in the middle of the last century, and are remarkable as he forsees a lot of the terrible direction that man is headed. But the notion of 'God has spoken' through His Word must be considered.
IF this God exists, is it not reasonable that He would communicate with His creatures? Is it not reasonable that He would preserve written copies throughout the ages? We have more reliable ancient manuscripts from the Bible than any other book of antiquity. What the Bible tells us is that we are all sinners (rebels from God, disobedient every day) and deserve punishment. God made a way for us to be reconciled to Him, by sending His Son who took on a fully human nature, who LIVED the life I am incapable of living, and DIED the death I deserve. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane was sweating blood as He prayed to NOT have to go to the cross, but he concluded "not my will, but your will be done."
This is a gift beyond measure. And on the third day, God raised Christ from the grave, and so we gather EVERY Lord's Day (not simply 'Easter' which was a co-opted pagan holiday) to celebrate His Resurrection!
NOBODY can perfectly keep the moral law that God has put forth. And only a perfect score of 100% is good enough. Only one man ever achieved that score. We can accept His 'report card' by faith as well as accepting His payment for my sin by faith. True faith will be revealed in a gradually transformed (but still imperfect life" and a changed outlook & set of priorities. I DELIGHT to attend worship each Lord's Day, and am troubled when people see it as a chore.
I seek and find communion with and guidance by the Divine, "God", which is a living relationship. It can be informed by written words, but written words also misdirect. Misdirection of people into slavery by words, written and spoken, is a path to power over other huumans.
I think "no man is justified by the law", but that the Hebrew law is supplanted by "the law of Love", to which humans can be true and faithful.
Communing together in worship of the divine is a different communion with the Divine, than that of private prayer/communion. Both contribute to progress on one's path.
I really prefer being with the Sangha to Zoom meetings. The commonality of our practice is a joy and a fulfillment of itself.
I think this is about the same in any real group that practices spirituality together. I have experienced it in a small Christian congregation, Buddhist Sanghas, and Native American Church.
I have spent time in a Reservation in Texas and found something alien to our way of life which was something of an epiphany for me. I understand where you are, I think i do anyway. It is good to be here.
Thank you Doc this is an excellent summation of the elements of Christianity. I have spent my life searching and experiencing many of the wonders of the creation I see around me. I have no doubt that there is indeed a Creator and it is likely that he is beyond our understanding; probably in an unknown dimension of which I am not privileged to know. But I have rejected the established church and all of its paraphernalia - a construction of man IMHO.
I am guided by Jesus and his message for me in this life. Where I go after this life is unknown to me and I choose not speculate, I just accept my mission as I understand it which is to preach the truth of the Word. Psalm 1 perhaps:
(1) Happy is the man who does not walk according to the advice of the wicked And does not stand on the path of sinners. And does not sit in the seat of scoffers.
(2) But his delight is in the law of YHWH. And he reads His law in an undertone* day and night.
(3) He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, A tree that produces fruit in its season, The foliage of which does not wither. And everything he does will succeed.
I can understand the goodness in all you describe and how it sounds attractive to people, particularly in current times. I also wonder though if we must be wary of falling in to a trap. There are those who say the ultimate goal is a one world religion as part of the new world order. There are Christians who suspect for instance, that The New Age Movement is the socio-religious counterpart of the NWO.
New Age Movement (Religious Power) + New World Order (Political Power) = Complete One-World System (Total Power). At this time, these two movements appear to be at odds with each other. However, they must eventually merge together to create a complete one-world system.
Many of the New-Agers are rallying with an effort to “stop” the New World Order. This oppositional dynamic of thesis -vs- antithesis will eventually come to a head – whereby a compromise, or synthesis is achieved, which will likely come after much mayhem.
“Better to be divided by truth than united in error”.
I suspect that people's personality types being so different, and individual insight of reality being so unique, make it impossible to create a one-size-fits-all religious hierarchy different from what we have already seen in the world. Big, forced hierarchies of groupthink and compliance have been seen from Roman Catholicism in the Spanish Inquisition, to the "atheist" religious movements of the Bolshevik Revolution and Cultural Revolution.
The clarity of engaging all of the reality of life, including the harsh and ugly facts, makes a completely-human person harder to dupe, since he/she is not clinging to some hope or denying some reality. What's the bait for somebody like that?
Because we are fallen creatures. We are all sinners before the face of God. We humbly repent, focus on Him, and accept the incredible gift He offers. The human experience you describe has not existed SINCE the Fall. That seems to be dismissed as 'myth' by most. But its funny: I was a card-carrying atheist when I came to understand the doctrine of 'total depravity' without ever hearing of it or setting foot in a church. I saw the brokenness of man, including myself.
"The Fall" is one doctrine, but not the only doctrine which might be a useful guide to a seeker of spiritual truth.
I was raised with the teachings you are now professing here, and read the whole Bble efore I was 15, and sincerely sought the right gathering of worshippers and the lost/destroyed teachings of Jesus for decades, before being redirected into a group of Buddhist practitioners in 2001.
"Seek and ye shall find. Ask and it shall be given unto you."
I don't feel that the Divine focuses on outward appearances and rituals, but on inward sincerity and love for the truth and others.
Great post and reminders. Viktor Frankl is one of the many wise people I have looked to over these past three years. Much Buddhism also. As a Scorpio I am not too easy going about all this as your Aries. The balance however is great. Thank you and Happy Spring!
I'm glad that you got to spend 2 days at your Sangha after 3 long years. John, thank you for everything that you wrote and shared. It was all interesting, generous, thoughtful and kind. I'm also thankful for all of the replies, with the many different points of view. I appreciate all of it. Good picture, I enjoy seeing your garden and your birthday t-shirt, like them both.
To be a fully human being is difficult if not impossible, a partly human being yes and if you should ever realise it’s potential fully you’re gone...gate, gate, para gate, para sam gate, bodhi svaha, leaving the translation free for everyone on his personal search. That’s why zen is more down to earth, sitting on the ragging bull, mastered or not you go back to the market. Love you John 🌹
being human together in the unpressured cooperative work. - A rather rare event methinks.
I appreciate your sharing this, but would say that my own journey in Buddhism was ultimately unsatisfactory. There is no real answer, the best I could find was an existentialist view of life. But how are we to describe or define EVIL? Yea, life is suffering ... but WHY?
This fits well into something I will post soon. It has been so clear that there IS such a thing as evil, TRUE EVIL has been on display for 3.5+ years.
The benefit I found in the Buddhist beliefs was that of “being in the moment.” The ‘Muddy Road’ koan is something I have used with a number of patients over the years. You & I spent much time LOOKING TO THE FUTURE through all of our schooling, being brought back into the moment was something I had to learn. Even now I still drift into a world of “what if” too often.
I have had, and still have a question of how I should usefully, practically view, approach and deal with sadistic people who take pleasure in torturing other people to death.
I discussed this with several people at the retreat, and presented it to our Buddhist teacher for his consideration.
The people, such as Jesus of Nazareth, blessing and forgiving the people who were torturing him to death continuously for 2 days, who have come to some understanding of this, might be able to explain it to me.
Perhaps my teacher's teacher, who had lived so long in the re-education camp, could answer that for me. I really, really would like to find an answer which I could work with, which would be useful and constructive to our world. I can avoid "hating" from this distance, but neither inaction, nor killing sprees are "solutions", as history shows.
I will come out and clearly state that I recoil from the prospect of directly learning this answer myself, which may be "un-Buddhist", but it is also my real, human response.
It is TOUGH to be a human, John ;) And that is the entire underpinning of Biblical Christianity. Man is fallen, we constantly do bad things. We are by nature enemies of God. The question is HOW are we to rectify the situation?
The answer is WE CAN'T! Every man-made religion is about how man can get right with God, can approach God, BECOME God. The Scriptures reveal a different answer: we are utterly incapable of being reconciled to God, so God the Father and His Son (yeah, 3 persons = 1 God is impossible to fully grasp) in what has been termed 'The Covenant of Redemption' made before the creation itself, chose for the Son to take on human form, and pay for the price of His people. We all intuitively understand the need for evil to be punished, we cheer when (choose your favorite action hero!) kicks the bad guys' posteriors! We WANT a just world, we complain "it's not fair!"
But justice demands that rebellion from the God who created us MUST be punished. Every single one of us stands guilty before God. What is offered is a trade: Christ took my sins upon Himself on the cross, and imputed His righteousness to me. So God can look at me & see the righteousness of the Son. In this Covenant relationship with God, we do have obligations, not to earn anything, but 'positional' if you will. Just as a child in your family has certain rights & obligations in virtue as being a member of your family, thus it is with the people of God.
I'll add one other tidbit, and intend to elaborate all of this in future posts as I attempt to weave medicine, philosophy, faith, politics, and economics (did I miss anything?) together: during the Reformation there was an effort to remove all of the man-made, non-Scriptural elements from worship. The songbook of God is found in the OT - Psalms. For roughly the first 200 years after the Reformation almost ALL that was sung in protestant churches were Psalms (put in a metrical form to be more easily sung). There have been many that came later that said the Psalms are 'sub-Christian' because there are themes of vengeance & retribution. But these ARE the Word of God! And He will ultimately bring true justice upon evil. Punishment is a very real concept. This helps me when I think about all those who keep "getting away with ..." as I remind myself: they are just getting away with it in this temporal realm. There are many whom God has given over to their evil, they SEEM to be past any possibility of redemption. But God is astonishing ... shoot, he choose a sinful, rebellious idiot like me! None-the-less I do not doubt that the true purveyors of evil who remain unrepentant will experience far greater retribution than I could even imagine.
Each of us seeks understanding and communion with the Divine, yet each of us is bioogically unique (within boundaries) and has had specific human relationships and life experiences at specific times. Jesus taught that God is Love, and embodied the "Father" for man to comprehend.
Much of what he did teach, and all of the Christian traditions of understanding and worship, which were not deemed "orthodox" by the Roman Church, were systematically destroyed. There were few to write his words, and he may have preferred them not to be written. Some think he preferred a living communication to one written down.
At any rate, we have different models of personal relation to the Divine, which does not make either path better, but just the path of the individual.
I was raised in a "fundamentalist" Christian tradition, but could not accept eternal-hell for those who never heard the gospel as being consistent with God being Love.
As I have written elsewhere, Buddhism presented to me as a living path of truth, not at odds with the techings of Jesus, in my comprehension, a path that helps me work on my own misunderstandings and negative habits.
I felt guided by Jesus to Buddhism after years of seeking for his lost teachings.
This just explains my personal path, and is not advice for anybody.
Wonderful experiences, John thank you. I share some of your peace and serenity found in a quiet place when I too go on retreat to recharge my spiritual batteries drained by the ceaseless secularism of our modern world.
My choice, as a Christian Deist, is a Friary deep in the rural Dorset countryside where a nature farm is tended by some 25 friars and welcome guests. We work in return for our keep and it is a joy to know that there remain places of supreme peace in manic Britain today: https://www.hilfieldfriary.org.uk/abouthilfield/
Blessings
AP
Christian Deist is self-contradictory! Christ was the ultimate INTRUSION of God into His creation, the Son becoming incarnate to redeem His people. I truly don’t know what you mean, but your use of Christ in your name for your belief system is illegitimate IF you see God as not acting on this world (= deism). Feel free to elaborate, I am genuinely puzzled.
I have long had trouble with the presentation that "God gave his only begotten son...", which assumes a separation, likened to the sacrifice of first children to Moloch in pre-Christian times.
To my analysis God experience(d/s) all the suffering of human life, all aspects of human life, without turning away, becoming fully-human for the entire duration of the incarnation as Jesus (and I think experiences my thoughts, feelings, successes and mistakes, also).
"God" as I personally comprehend, could not separate from complete union.
I acknowledge that such full realization is elusive to any human, but separatism of consciousness is the opposite of the teachings of divine unity.
But the Scriptures are quite clear of different Persons in the Godhead. Jesus was put to death primarily because he DID declare Himself equal to the Father (as God), and said He would send 'another paraclete (comforter, advocate, counsel, etc)'. We see in the early church councils efforts to clarify both issues of the Trinity & the Incarnation. Jesus has TWO natures: one Divine, one human.
The issue of Moloch was that of MAN deciding to sacrifice children to appease the wrath of God. God NEVER commanded this! Abraham took Isaac up to Mt Moriah to offer him as God commanded, yet he knew that "we" would come back down from the mountain. At the last moment God provided a substitute ... as He has provided a substitute for us IF we are willing to accept it.
The problem is we want to do it ourselves. We want to run the show, come up with our own rules.
You infer intention where there are other options. "Why" was Jesus crucified?
There are lots of interpretations, most of which arose and were refined much after the events of his death.
It is likely, in the actual timing, that he was crucified for driving the money changers out of the temple with a whip, which he did about a week before his crucifixion, though that is not immediately apparent from reading the Gospels as ordered in the Bible.
Crucifixion was not for eccentric rabbis. It was a Roman punishment for one crime alon, not theft, nor murder, but "threatening the system", "troublemaker".
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/12/michael-hudson-died-debt-not-sins.html
There is another early interpretation that Jesus had one, unified nature, and that Jesus/God-the-Son completely experienced all of the suffering, which the 2-natures explanation distances from.
So, keep in mind that no written doctrine can be fully rellied upon as "truth", but all of them are products of long political process, between human factions of power and belief.
Here is an example of something thought destroyed, but discovered buried in a large pot almost 2000 years later. There were other Gnostic scriptures in the pot. This is a teaching of St. Valentine, the Tripartite Tractate: http://gnosis.org/naghamm/tripart.htm
I understand your confusion, Old Doc, it does appear to be an oxymoron. Simply put, I believe in a 'Creator' by virtue of what I see around me - man cannot create what I witness every day - eg nature - thus there must be something greater than me, and that is what some call God. This convinced me: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gods-Undertaker-Has-Science-Buried/dp/0745953719
I see the Bible (NT) as a record of a man, yes not a God, who had remarkable insights into the depths of humanity and illustrated his truth with a philosophy to which I am able to adhere. Thus i have my moral code for living this life - to follow his guidance as best I can without fear (that's important).
So summary - a Creator (with no frills) and a moral code (with no questions). can you defeat the works of Christ? I would be most grateful to hear such an argument because my journey of discovery is not complete until I respond to the call of what some refer to as death. (I am 78 so quite near this natural transmogrification!)
Your call! :-)
Blessings
AP
IF you believe that the Scriptures are the work of man, I would ignore them completely, you & I have both lived long enough to know MAN! However, if you were to allow the idea that this IS the Word of God, it changes everything.
I would suggest a reading of Francis Schaeffer, The God Who is There, and He is There and He is Not Silent. These books were written in the middle of the last century, and are remarkable as he forsees a lot of the terrible direction that man is headed. But the notion of 'God has spoken' through His Word must be considered.
IF this God exists, is it not reasonable that He would communicate with His creatures? Is it not reasonable that He would preserve written copies throughout the ages? We have more reliable ancient manuscripts from the Bible than any other book of antiquity. What the Bible tells us is that we are all sinners (rebels from God, disobedient every day) and deserve punishment. God made a way for us to be reconciled to Him, by sending His Son who took on a fully human nature, who LIVED the life I am incapable of living, and DIED the death I deserve. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane was sweating blood as He prayed to NOT have to go to the cross, but he concluded "not my will, but your will be done."
This is a gift beyond measure. And on the third day, God raised Christ from the grave, and so we gather EVERY Lord's Day (not simply 'Easter' which was a co-opted pagan holiday) to celebrate His Resurrection!
NOBODY can perfectly keep the moral law that God has put forth. And only a perfect score of 100% is good enough. Only one man ever achieved that score. We can accept His 'report card' by faith as well as accepting His payment for my sin by faith. True faith will be revealed in a gradually transformed (but still imperfect life" and a changed outlook & set of priorities. I DELIGHT to attend worship each Lord's Day, and am troubled when people see it as a chore.
I seek and find communion with and guidance by the Divine, "God", which is a living relationship. It can be informed by written words, but written words also misdirect. Misdirection of people into slavery by words, written and spoken, is a path to power over other huumans.
I think "no man is justified by the law", but that the Hebrew law is supplanted by "the law of Love", to which humans can be true and faithful.
Communing together in worship of the divine is a different communion with the Divine, than that of private prayer/communion. Both contribute to progress on one's path.
I really prefer being with the Sangha to Zoom meetings. The commonality of our practice is a joy and a fulfillment of itself.
I think this is about the same in any real group that practices spirituality together. I have experienced it in a small Christian congregation, Buddhist Sanghas, and Native American Church.
I have spent time in a Reservation in Texas and found something alien to our way of life which was something of an epiphany for me. I understand where you are, I think i do anyway. It is good to be here.
Thank you Doc this is an excellent summation of the elements of Christianity. I have spent my life searching and experiencing many of the wonders of the creation I see around me. I have no doubt that there is indeed a Creator and it is likely that he is beyond our understanding; probably in an unknown dimension of which I am not privileged to know. But I have rejected the established church and all of its paraphernalia - a construction of man IMHO.
I am guided by Jesus and his message for me in this life. Where I go after this life is unknown to me and I choose not speculate, I just accept my mission as I understand it which is to preach the truth of the Word. Psalm 1 perhaps:
(1) Happy is the man who does not walk according to the advice of the wicked And does not stand on the path of sinners. And does not sit in the seat of scoffers.
(2) But his delight is in the law of YHWH. And he reads His law in an undertone* day and night.
(3) He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, A tree that produces fruit in its season, The foliage of which does not wither. And everything he does will succeed.
The mythological monster from bikini atoll
Atomic mobsters with movie rights
The inoculation of the sentence
A national repentance
A myth between what’s new and old
Atomic fairies; tales were told
How near to night, this light they sold
For what’s above’s not true below
Godzilla, that rustler’s brand
That hustlers scam
Godzilla, did he face the blast?
Or did he help make sense of something past?
Thank you for the spontaneous poetic expression!
I can understand the goodness in all you describe and how it sounds attractive to people, particularly in current times. I also wonder though if we must be wary of falling in to a trap. There are those who say the ultimate goal is a one world religion as part of the new world order. There are Christians who suspect for instance, that The New Age Movement is the socio-religious counterpart of the NWO.
New Age Movement (Religious Power) + New World Order (Political Power) = Complete One-World System (Total Power). At this time, these two movements appear to be at odds with each other. However, they must eventually merge together to create a complete one-world system.
Many of the New-Agers are rallying with an effort to “stop” the New World Order. This oppositional dynamic of thesis -vs- antithesis will eventually come to a head – whereby a compromise, or synthesis is achieved, which will likely come after much mayhem.
“Better to be divided by truth than united in error”.
I suspect that people's personality types being so different, and individual insight of reality being so unique, make it impossible to create a one-size-fits-all religious hierarchy different from what we have already seen in the world. Big, forced hierarchies of groupthink and compliance have been seen from Roman Catholicism in the Spanish Inquisition, to the "atheist" religious movements of the Bolshevik Revolution and Cultural Revolution.
The clarity of engaging all of the reality of life, including the harsh and ugly facts, makes a completely-human person harder to dupe, since he/she is not clinging to some hope or denying some reality. What's the bait for somebody like that?
"Becoming fully human is not to transcend human experience, but to fully engage it" ️🎯
So simple and beautiful. Why do we find it so hard to do this?
Because we are fallen creatures. We are all sinners before the face of God. We humbly repent, focus on Him, and accept the incredible gift He offers. The human experience you describe has not existed SINCE the Fall. That seems to be dismissed as 'myth' by most. But its funny: I was a card-carrying atheist when I came to understand the doctrine of 'total depravity' without ever hearing of it or setting foot in a church. I saw the brokenness of man, including myself.
The question is: WHAT do we do about it?
"The Fall" is one doctrine, but not the only doctrine which might be a useful guide to a seeker of spiritual truth.
I was raised with the teachings you are now professing here, and read the whole Bble efore I was 15, and sincerely sought the right gathering of worshippers and the lost/destroyed teachings of Jesus for decades, before being redirected into a group of Buddhist practitioners in 2001.
"Seek and ye shall find. Ask and it shall be given unto you."
I don't feel that the Divine focuses on outward appearances and rituals, but on inward sincerity and love for the truth and others.
Great post and reminders. Viktor Frankl is one of the many wise people I have looked to over these past three years. Much Buddhism also. As a Scorpio I am not too easy going about all this as your Aries. The balance however is great. Thank you and Happy Spring!
Beautiful share. Thank you. 🙏
So you are an Aries too? This is a lovely post
Just right
Yes, Aries, April, 1958.
Firesign Theater fan, too.
:-)
Don't crush that dwarf!
"Hand me the pliers"
:-)
What a wonderful time to spend with yourself and others. Refreshing in these times for sure!
I'm glad that you got to spend 2 days at your Sangha after 3 long years. John, thank you for everything that you wrote and shared. It was all interesting, generous, thoughtful and kind. I'm also thankful for all of the replies, with the many different points of view. I appreciate all of it. Good picture, I enjoy seeing your garden and your birthday t-shirt, like them both.
Thank You, Kathy!
:-)
Thank you, John, for the reminder of one of the many Ways to the Top of the Mountain.
All of them being what it is to be alive and caring for our world.
To be a fully human being is difficult if not impossible, a partly human being yes and if you should ever realise it’s potential fully you’re gone...gate, gate, para gate, para sam gate, bodhi svaha, leaving the translation free for everyone on his personal search. That’s why zen is more down to earth, sitting on the ragging bull, mastered or not you go back to the market. Love you John 🌹
So I do the work and see what I notice along that path.
Yes a thousand or more yes🙏