No God

[winter light]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

With trepidation, this Hindu walks into the Buddhist forum, where the topic up for discussion is the (non) existence of God.

There are a few points of interest, in that according to the Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, tribal deities still exist and are still worshiped as "Gods" in that "God" represents any supernatural or supernal being (Deva) possessing mystical powers and attributes ascribed to the notion of a "Transcendent Divinity".

I have trepidation every time I walk here also. For slightly different reasons. I have the same issue you have about being a Hindu out of your element and never finding a place where you belong. Except in my case it is more being aligned with Buddhism on the inner more than the outer. By all outer measures I have zero standing as a Buddhist. I am hardly able to meditate and I feel very disconnected from the culture as I was raised Christian. Yet I have experiences that are clearly mirror those cultures as if I was a part of it. I can only conclude that I am a part of it and try to dismiss the seeming reality I am stuck in.

....but yes, we are speaking about notions, concepts, ideas, perceptions whichever way it goes; "God" or "No God"...."Self" or "No Self" for if God does not exist, then neither does Buddha...I see many people worship Buddha AS God...waving incense, offering prostration....venerating the noble one, but what have they done? They have just replaced one concept "God" with another "Buddha".

It is not so much they replaced it but they have expanded it. They are not exclusive. The Hindu and Buddhist worlds are still part of one another.

That is why the saying exists; "If you see Buddha on the road, kill him"...
"If you see God on the road, kill him.."

...and maybe you will find that it isn't as easy to kill a Buddha or a God as one may think...maybe you will succeed and then God will come back to life..."missed me"!

Nice double meaning here.... I did not miss that.

Whatever we like to think is just the ego...the ego says there is a God...the ego says there is no God...that is why Buddha would say "there is a God" or "there is no God" depending on who was asking the question of "Does God exist?" Buddha would only say whatever that person wanted to hear because in the end and at a personal level, what an individual believes is all that matters to them.

I do not think the Buddha was telling people "what they want to hear" but rather trying to tread carefully and speak to them in a language they understand. It was sincere.

Like you said to me once, Gem...you quoted "The Boxer" from Simon and Garfunkel "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest".

So, if a man believes in God, he will only hear those who say that God exists..if a man does not believe in God, he will only hear those who will say that God does not exist.

People will tend to rise to the expectations we give to them if given a chance. It requires a tremendous amount of patience to do this though. And a lot of breathing though the issues before responding. At least that is what I try to do in hopes that it will happen. Namaste.