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Originally Posted by Eelco
Ok. I am unsure how to respond to this. My view of God may differ greatly from yours, or it may not. For now I'd say that our loving kindness is our own to cultivate and give. Maybe have Christ as an example for what's possible as a human being.
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Sorry, I missed this. Some forums give notifications when we are quoted.
As I see it God (Reality-as-is) wants the very best for us. Meister Eckhart, in his sermon on True Poverty, spoke of the ultimate poverty...Eckhart asks us to listen carefully! He states that God in fact does not seek a "place" within us to act, but rather in true poverty God performs his own active work within us. "If God wishes to act in the soul he must himself be the place in which he can act, and this he is certainly willing to be........ In this poverty, we attain again the eternal being which we once enjoyed, which is ours now and shall be for ever."
This is Grace. God is his own gift.
Thomas Merton quotes Eckhart when he says:- “In giving us His love God has given us the his spirit so that we can love Him with the love wherewith He loves Himself.” (Merton assures us that such is perfectly orthodox Christian teaching)
D.T.Suzuki saw Eckharts words as a theistic expression of "prajna intuition", the heart of zen.
Whatever is thought of all this (and it seems to frighten some Christians) it points to the way Buddhists seek to
become Buddhas, while many Christians seek only to
follow Jesus, who was Christ.