God in Buddhism

[Altair]

Originally Posted by sky123

It seems an ' Empty ' saying to you because it's obvious you don't understand what Buddha meant.

And you do?

[sentient]

Originally Posted by Altair

Despite people imagining a world without killing or possessions, it's simply not gonna happen. To have no capital makes one more dependent on the state and have less freedom, and to eat is to support killing. You can try and make a society without it for a while but it will lead to misery.

In another thread people said money is the root of evil. I would say the root of evil is the desire to create a paradise. Mass murder has been committed in the name of the ''Greater Good'', in the name of justice and equality. I am deeply suspicious of the nicest words, those that say they are the most spiritual, or have the best vision. When the human is convinced of his own goodness things can get ugly very fast, because he forgets that he is also flawed and fallible.

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It wouldn't be the end of earth, but the end of life on earth. If you were to achieve ''liberation'' (aka end of suffering) for all organisms then you can't have any functioning ecology. Life feeds on life.

''May all beings be liberated'' is an empty saying that has nice soundbites but doesn't work in reality. Some will chase it in the name of ideology. You get vegans that wish to exterminate carnivore species and even the human species. All for the ''greater good'', end of suffering, and ''to make a fairer world''..

I do not know, but maybe you would enjoy reading the “Wolf Totem” by Jiang Rong.

After I read it, I was totally zombied numb for 4 days, until I ‘accidently’ came to this song - which hit just the ‘right note’ for the dam to break and I bawled my eyes out for the next 4 days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgxKt2DtkJg

The “fraud hunters” say Two-Hawks is a fraud and not a real injun - maybe so, but just how deeply the Wolf Totem affected me and just how it found its release through that song left me surprised of myself. All this ‘stuff’ deep from the subconscious triggered and pouring out.

I had intuitively always known this totem to be mine, and it is interesting how the intuitive sense of things is so ‘full’ and how the DNA validation of it later on was so ‘empty’ ….. just empty data.

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Since I did spend the latter part of my childhood in a narcissist-househod, I am highly suspicious of the nicest words myself, the fake love, the fake morality, which in reality is a total contradiction only aimed at manipulation and control.

Narcissism and virtue signalling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ3MVR8YZ3M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqSanyGuqGA

In the past Churches did just that, - they were hell bent on the genocide of the nondual (all inclusive totality) natives in order to steal their lands and collect revenue for the King.

Ah, the irony of these ‘high moral’ dualistic priests educating the nondual natives about ‘spirituality’, calling the natives ‘devil worshippers’ condemned to hell, only to negate the native’s right to the land. After all GOD had commanded man to till the earth and make it fruitful, therefore the invaders had the perfect right, under Divine Authority to go fourth & people & till the land and to take it from the Natives, who obviously were far too primitive to understand the proper land use and hence could not be regarded as having any claim to the land whatsoever.

The Orthodox Church was different, they assimilated into the Native cultures and Native cultures into Orthodoxy - hence my loyalty and respect goes to them.

Orthodoxy and Environment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0ZexHFfYBM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyIo562fNX8

Orthodoxy and Natives:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMjC-S6tlCk

Fighting the "enemy" depleats one's energies - making the alternative great, shines the spirit.
After all –what counts is the impeccability of one’s own ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ – which finds "the treasure hidden in plain sight or a jewel in a rubbish heap".

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[sky]

Originally Posted by Altair

And you do?

When you experience it personally you can say that you know, as I have....

[Altair]

Originally Posted by sky123

When you experience it personally you can say that you know, as I have....

So how does that relate to what I was talking about?
Don't hide behind your mystical experience.

I've heard the Buddhist teachers say ''May all beings be liberated.''

However, that which achieves ''liberation'' is said to no longer 'collect' karma, hence it is in its last incarnation. Life feeds on life, which keeps everything going. If life feeds on life it means life continues to 'collect' karma. The karma argument effectively kills itself. If all organisms actually were to achieve ''liberation'' you would end up with a world devoid of life. This means the saying is not sensible and more a nice soundbite.

[sentient]

I trust it is in the Mahayana teachings for the bodhisattvas to seek enlightenment not only for the self, but for all sentient beings.

In Tantric Buddhism or in ‘Non-Duality’ or in Animism the perceived ‘Unified Field’ brings about an awareness or realization of the “Clear Light” - the Light (of the void) which sustains all life.

& in this way of seeing the world – where everything is Energy, everything has Spirit, everything also - right down to the cellular level emanates, thus bathes in this Light (or call it ‘luminosity’, ‘singing’ or ‘radiance’).
And one realizes – the whole world is an enlightened place or set up already.

The Lord of Life is the Lord of Death.
Impermanency exist because of permanency.
Life can only exist/manifest, because of Death.

Etc.

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[Altair]

Originally Posted by sentient

In Tantric Buddhism or in ‘Non-Duality’ or in Animism the perceived ‘Unified Field’ brings about an awareness or realization of the “Clear Light” - the Light (of the void) which sustains all life.

& in this way of seeing the world – where everything is Energy, everything has Spirit, everything also - right down to the cellular level emanates, thus bathes in this Light (or call it ‘luminosity’, ‘singing’ or ‘radiance’).
And one realizes – the whole world is an enlightened place or set up already.

If everything is already perfect than this seems to nullify the spiritual path as well as cycle of reincarnation. It makes it meaningless. With what you wrote there is also no more need for a difference between the spiritual 'level' of a human compared to say, a tree. It would all be 'realized' already at a level.

If you want ''all beings to be liberated'' you want all of them to be ''free of suffering''. As long as they have bodies, and have to eat, survive and die they cannot be free of suffering nor can there be an end to it.

I'll take a look at your links another time ((thanks for the time you take)). It's a lot of information for now.

[sentient]

Originally Posted by Altair

With what you wrote there is also no more need for a difference between the spiritual 'level' of a human compared to say, a tree.

I know – seeing the same ‘spirit source essence’ in both is such a bitc* if one wishes to feel ‘superior’.

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[Phaelyn]

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

I just completed an online course on Science-Religion-Philosophy and one of several scientific theories which supports intelligent design is the "Steady State Theory" which is consistent with Gaudapada's Karika (Commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad by the teacher of the teacher of Shankaracharya) which posits that there is just one Effulgent Being (with intelligence) and everything is a manifestation of that one intelligent Being. This is also consistent with non-duality beliefs. The quantum physicist David Bohm talks about the "unbroken wholeness" which provides a link (not universally accepted though) between relativity and quantum mechanics and his theory is also consistent with inherent intelligence.

As someone who is always trying to understand things, I could go on and on about theories. I think about the fact that matter behaves differently if an observer is present. Imagine what matter does if the supreme observer is present....is the source so developed in awareness and intelligence than it is making all matter and energy behave how it wills? Then remember in the book Journey Of Souls, what we do between lives is learn how to work with energies, how to create with energies. What are we really doing in this animal body? Seems to me learning to work with energies, that happen to be in a physical form here in this physical space. We put our attention on thoughts, and draw the energy of thought onto ourselves.

It's one thing for a scientist to say matter changes it's behavior when an observer is present.... but then so many questions come to mind. Can I, an observer, make that matter do what I want? Can I control it, affect it? Then some other little gems we know now, every particle of matter is in several places at the same time and distance seems to not be a factor at all.

It's pretty mind boggling to know scientifically that I could be affecting something light years away right now by picking this flower. And that flower is not the same thing it would be if I, an observer, was not observing it.

I have no doubt we are being trained in working with energy and matter, for what end and for who or what I'm not sure. My guess is as we grow in awareness, so does the source, like adding memory chips to a computer, the more chips, the faster that computer can do things and the more it can do. The more we, these little atoms of consciousness, become aware, the more aware the source becomes, so God itself is evolving to know more, understand more, be aware of more and it's awareness is already billions of times greater than ours, so what new thing did the source become aware of today! We are up to 8 billion little atoms of consciousness here powering the supreme battery.

[sky]

Originally Posted by Altair

So how does that relate to what I was talking about?
Don't hide behind your mystical experience.

I've heard the Buddhist teachers say ''May all beings be liberated.''

However, that which achieves ''liberation'' is said to no longer 'collect' karma, hence it is in its last incarnation. Life feeds on life, which keeps everything going. If life feeds on life it means life continues to 'collect' karma. The karma argument effectively kills itself. If all organisms actually were to achieve ''liberation'' you would end up with a world devoid of life. This means the saying is not sensible and more a nice soundbite.

'So how does that relate to what I was talking about?
Don't hide behind your mystical experience.'


It relates because you asked me a question hence the answer.
There is nothing ' Mystical ' about understanding what The Buddha meant. You can experience His Teachings in your everyday life...

[sky]

Originally Posted by sentient

I know – seeing the same ‘spirit source essence’ in both is such a bitc* if one wishes to feel ‘superior’.

*

A Tree has no sense of superiority nor inferiority it just gives. How Spiritual is that

The Noble Tree gives yet asks for nothing in return.