05.16.11
Repost, and update: common ground
Repost from yesterday below
This post might seem too much for many, so I should invite Xtians to critique Buddhism. But that would be beyond them.
The issue of common ground is important and it exists most assuredly behind Buddhism and Xtianity: look at the way the Mahayana and Xtianity came into existence in synchronous fashion. The idea of the savior in Buddhism (cf. the Louts Sutra) suddenly appears in the Israelite context and spawns a new religion. So we should be wary of destructive comparisons. Nonetheless, by any perspective the depth of Buddhism was lost to Occidental religion.
———————–Common ground
I was asked to repost this here at Darwiniana, after initial appearance at The Gurdjieff Con.
http://www.gurdjieff-con.net/2011/05/14/common-ground
The last three months (here at The Gurdjieff Con) have shown little activity here by me, but the statistics have barely declined, about twenty percent down. So the archives are still thriving.
But a new set of projects might be due.
Plenty of junk at
Huffpost religion page
Those who seek common ground between Buddhism and Xtian beliefs in god are the menace of the future that will destroy Buddhism (for the fifth time) and turn it into semi-sufistic puke-equivalents.
And the Dalai Lama has started to peddle this theme.
The stance of the great tradition from which Buddhism springs was not monotheist, remained agnostic about god, but was aware, and wary, of the dangerous reality of polytheistic deep realities that could easily enslave man. The ‘path’, which in Hinduism is visibly braided with polytheistic issues, anciently was not invovled in god worship.
Now you might argue that the common ground here lies in the sense of early monotheists that appeal to a higher power beyond the realm of polytheism, gods, was a mainline connection with that Indic line. But the sad reality is that ‘divinity’ as the One is unknowable and too remote to protect man from the dangers being turned into cattle by the ‘gods’. Well, who knows. I think that we have discovered the real flaw in the Xtian muddle: it is field invaded by the demonology of ‘divinities’ of all types, a spirit madhouse that ‘god’, whatever that is, has nothing to do with.
So I would suggest that Buddhists stand in reserve as to ‘god’, and ‘gods’, and find the path in their classic vein, keeping their distance from the Xtian demons licking them chops near the takeover of Buddhism and its neutralization in the monotheistic devil’s paradise.
Better start meditating. The encounter with demons will be a rite of passage, to leave behind screaming Xtians praying to Jesus to save them. I fear, Jesus Christ is not your personal savior. Better luck with Buddhism, while it lasts.
Lewis Richmond
Lewis Richmond: Do Buddhists Believe in God?http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lewis-richmond/do-buddhists-believe-in-g_b_859658.html
Buddhist writer and teacher
My Zen colleagues may object that it is a stretch to call Zen meditation “prayer,” or to describe it as a method “to reach our divine nature.” But we must never stop trying to find common ground.
The Gurdjieff Con » More on ‘common ground’: Mahayana and Xtianity said,
May 16, 2011 at 10:52 am
[...] http://darwiniana.com/2011/05/16/repost-and-update-common-ground/ [...]
The Devolution of Culture | dianoeidos said,
May 18, 2011 at 11:06 pm
[...] This is an interesting piece by Michael Graziano. Particularly interesting on light of all the other wonderful goings-on at the Huffington Post Religion section. See http://darwiniana.com/2011/05/16/repost-and-update-common-ground/. [...]