Where to find spiritual answers?

Lyndon said:

i also think the Buddhist Dhammakaya is part of God and the Tao. God is Truth, and the Dhamma is truth

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The Dharma does teach one part of the truth yes, just like Christianity, Jewish, Catholicism and Islam do.
They are just thought in different ways and different wisdom levels. It is the human beings who treat spiritual life poorly that is creating the evil within religions

Amanaki said:

In your spiritual practice, do you look for answers in the physical world? or do you look within you and search for answer?

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Answers to what?

SalixIncendium said:

Answers to what?

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The spiritual path you are on (the religion you follow) and how to become more enlighten from the teaching

Amanaki said:

The spiritual path you are on (the religion you follow) and how to become more enlighten from the teaching

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Can you give some examples of the questions to which you need answers ?

What does ‘more enlightened’ mean ?

I promise I’m not asking this to start a religious argument of any kind. People often talk of having questions and seeking answers, but that could mean various different things.

Contemplating the question may be more useful than having the answer.

Amanaki said:

In your spiritual practice, do you look for answers in the physical world? or do you look within you and search for answer?

Do you think God ( Abrahamic God) gives you answers directly or do you think by study the scriptures that this will give you the answers God wants you to understand and see?

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The first part, I'm still learning and I know I won't say I've "been awakened" to learning as when I write down my personal values, that's where I see I need to focus on. I did a diagram that helped me a lot. I haven't figured what to call it.

Where you want to be, your destination (i.e. I want to take care of my kids and see them grow old. I want to live near the water and I want to be cremated for example)

How I want to be: I want to live my personal values and experience self-growth. I want to be a good father to my children

Religion and god helps answer these questions and they also help apply them to your life:

Where I want to be: I want to be in union with god
How I want to be: I want to live as the holy spirit wants me to to worship god in faith

Answer those questions and find avenues of living it. Maybe you're in school: Where you want to go? I want to graduate and get a good job. How I want to be: I want to be knowledgeable and test my knowledge to live a full life.

It's not perfect, of course.

The second part I don't believe in the abrahamic god so...

(The picture. The circle is self growth. It expands out but has no end point. The stairs is destinations. It's what you aim for, your goals, with an end point. Some religions are stair focus like Christianity. Others are circle focus like Buddhism. It depends on how you want to approach things.)

Howard Is said:

Can you give some examples of the questions to which you need answers ?

What does ‘more enlightened’ mean ?

I promise I’m not asking this to start a religious argument of any kind. People often talk of having questions and seeking answers, but that could mean various different things.

Contemplating the question may be more useful than having the answer.

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The thread was more that i wanted to understand how other people think when they study their religion most of the questions i have within Buddhism are about the nonphysical realm and the law of the universe seen from a Buddhist point of view.

Enlightenment is what happens when one have realized the truth as it actually are

Lyndon said:

i also think the Buddhist Dhammakaya is part of God

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That is a very interesting point, thanks for posting.

Lyndon said:

No I think the Tao is the true God, and much of the God of Israel is a false god, the god of jesus I believe, I think Brahman can be the true God

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Lyndon said:

by false God, I mean a God that is not pure good, may even be evil

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Amanaki said:

Gods are not evil. Human beings can be

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Lyndon said:

some gods are evil, if you call them gods

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Amanaki said:

which Gods are Evil? And why?

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How many people have you come across that make the statement that their own god is a false god?

I think it's a given that one's personal god is the One True God™, especially in western monotheistic religions.

And yes, all gods that aren't your god are inherently evil...because they're not your god.

Amanaki said:

The spiritual path you are on (the religion you follow) and how to become more enlighten from the teaching

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I was never actively seeking such answers. They just sort of found me.

Also, one is enlightened or one isn't. There is no 'kinda enlightened.'

Amanaki said:

The thread was more that i wanted to understand how other people think when they study their religion most of the questions i have within Buddhism are about the nonphysical realm and the law of the universe seen from a Buddhist point of view.

Enlightenment is what happens when one have realized the truth as it actually are

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I don’t think Buddha had any interest in teaching about a nonphysical realm.

I may not be a great Buddhist scholar, but I actually can’t think of any sutras that are about such subjects.

In Buddhism, spiritual development means overcoming craving and aversion. It has nothing to do with attaining or even understanding any realm other than your own mental and emotional reactions.

Realising the truth ‘as it actually is’ - yatha bhuta - is simply being in an ‘unfabricated’ state. It is not about realising a cosmological or philosophical proposition, or attaining a supernatural state.

Nirvana is defined as the absence of craving and aversion. No more and no less.

Also, I don’t think Buddha ever mentioned any ‘laws of the universe’, apart from karma, which simply means action and reaction.

Please provide me with the sutras if I am wrong.

you don't seem to have studied Buddhism much, there's lots of sutras about other realms, heavens and hells etc, its a integral part of Buddhist teaching

Lyndon said:

you don't seem to have studied Buddhism much, there's lots of sutras about other realms, heavens and hells etc, its a integral part of Buddhist teaching

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There may be poetic use of such ideas.
If I say “ I’m off with the birds”, am I really off with the birds ?
There are meditative states which are sometimes referred to as if they are ‘realms’.

But show me a sutra where Buddha says or implies that knowledge of such things is part of the eightfold path, or where it is clear that he is asserting the actual existence of heavens or hells other than human mental and emotional states.

Lyndon said:

you don't seem to have studied Buddhism much, there's lots of sutras about other realms, heavens and hells etc, its a integral part of Buddhist teaching

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Actually I spent some years studying with Tibetan lamas.
As you may know, Tibetan buddhism is often cited as having deities and supernatural realms. However, if you ask the lamas directly, they make it perfectly clear that all such phenomena are aspects of our nature.

For example, I have taken various initiations such as Chenrezig and Medicine Buddha. The lamas are explicit that these deities have no existence other than as aspects of the practitioners nature.

Lyndon said:

you don't seem to have studied Buddhism much, there's lots of sutras about other realms, heavens and hells etc, its a integral part of Buddhist teaching

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Which reminds me of the original Taoists. They talked of communicating with celestial beings from other realms, but one has to realise that they were relating experiences they had when they were high on cannabis !

Not that there’s anything wrong with that

Amanaki said:

In your spiritual practice, do you look for answers in the physical world? or do you look within you and search for answer?

Do you think God ( Abrahamic God) gives you answers directly or do you think by study the scriptures that this will give you the answers God wants you to understand and see?

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I do see nature as a 'spiritual' teacher. If spiritual means having respect and awe or being moved to be grateful for life. I have never heard a consistent explanation of what spiritual is. If it is the ability to experience life as it really and living in a peaceful way, then nature is my spiritual teacher.

Deeje said:

God's personality is discerned more by what he has produced in the physical world than anything else IMO.

The apostle Paul wrote...
"For God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who are suppressing the truth in an unrighteous way, 19 because what may be known about God is clearly evident among them, for God made it clear to them. 20 For his invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable. 21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God nor did they thank him, but they became empty-headed in their reasonings and their senseless hearts became darkened. 22 Although claiming they were wise, they became foolish." (Romans 1:18-22)

Humans have no excuse to delete God from his own creation...but many have, with no compunction, convinced by another belief system that has seduced them by appealing to their egos.....science. Only unintelligent or uneducated people believe in God apparently. Who wants to be seen as unintelligent or uneducated?

Don't get me wrong...I am not a science denier, but I am a critic of one particular branch of science for creating a myth that even well educated people have embraced. It has successfully eliminated the need for an Intelligent Designer of all things, and substituted the great "Father God" with "Mother Nature". They forget that you need both 'parents' to produce anything.

So nature is God's greatest advocate...the other is his word. A library of his wise counsel...his interactions with a nation adopted by him....the ministry of his son and the rescue mission for which he was sent.

Between those two things, God is speaking very loudly, but too many people don't want to hear him.

Either

or

I believe they will hear him in the not too distant future.... But it will be too late.

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I like this but I also think that science, in many ways, pays much greater reverence to God as "mother" than do those who believe in the Biblical God. If science denies The God by pointing at the many Gods, then that is in line with the way of the Goddess which IMO would emphasize our responsibility toward creation and each other over and above the worship of and singling out of a higher divine authority. As such we need a self-responsible a-theism to correct the imbalance of a self-centered, hierarchical monotheism. For too long God's obvious power has been used as an excuse to abdicate our own power to act justly to save ourselves and our planet.

Amanaki said:

In your spiritual practice, do you look for answers in the physical world? or do you look within you and search for answer?

Do you think God ( Abrahamic God) gives you answers directly or do you think by study the scriptures that this will give you the answers God wants you to understand and see?

Click to expand...

Well seeing that the scriptures is the word of God, what do think where you would find your answers ?

Amanaki said:

Not much spiritual or enlighten wisdom made by humans in the physical world. In my view the ball has nothing to do with getting answers from spiritual living

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Such a device can be used as a means to start an internal audit of ones beliefs. An unresponsive God is simply a more sophisticated way to do the same. By being given The Answer one then is left to determine how or if one can "live up to" that answer. The finality of a decision can help one to move forward into action but also to realize ambiguity. Ambiguity requires knowledge which then will change our understanding and deconstruct the importance of the question originally asked.

sealchan said:

Such a device can be used as a means to start an internal audit of ones beliefs. An unresponsive God is simply a more sophisticated way to do the same. By being given The Answer one then is left to determine how or if one can "live up to" that answer. The finality of a decision can help one to move forward into action but also to realize ambiguity. Ambiguity requires knowledge which then will change our understanding and deconstruct the importance of the question originally asked.

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Genius.

Hi! For me this people is what God is looking for it today.

Revelation 12:17 and 14:12.
Are we one of them? Do we kept God's 10 Commandments and have the faith of Jesus? No faith IN Jesus, but the faith of Jesus.
Can we preached the Three Angels Messages (Revelation 14 :6-12)? Think about it. This messages are a warning message from God Himself. Look at Revelation 14:4.