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As I’ve read various religious texts, I have found the premise of God being Love to be the unifying factor. I believe it goes beyond it being that the texts and religions share similar theme. God is Love. That is the foundational belief of every religion. Not just a tangent of it, rather, the whole purpose of every religion is to teach this; God is Love. that is why I believe in syncretism.
Yeeeeaaa with the track record the Old Testament God got.... just.. bloody, ya kno. I see what you mean"God is love" would certainly work for New Testament Christianity, but I think beyond that you would quickly run into problems.
Thích Nhất Hạnh is a great man, imo.I do have a superficial understanding of most religions, Buddhism perhaps too! This I’ll admit. I would say I have a “deep” understanding of Christianity. Confucianism comes next, and then I know about the same when it comes to, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism. The rest of religions I have only learned about from online searches and RF
Part of the reason I joined RF was so members of various faiths could correct me. I don’t intend to misrepresent any belief, and like I really don’t want to do that I’m sure God would punish me for it.
My intention with my life is to write a book. This book will be about how I am able to practice all religions in a singular day. To be a member of every religion.
I would like to be; Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Taoist, Confucianist(a Ru), Zoroaster, Hindu, Buddhist, Platonist, Shinto, Jain, Baha’i, and Sikh. I believe it is possible to practice all of them together. If religions are truly syncretic, then this feat will be possible.
I am a new practicing Buddhist. I agree, practicing a certain religion is necessary in understanding said religion. For now, I meditate the first prayer of the TBotD. When I do, I feel connected with God. Many of my ideas have come to me while in this state of meditation, so I feel confident in identifying as a Buddhist. I like to think that my understanding of it goes beyond being superficial, but members of this site are making me think otherwise. I’ll have to read more Buddhist texts before making any more threads on Buddhism, that’s for sure. A book I did start is called “Living Buddha, Living Christ” which was written by a Buddhist monk. He talks about how he came to believe that Christianity and Buddhism are the same(?) I’m not very far, but I gotta read this, plus some more traditional canon, before further debating on syncretism.
That said, with my current understanding, I believe the two beliefs are parallel.
Yeeeeaaa with the track record the Old Testament God got.... just.. bloody, ya kno. I see what you mean
Thanks, I’ll give it a read@Xavier Graham SA
You could do worse than read his book The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching.
Thích Nhất Hạnh is a great man, imo.
Exactly
Sure thing. He himself has not been so woolly - especially during the Vietnamese war.I was involved in an Interbeing (TNH) sangha for many years. Nice people, but it all felt a bit woolly.
You'll see why Buddhism has been called the religion of numbersThanks, I’ll give it a read
So three is not unique. 1 is earlier, and more unique.
You'll see why Buddhism has been called the religion of numbers
In essence, Buddhism is about compassion. The rest is detail.
The Dalai Lama Reflects on Faith in Buddhism and Christianity - The Wisdom Experience
Yes, one is the beginning, of course.
Two introduces us to duality, division, otherness.
Three has the indivisibility of one. One may have the tripartite nature of three, but if so, this aspect of it's nature is hidden. So three is revelatory. It reunites that which was divided.
Three contains two. In fact it contains three pairs. But three is not divisible by two.
13 is very unique because it is a prime number, it contains the first prime number, and the third both.
Symbolically, using the Arabic numbering system, yes.
Not sure though, if the symbols used to record the number thirteen, have any direct bearing on it’s value or components.
Seven, for example, can be said to be composed of three units, three doubles and one treble. So 7, while remaining indivisible, certainly has in it’s nature 3, and of course 1 (one being the totality).
I'm a bit surprised, given he gave the world "Engaged Buddhism."I was involved in an Interbeing (TNH) sangha for many years. Nice people, but it all felt a bit woolly.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a Tibetan Buddhist religious text. It is a prayer book that is designed to guide the soul upon death. For my personal prayer rituals, I meditate the first prayer of the book.
The prayer is called “The Prayer of the Three Body Mentor Yoga”. During the meditation, you pray to the three individual aspects of Buddha, and ask Him to merge with you. I’ll type out the first four paragraphs below.
When I first read this book, I perceived the three bodies of Buddha to be the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I believe the descriptions match.
The Father
To the unborn, nondeveloping, Truth Body Mentor,
In the palace of the perfect, all-pervading Realm of Truth,
With reverent devotion, ardently I pray!
Self-freed without abandoning misknowing delusion,
I freely accept the perfect Truth Body blessing,
As effortless, nonartifical, primal wisdom!
The Son
To the deathless, great bliss Beatific Body Mentor
In the palace of bright, pure wisdom’s universal bliss,
With reverent devotion, ardently I pray!
Self-freed without abandoning lust and longing,
I freely accept the effortless Beatific Body blessing,
As the natural liberation of inner wisdom’s universal bliss!
The Holy Spirit
To the ineffable, self-created Emanation Body Mentor,
In the palace of the flawless perfect lotus,
With reverent devotion, ardently I pray!
Self-freed without abandoning misconceiving hatred,
I freely accept the effortless Emanation Body blessing
As self-evident wisdom’s introspective self-illumination!
The Trinity
To the impartial, great bliss Triple- Body mentor,
In the palace of authentic clear light introspection,
With reverent devotion, ardently I pray!
Self-freed without abandoning subject-object dualism,
I freely accept the great bliss Triple Body blessing
As original wisdom’s Triple Body spontaneity!
Does anyone else perceive this as the Holy Trinity? My personal belief goes as far to say that this prayer is sufficient for salvation, in like manner to the John 3:16 prayer.
Has anyone discovered other references to the Trinity in other religions besides Christianity?
Salvation saves one from a present state so they have a better future state after death.
This is a onesided presentation. You seem to be familiar with just one Christianity.Jesus put emphasis on faith. The Buddha put emphasis on action (you can't reach an enlightened state by believing you will).
Bible contains different beliefs about afterlife. That's why the Pharisees and Sadducees didn't agree.Does the Bible teach reincarnation? I thought it was resurrection.