Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grandk who wrote (12278)	5/11/2002 4:15:32 PM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

I do not mean to judge anyone because I could just as likely have been the one I judge. I was trying to point out that he left the key ingredients to joy and happiness in his pursuit to find those very things. Again just what did you see Jesus doing, in pursuit of his passion ? My post to you about Jesus was of his following a similar path of renunciation of the things of the world, of doing certain "acts" and "practices" of fasting , solitude, and meditation , that were also used by buddha's , sages and rhishi's centuries before him . And out of those meditations and fasting in the desert , Jesus emerges with a similar revelation of a gospel of peace that was taught in India already for a 1000yrs, one that was radically different than the present Judaism , because he tapped into that "eternal" spirit and became awakened as did Siddhartha and many before him . God of the Bible that was destroying Pharoah's armies and thousands of innocent fistborn children ? Or a consciousness of awakened compassion within? Regarding agape, I agree that those men have shown selfless love. However, the source that they and you look to is what I am referring to. You try and obtain by works. The god you look to demands acts in order to gain salvation. That is not agape . The God of the Bible, the One True God I can understand your zeal to love God , but sometimes there is a tendency to create sectarian differences and distinctions out of too much zeal . Yet when you say in the next sentence that we are to come to God with empty hands and not by any deeds , there in one sentence you have described one essence of Buddhism perfectly . Though to approach God without deeds playing in the field of time would be , in reality a state of constant bliss and perfection, and one would be living in another eternity or the vegetable kingdom .<G> Whether intentionally or not , you just hit upon a great truth of agape , which may first begin and end with karuna or compassion . You are not seeing the greater universal manifestation of love as it translates from the Orient as the Buddha's compassion , but if you employed agape in understanding the life of Buddha you would see there are essential similarities in the two. Love as passion ; love as compassion; these are the two extreme poles of our subject . There is love as knowledge ; and love as reason as well , but it is the first two that we must reconcile , as they are often represented as absolutely opposed respectively as physical and spiritual. Yet in both the individual is torn out of himself , and perhaps reborn and opened up(awakened ) to an experience in a larger more abiding format . It is interesting that the ancient Greeks regarded Eros, the god of love , the eldest of the gods , but who was also the youngest . Reborn afresh and dewy in every loving heart . Eros the annointed One? Agape as personified in the teaching of Christ in loving thy neighbor as thyself is perhaps the noblest of all the Christian teachings . The story of love is so vast , and plays so deeply across the landscape of humanity and of each and every individual , and where there is the lack of authentic love , only more suffering . The Buddhist quality of of "compassion" , karuna is equivalent to the Christian of "charity" , agape , and the Buddha is widely seen in the Orient as infinitetly compassionate , and not just seeking nirvanna as you mistakenly keep alluding to , but he is praised for exactly that renouncing even the bliss of nirvanna and eternal liberation, and rather than choose to seek escape ,stays to remain unendingly alongside all of us ,as long as needed participating joyfully and voluntarily in the sorrows of the world and be a beacon of hope and a center while we continue to struggle in the vortex of life . The tribal God of the Bible , is not of very great interest or holds that much attraction for me personally , though I am glad it/ he brings you peace to read that one tribal history. I have heard some passages that are very eloquent and lovely , but it is not generally the stuff and format i dream my dreams in . As for the Koran , i have heard it is better read in Arabic <G> I reserve the right to dream the dream of love and compassion ---> my God has evoked in me , and go where the search may lead me .But if I were to become a monk or priest , I would not be wearing robes of black and white in front of altars of tortured martyrs , but robes of golden yellow and saffron before the "Awakened One". Different strokes for different folks.