Judy: > Barry was taken aback when, in commenting on his > mention of Buddhists... > Barry likes to 'talk the talk', but it would seem that he is unable to 'walk the walk'. He get really mixed up sometimes. Thanks for trying to *correct* him, Judy!
Traditionally Buddhists throughout the Buddhist world consider that the universe contains more beings in it than are normally visible to humans. Buddhists have no objection to the existence of the Hindu 'Gods', to 'spirits', or to other beings that might populate the spiritual world. > who, he claims, believe it's more important to help > others than to seek personal enlightenment, I cited > the Bodhisattva Vow, which expresses the intention > to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient > beings. He'd either forgotten about it, or decided it > wouldn't help his case against the TMO. > Which in fact, is a 'sine qua non' of the Buddhist *enlightenment* tradition! The 'Bodhisttva Path' is an indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient of Mahayana Buddhism. > That's why he forbids any citation of "authority." > He doesn't want anybody to be reminded that he > failed to acknowledge that the Buddhists who take > the Bodhisattva Vow believe, as the TMO does, that > enlightened beings have a more positive effect on > the world than those who are not enlightened. > Any reference to verbal authority is verboten and suspect by these kinds of individuals, such as Barry, Curtis, or Joe. They don't think it's important to know what first hand sources have to say - their *opinion* is all that counts for them. Nevertheless, Buddhists can't take refuge in the gods because the gods are not Buddha. That is, they are not enlightened. All the Hindu gods, for all their power, are not the final truth of things. Power does not necessarily entail insight, and for Buddhist the gods do not have the liberating insight. But none of this entails that the gods do not exist or that the gods cannot except a powerful influence over our lives. Thus, most Buddhist have no problem with the 'gods' or with the spirit of enlightenment - unlike the pseudo-Buddhist, the 'Turquoise Be'! LOL!!! References: 'Buddhist Thought' by Paul Williams Routledge, 2000 'Buddhism in Practice' ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Princeton Readings in Religion, 1995
