On Feb 22, 2007, at 8:57 PM, coshlnx wrote:
Actually, Harris is critical of god worship only in the context of
faith-based religious assumptions; and states that (something like
this) is OK in his world-view: "When I meditate on Jesus, I feel an
ecstatic Spiritual epiphany, and therefore you should try it". That's
an experiential type of statement that can be tested to a certain
extent; since other people can follow up on the recommendation and try
it for themselves.
And of course, such an experiential approach similar to this might be
compatible with Buddha-dharma, albeit with a number of caveats.
But the idea of no-god-worship doesn't even make sense in the context
of Buddhism since Tibetan Buddhism
In regards to Tibetan (or other types of Buddhism) this is a false View.
(apart from some Gurus like Vaj's
Chogyal Norbu Rinpoche); is heavily involved with god-worship; i.e.
the
Tibetan Buddhist counterpart of the gods: yidams or whatever. There's
Chenrizig, the Green Tara, the White Tara, MahaKali, numerous Dharma
protectors, etc.
But if these are worshipped as gods, then it isn't really Buddha-
dharma, sorry. Now if they are used for Wisdom-consciousness
realizing emptiness, that's a different story. But a yogin
worshipping a god or gods or goddesses is not part of the ethic of a
mantra Bodhisattva.
Even in the outer tantras (e.g. kriya-tantra) where this may appear
to be the case, that is certainly not the intention nor is it the
correct View of the practitioner.
