Artur: You wrote: "The idea of a "Divine Operating Plan (with the creator being the COO...) would be a non-sense and probably an heresy for a Buddhist. An probably also for a non-manicheist Christian." You have succinctly described one of the chief heresies operating in the name of Christianity today, at least as I see it. Thanks for giving me words to use in another part of my life.
Love, peace and joy, Jim -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Artur Ferreira da Silva Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 8:03 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: A Partial Diary of the Collective Buddha At 11:33 06-05-2002 -0800, Julie Smith wrote: >The next item of note is Birgitt's September 9 invitation >"to participate with us... to "open space" for harmony in the world with >a commitment to collectively holding this space." And then another >lull. And then September 11 and everything that followed. Interesting coincidence of dates... Now about your main point: By the end of last year, the Dalai Lama has been in Portugal and he gave an important interview to a Portuguese newspaper. At the time I had the intention of translating part of it for this list. But I never did... Quoting from memory... Asked if Buddhism is a religion he answered: "I have learnt in an English dictionary that religion is the believing in a Creator. In this sense Buddhism IS NOT a religion" To the question "Do you agree with the (Catholic) Pope that once said that Buddhism is an atheism?" he answered, "Yes, Buddhism doesn't believe in a Creator and in this sense it is an atheism". He also said: "It is not easy for a Christian to do a conversion to Buddhism nor to fully understand Buddhism, and probably that conversion is not good. In the beginning it seams easy, but the problem is that Buddhism has not a Creator, and that makes things completely different...". With individual or collective Buddha's, Buddhism is not waiting for an omnipotent creator to (have created and later) "regulate" life on earth. They believe that must be done by humans and humans are solely responsible for the good or the bad they create. By their concrete actions - and not by what they claim they believe, neither by what they say/believe they open the space for... The idea of a "Divine Operating Plan" (with the creator being the COO...) would be a non-sense and probably an heresy for a Buddhist. An probably also for a non-manicheist Christian. So, Julie, your is not an easy task and I am afraid that a lot of stones will appear in your search. But a truly and honest search is something that must be honored. At least to compare with people that don't do any search because they "know" everything, people that often "use the name of God in vain" to justify bad purposes (Sharon, or Bush, to give only two examples). Good look for your search Artur * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
