--- In [email protected], "Bill Smart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> On Tuesday, August 15, 2006 DaveK, in response to Ian, wrote:
>
> Ian..
> >--- In [email protected], "rbs000" <ijohanso@> wrote:
> >> It's a "stretch" all right. I find the "Buddhism teaches the same
> >> thing as Christianity" idea an exercise in political correctness
> >that
> >> is corrosive to the teachings in both traditions. They get
watered
> >> down to the least common denomonator. I think we should just let
> >> each tradition speak for itself.
> >>
> >> Ian
>
> DaveK
> >I think your viewpoint is unfortunate.
>
> For a change, I agree with both of you.
Apologies for being presumptuous, but it appears you are saying this
to appear diplomatic. Do you think I am corrupting Buddhism and
Christianity out of some need to be politically correct? I can not
see how you could hold this opinion at the same time as the one
you've expressed below.
> I think by earnestly following the teachings of both Christianity
and
> Buddhism (and perhaps in fact most religions) you will eventually
arrive at
> the same place.
>
> Their teaching concepts and methods are different, sometimes even
> contradictory; but I cannot help but think the fundamental
realization of
> their founders (in this case Jesus and Buddha) were the same. This
is
> because that fundamental realization is a universal human (sentient
being?)
> attribute and available to all.
>
> This is what I want to believe anyway.
>
> ..Bill!
"The truth is one, the sages call it by many names." Say the Hindu
something or other's.
It's just different language to say the same thing. I happen to
believe the language of Christianity is less direct, and leads a lot
of people astray, following abstractions rather than following
skillful actions. But by looking at all the traditions that are out
there, the common thread emerges, and you can see what was intended.
Their realization was the same, but Jesus had to express his
realization in the theology he had available to him at the time,
which was the Old Testament.
Remember the phrase "all sentient beings" and consider carefully what
that means. That means everybody. Everybody is everybody. Lots of
people, isn't it? They're not all going to convert to Buddhism. So
what's a Bodhisattva to do? We could start a Dharma-Jihad and try to
convert everybody to Buddhism. Wanna start a new organization of
Buddhist fundamentalists and start blowing stuff up?
I prefer to find the common ground and break down the barriers of
communication, get over all the pointless bitterness and
divisiveness, and get over ourselves. It's much slower than a Jihad
but that's my choice.
-DaveK
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