I believe in a God devoid of anthropomorphic qualities that is called the Absolute.
If we have souls, then after death no soul is turned away from return to the Godhead.
For the universe has infinite capacity for these souls because they pass on to another dimension where no soul is limited physically.
Though no soul can have sex because souls can not get pregnant. There is also no need to eat because you are never hungry for physical sustenance.
However, you have to listen to a sermon until God calls to you, "Time to be reborn, pilgrim!"
This dimension is known as a Pure Land but is separate from the many other Buddha worlds called Pure Land of Bliss and their respective Buddhas.
On death, everything will be explained to you: the fallacy of good and evil is merely a tool to separate the monotheistic people who practice dualism from the believers in the Absolute who strive for the non-duality called Shunyata.
Indeed, the Christian Heaven is the closest monotheistic equivalent of the Absolute. For all Buddhists, the Absolute is the closest to God that the faithful attain.
Though Amida Buddha would urge the bodhisattvas reborn in the Pure Land in his sermon to return to the earthly plane to help other lost souls find their way to his Pure Land.
Note too that all souls are finite aspects of the Godhead which itself is almost infinite.
YMMV
Originally posted: October 26, 2012 1256H PDT
Showing posts with label Absolute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Absolute. Show all posts
20130513
The Short Meditation on the Metaphysics of Non-Duality
Dualism affects the Western mind so much it rejects the truth that good and evil depend on what man creates.
The epitome of dualism is "Either you are for us or against us" which is a logical fallacy since picking sides has dire consequences.
The non-dual approach says, "Who cares is One is not equal to Zero?" They merely represent the Absolute (1) and the void (0) but are in themselves both a duality and a continuum.
Non-dualism does not reject duality, but renders good and evil a subset of the Absolute.
Thus the ultimate truth is that what man creates may be either good or evil. For duality is an exception of limited value.
For example, objectivity is at the core the brief focus on what subjectivity is not. The mind still is subject to the whims of the body i.e. the emotional content of subjectivity.
Thus objectivity is an artifact of logical thought as opposed to subjectivity's ties to the heart-mind and its emotional content.
What ties objectivity and subjectivity together is the mind's ability to view such abtract concepts in terms of wholes.
Thus objectivity is associated with our observation of the world, while subjectivity is associated with introspection on the inner world of the mind.
Ergo nobody has a clearly objective mind, as objectivity is part of the consensual reality shared by everyone.
Indeed, the objective mind has no body since it exists outside the body and its subjective mind.
Yet this apparent duality fades when one looks for the objective mind. Indeed, the objective mind is related to the concept of single-minded focus (samadhi) of Buddhist philosophy.
Thus non-duality encompasses both duality and itself, just as basic goodness includes both what man creates and whether it is good or evil.
The epitome of dualism is "Either you are for us or against us" which is a logical fallacy since picking sides has dire consequences.
The non-dual approach says, "Who cares is One is not equal to Zero?" They merely represent the Absolute (1) and the void (0) but are in themselves both a duality and a continuum.
Non-dualism does not reject duality, but renders good and evil a subset of the Absolute.
Thus the ultimate truth is that what man creates may be either good or evil. For duality is an exception of limited value.
For example, objectivity is at the core the brief focus on what subjectivity is not. The mind still is subject to the whims of the body i.e. the emotional content of subjectivity.
Thus objectivity is an artifact of logical thought as opposed to subjectivity's ties to the heart-mind and its emotional content.
What ties objectivity and subjectivity together is the mind's ability to view such abtract concepts in terms of wholes.
Thus objectivity is associated with our observation of the world, while subjectivity is associated with introspection on the inner world of the mind.
Ergo nobody has a clearly objective mind, as objectivity is part of the consensual reality shared by everyone.
Indeed, the objective mind has no body since it exists outside the body and its subjective mind.
Yet this apparent duality fades when one looks for the objective mind. Indeed, the objective mind is related to the concept of single-minded focus (samadhi) of Buddhist philosophy.
Thus non-duality encompasses both duality and itself, just as basic goodness includes both what man creates and whether it is good or evil.
20130207
My Faith is the Same as a Christian's or a Hindu's
Jodo Shinshu has similarities to Lingayatism and Protestant Christianity in that all of these religions claim that an intercessor between humanity and the Absolute is unnecessary.
Jodo Shinshu abandoned tradition in that priest could marry as happens in Protestant Christianity. In Lingayatism, castes were set aside and lower castes were as likely to be members as upper classes. Likewise in Jodo Shinshu, priests, samurai, merchants and commoners are equal before the Buddha.
Despite the dissimilarities between Honen, Basavanna, and Martin Luther, I can safely say, a Buddhist's faith is no different from a Shaivite's or a Protestant's faith.
If we used the differences between Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism to argue among ourselves, then organized religion is but a place to differ about dogma and doctrine.
However, given that faith is the equalizing factor along with the fact that humanity is free to believe in the form of the Absolute according to the doctrine of their respective religions, nothing is served by argument and differences of opinion.
Although I practice Jodo Shinshu differently from Lingayatism and Christianity, it is sincerity of faith that unites us.
Jodo Shinshu abandoned tradition in that priest could marry as happens in Protestant Christianity. In Lingayatism, castes were set aside and lower castes were as likely to be members as upper classes. Likewise in Jodo Shinshu, priests, samurai, merchants and commoners are equal before the Buddha.
Despite the dissimilarities between Honen, Basavanna, and Martin Luther, I can safely say, a Buddhist's faith is no different from a Shaivite's or a Protestant's faith.
If we used the differences between Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism to argue among ourselves, then organized religion is but a place to differ about dogma and doctrine.
However, given that faith is the equalizing factor along with the fact that humanity is free to believe in the form of the Absolute according to the doctrine of their respective religions, nothing is served by argument and differences of opinion.
Although I practice Jodo Shinshu differently from Lingayatism and Christianity, it is sincerity of faith that unites us.
20121027
More words on the Absolute: Pure Land is not Heaven
I don't believe in the Heaven of the Christian, Jew and Muslim.
The "soul" I speak of is called the "Self" yet is non-self itself. It is arises from karma's action Buddha-nature, and is not permanent.
Remember the aliens from STNG and DS9 that flowed together in a lake of their fellow beings?
The soul is like that. We return to "God." All the souls join together as one in Oneness. This oneness is called the Absolute. On death, each sentient being's mindstream flows into the Absolute
Thus, the soul is impermanent, because in returning to the Absolute, all souls die and their respective mindstream share their collective memories.
When the mindstream is reborn, it is reborn as a human. I am not fond of the karma where you get reborn as hell being, hungry ghost, human, asura or deva.
For every person wishes he could be reborn as a human being.
My soul is not the soul of my previous incarnation, though its karmic path pointed to me.
For the previous soul is no more at death. What gets reborn in Pure Land?
The result of karma in this life and previous incarnations only affect going to Pure Land if the karmic seed to affect rebirth in Pure Land was planted in previous life.
Ditto for rebirth in this world as human. For Buddha gives each bodhisattva instructions before being incarnated in this world of birth-life-death (samsara) as a human being.
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