The Many Gods of Early Mormonism (satire)

Recently I have been interested in Joseph Smith Jr, thanks to the excellent missionary work of the Mormons. Before people think I've gone off the deep end, let me reassure them: as a Buddhist, it is my duty to explore non-Buddhist religions so as to see what good they have may be reflected in my understanding of the world.

Having said that, I have read about the history of the Mormons. So this articles is about his "many gods" revelation. I will not be discussing polygamy here, but will declare that it was possibly a means of survival for the early Church of Christ of the Latter Day Saints.

One sign that Joseph Smith Jr might have been making his brand offolk Christianity was when he came up with the "many gods" ideology.

However, the "many gods" ideology isn't anti-Christian. It's just confusing to monotheistic notions of the one true God Almighty.

If you are of that kind of a person, then it will be hard to explain panentheism and the Hindu Pantheon, because most monotheists are ignorant of the fact that "deities" is akin to Elohim and the Muslim "We" which represents the "all things that are God".

Indeed, nobody will understand what I just said because it is simpler to think of one God rather than a God who has avatars who are merely reflections of all of His qualities.

Joseph Smith Jr realized this, too. However, this was too much for some of his Christian neighbours in Nuavoo, Illinois, who lynched him merely for having a novel interpretation of the Bible.

However, Smith wasn't referring to deities or gods, he was referring to the prophets and other people like Esther and Rebecca in the Bible. That this irked other God-loving people in Illinois is understandable since they had the notion that the First Commandment was vital to keeping the peace among their fellow Christians.

However, Brigham Young not only kept the polygamy part of Smith's works, he also allowed the "many gods" ideology morph into "baptism for the dead", which seems to me to be a way of relieving Mormon anxiety about dead loved ones who aren't Mormons. It also verges on ancestor worship, which is not strange at all and is probably Mormon in the sense that Smith almost worshipped all the people depicted in the Bible from Adam to Jesus and Mary to John.

At least, that is my understanding of what I read about Mormon history. If anyone who is Mormon wishes to correct me, then please do.

My religion has a lot of flavours

I'm a deistic panentheist with a respect for the whole universe, and all sentient beings including me and you, that based on realizing reality (life, the universe and everything) is God (the Absolute).

Then a person might ask me: what of good and evil?

Well, that's like having a magical coin: one side's good, the other side' evil, and the creator of that coin is God who symbolizes moral judgment.

"What about salvation?" another person might ask.

If there is a God, and given that God created the soul within me, which was loaned to me at birth, and knowing that my soul returns to God (with interest), then my mindful practice of unconditional love is in effect a form of salvation in itself.

For the process involved in practicing that love is in effect salvation.

Thus the story of Jesus serves as an inspiration to people who want to know God.

However, the closest thing to God as the Absolute is the description of Heaven!

Essentially, my religion has the following flavors: a Buddhist panentheism in which an almost infinite number of universes exist with an infinite number of Buddhas willing to instruct all sentient beings in their infinite number of Pure Lands, and an infinite number of bodhisattvas able to help all sentient beings awaken to the truth. In this multiverse there also exists the Absolute, which is the closest I get to God.

In practicing Buddhism, Buddha Recitation and meditation are the main parts of the mindful practice that I use to "worship God". This is a worshipless worship since it is empty of worship. It would be incorrect to call Buddha Recitation worship when it is done to remind me of the Buddha. Hence it is called Buddha Remembrance.

Perhaps intellectually understanding a Buddhist concept such as the Absolute is a form of worship, but it too is a worshipless worship since the Absolute transcends a dualistic notion of God. As well, intellectual understanding of a concept has no element of worship.

Calling understanding worship is incorrect. Rather, it is a part of the process of learning.

Returning to mindful practice, it consists of Buddha Remembrance to pay homage to the Buddha, and meditation to help calm my mind. Once my mind is calm, the clear mind arises to help me to the next level of meditation, insight.

With clarity of mind, I am able to attain the samadhi of loving-kindness, that single-minded insight symbolized by the boundless light of Great Wisdom that is Amida and the boundless life of Great Compassion that is Amitayus, both of whom are the dual aspects of Amida Buddha.

Thus, my religion has a lot of Buddhist flavors, and the only sparkle of God is the Absolute which might be similar to the Christian heaven. As a deist, I accept the Christian heaven as a place where all its members live eternally in Jesus. However, Jesus and God are not a part of this Buddhist multiverse, for the Christian Heaven and Hell dwell in their little universe.

What connects God to the Buddhist multiverse is loving-kindness, for both Amida Buddha and Jesus are symbols of the unconditional love known as loving-kindness.

As you can tell, my religion is a panentheism with a deistic component of which the Christian universe as described exists outside of the Buddhist component. Additionally, the deistic component has a respect for the Shinto deities but without any worship of them, because they exist only on an intellectual level.

Were I to practice Shinto it would be best expressed in dance, usually to the tune of Asian music, preferably the Yoshida Kiyoshi's Rising Sun, complete with shamisen and taiko drums.

As well, I have a respect for Veershaivism, the Lingayatism of Basavanna, the Shiva saint of 12th Century India.

As you can tell my religion has a lot of flavours.

The Panentheistic Meditation (poem)

With each and every breath I believe
with all my heart, mind, body and soul
that God is present right now,
in every cell of my body,
in every beat of my heart,
in every person,
in every living beings on this Earth,
in every star and galaxy,
in every loving act and thought,
delivering every sub-atomic particle
of the entire multiverse into
a never-ending stream of existence,
the invisible Nothing and Nowhere
that brings forth Everything and Everywhere.

Buddhism with a Radical New Attitude

In America, Pure Land Buddhism is incorporating meditation so as to win new converts.

Indeed, each of the sutras have a new meaning, once the Buddhist Church of America priests adapt contemporary changes to meet the changing demographics of their members.

For me, I am adapting my view of the Buddha to widen my open-minded view of God. This is why panentheism appeals to me.

IMHO seeing the multiverse as divine implies that God is great because He created such diversity from the microscopic to the macroscopic level, from quanta to galaxies and every thing.

Although God is beyond oneself, and beyond being itself, in transcending every concept of what I think God is, He too imparts a divine spark to all life.

In my heart-mind, my view of God thus inspired by nature to be more than just the embodiment of the universe.

For God is both the Creator and created as one yet His essence is reflected in each and every creature under the sun. Though He is one, His works are many.

Yet, to be honest, the Godhead is the unknowable, and each of us knows only a small portion of knowledge.

Returning to Pure Land Buddhism, Amida Buddha is not a god but is an anthropomorphical representation of the boundless light of wisdom and the boundless life of compassion.

For it is both wisdom derived from experience which aids us in sharing our lives in a warm and loving way that promotes compassion. Likewise, compassion inspires us to share our spiritual experiences with others so that they too may be inspired to live a fuller life.

Thus I place my faith in Amida.

God as Creator and the Created versus Buddhism

Those who say there is no God do not know God at all. Yes, I am saying that atheists are inherently agnostic. In denying there is a God, by one's denial, the spiritual sees that the atheist does not know God because of a lack of spiritual depth.

Even I as a Buddhist know God but by another name. However, I do not cling to God as permanent entity apart of the cosmos, but see him as being both Creator and the Created.

However, my view of God is distinct from my Buddhist practice as belief, being opionion only.

For a Buddhist, it's more important to endorse the use of meditation, mindfulness and its effect on the mind since the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Noble Path and Depedent Arising and their validity are verified by directly experiencing life and then using meditation to reflect on one's experience.

By use of nondual reasoning, I have found that the panentheistic view of the cosmos - seeing God as Creator and the Created - agrees with my Buddhist worldview.

Buddhism is Just So

The Buddhadharma simple is living your life just as it is.

In viewing the world just so, and experiencing life just so, one neither vacillates between the extreme of nihilism and hedonism.

During meditation, the devotee resorts to using the pantheon to understand the concept of pantheism, and the concept of emptiness to know deeply interdependence and the multiverse as panentheistic, yet realizing the simple life is the fulfilled life.

This is what I've learned from simply meditating, and then studying the sutras and their commentaries, as the Buddhadharma suggests.

Seeing God and the Soul Through a Buddhist Lens

My personal philosophy about the dead goes like this: Once the dead go to heaven, their souls return to God. Having been wiped clean of their earthly existence, they become the pure and immaculate souls they originally were at the moment of creation by God.

Regarding my personal philosophy about the soul, it transcends the dualistic concept of a soul existing apart from the body.

I use it to reconcile the Buddhist concept of oneness and unity with God as Creator of the soul.

God, within context of my personal philosophy is closer to the Hindu concept of God, where He is both the Creator and the Created.

As for the soul, it is consciousness-genius, the "incorporeal mental processes" which continues after death.

However, Buddhist philosophy teaches that the soul has a finite existence. In its place is Buddha Nature, which is the karmic fruit of Amida Buddha's vows to become a Buddha.

Thus, God as Creator of the Buddha is part of the Buddhist concept of oneness and unity.

Personally, I do not see God as separate from the universe, the world and all life.

For my view of God is closer to panentheism than to Deism.

However, the Buddhist view of God as the Absolute transforms panentheism into the philosophy that the divine is in all things.

For everything in the cosmos is Buddha.

References:

Buddhist concept of oneness and unity: see Net of Indra
Deism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism
Hinduism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism
"incorporeal mental processes": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul#Buddhism
Net of Indra: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_of_Indra
Panentheism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panentheism

edited 20121114.220211

Panentheism Revisited (poem)

Panentheism Revisited

I. First Truth

When one part of it hurts
The whole universe hurts.

Yet only rarely does humanity
realize the role of suffering
is to shape the human spirit wisely.

Always awake, enlightened, truly whole,
the whole universe is infinite
to this fool, yet is the source of life,
atom by atom, molecule by molecule.

II. True Joy

When one part of it rejoices
The whole universe rejoices.

Then, humanity may only feel joy
as spontaneous, the spark of freedom
to appreciate life as it is.

From the universe came the soul pristine,
the gift to seed in this mortal coil
at birth, only to be returned at death,
to the infinite, pristine and unchanged.

III. Illumination and Enlightenment

When one part of it illuminates
The whole universe is illuminated.

Here and there, wisdom slowly ebbs and flows
with the human tide on this grain of sand,
sometimes seeing the whole universe.

Through love and compassion, the wise support
with kindness their equals, the foolish,
sharing the wealth of the infinite,
securely complemented with prudence.

Panentheism Made Personal

Truly alive is
the whole universe.
When one part of it hurts,
the whole of it hurts
in sympathy.
When another of it rejoices,
the whole of it rejoices,
out of compassion.
When one part hungers,
another part offers itself
in sacrifice.
When the creatures thrive,
those creatures die.
When a goose loses a mate,
it dies of a broken heart.
The whole universe is alive.
While each creature in it
are unaware of the whole,
they are aware of each other.
Thus life is interconnected,
interdependent, as one.
It is as though the love
of the universe is expressed
through the life cycle
of birth, and death.
The living universe is
the infinite consciousness,
the God in all creation.
And each of us has our place
in the whole universe.

Roots of abandonment, roots of independence... the spiritual aspect

I'm reminded of a close personal experience with my father when I was 2 years old.

I woke up one morning, and got out of bed. My dad was in the kitchen finishing breakfast. He talked to me a bit. Then he packed his lunch, and left for work.

I cried and cried, hoping he'd return.

Then my mom came into the kitchen, and told me to go back to bed.

Fast forward to my first hospital visit at 5, the trauma of seeing my parents leave in their car made me cry... Later, an older kid in the hospital reassured me.

This was how the roots of my independence began.

Now that I am an adult, and able to use hindsight, I can see that my abandonment issues might arise during periods of stress.

From experience I have discovered that the few times when I feel abandoned, I may have forgotten about respect for the divine in all things.

During those times, I would doubt that God exists. I might even become antagonistic towards the Christian church.

Even when a person doubts God exists, and thinks that He has abandoned us, God never abandons us.

More accurately, when doubt of a higher power exists, the spiritual significance of life still exists. We might explain it away — even be frightened of it — and mock people who use religion as a crutch. Still, the divine is always there, acting in our lives.

Even a faith in a harmless delusion is better than no faith at all, especially when it inspires the faithful to act on that faith to do the least harm to others.

In my case my faith in Buddhism helps me to appreciate panentheism, the belief that the universe is alive, both metaphorically speaking (e.g. the life cycles of stars) and literally (the Earth as a living organism), and that the universe is divine.

When I feel the urge, I might practice a few qigong exercises or just dance, and let the divine work through me.