The board room

[fuagf]

eagle, hi .. thanks .. just googled how many different Christian,
Judaism and Muslim sects are there .. i forget .. and got this one ..

Christian-born-Jewish-Islamic-Hindu-Buddhist
Heiko Faass - August 28, 2008

About 2500 years ago the history of Buddhism started with a prince in Nepal setting in motion the wheel
of the law and proclaiming the four Noble truths and the eightfold path. It seems to me as if Buddhism
has what I would define as the parameters for the religion of the future if there is at all a need for religion…

There are two fundamental causes for my thinking, the first of which is the
extraordinary tolerance of Buddhism, especially if compared to other religions.

Buddhism has always been tolerant, it has never resorted, neither to fire nor the sword.
This cannot be said of many other religions. Just look at the crusades of the Christians
or the many wars that are still today being conducted in the name of some religion or God.

When Ashoka, emperor of India, became a Buddhist, he did not try to impose
his new religion on anyone. Can you believe that? The guy has all the power you can
imagine and he forces nobody to take on his religion or beliefs - an early role model?

A good Buddhist can be Catholic, or Jewish or may be a proselyte from Islam or any other
religion. This complete freedom is not permissible for a Christian or Jew or a Muslim for example.

As Jorge Luis Borges put it: “Buddhism could more exactly be called a yoga, […] a discipline man imposes on himself.”

Isn´t that self-imposed self-discipline exactly what we all would need a little more of?

insert: HEH, after 66 years i am making some progress

Rather than being member of some church or association and going to a service every so often, or not, wouldn’t it
serve the individual more to just put this discipline on himself and, for example, meditate every day for thirty minutes?

My second reason is that Buddhism supports, creates and demands real
faith through freedom, which is like finding the ultimate truth of our all being.

The dogma and stories one has to believe in - without doubt or you´ll go to hell! -
in other religions, really only make those less credible and fashion credulity as faith.

In Buddhism I find the freedom to believe what I want - to even not believe in the story of the historical Buddha.
Which doesn´t mean that I don´t find the history of Siddharta Gautama Buddha illuminating - on the contrary!

Just having read Deepak´s "Buddha" again, I found very illuminating aspects
in this story of the young prince who leaves it all behind to find himself.

But my point is, even if I didn´t believe that these events really
happened the way they are described, I could still be a Buddhist.

What I find attractive is that freedom of choice. Because in essence we are all free beings!

One of the subjects of meditation for the monks in buddhist monasteries in China and Japan is to doubt
the existence of the Buddha. With imposing that doubt on oneself, the individual will arrive at the truth.

In contrast, Christians must believe that one of the three figures of Divinity condescended to become a man
and was crucified in Judaea. If we are Moslems, we must believe that there is no other god but God and that
Mohammed is his prophet - yet you can be a good Buddhist and still deny Buddha's existence if you believe
so - I find that stunning. It is that kind of “believe what you want”-thing, which gives me total freedom of choice.

I start my every day with a period of silence during which I meditate and contemplate, breathe and
simply am. It is like going to my very own island of joy inside. It allows me to think about
everything that really matters to me from an awakened point of view and charge myself to the fullest.

When I sit there on the top of the white mountain and look into the landscape that is virtually surrounding me, I have a deep feeling of peace and freedom. There it was that I first thought that I am really a “Christian-born-Jewish-Islamic-Hindu-Buddhist”, there it was that I first felt that it does not matter to me, if I am labeled a Buddhist, a Christian, a Muslim or anything else. Because I am part of the spirit that does it all and through which I do everything!

It doesn´t really matter, if Buddhism is or could be the religion of the future.

Maybe the time has come where we finally do not need any religion at all
anymore but can simply all live our spirituality completely and permanently?

Based on tolerance of each other, freedom based on truth...

http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2008/08/christianbornje.html

Sorry, Heiko, gave up Buddhism, too, when the author of a little book i have wrote that he became a Buddhist
just because he could not accept that this was the only life we would have .. he said, what's the point? ..

I thought, what??? .. what point is this life if not for the next??? .. what point is this living??? ..
yup, will die die die .. content with mystery as my view and no expectation of heaven or hell ..

Feels comfortable and on the evidence is closer to the root of my being.