Wind Song
05-06-2012, 10:30 AM
Westerners know very little about religions outside of their own. I thought this would be a possible place we can discuss prejudices about religion and the false beliefs they are based on.
Early Christian thought held the Jews responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus with terrible consequences. Tell how this is or isn't a false belief and how this does or doesn't contribute to anti-semitism.
Some peole think Buddhists are pantheistic pointing to the many meditational deities they see in Tibetan Buddhist temples. Buddhists don't believe in God, and the many meditational deities one sees are symbolic representations of enlightenment that are used as skillful means to remember the qualities one is attempting to bring forth in meditation. Buddhism is the only religion with teachings on emptiness. Deity practice cannot be understood without a thorugh grounding in the teachings and the experience of emptiness.
Emptiness is not nihilism. It is not nothingness. Emptiness points to the truth of how things really are and to the insubstantiality of all phenomena which impermanent and interdependent, dreamlike.
Early Christian thought held the Jews responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus with terrible consequences. Tell how this is or isn't a false belief and how this does or doesn't contribute to anti-semitism.
Some peole think Buddhists are pantheistic pointing to the many meditational deities they see in Tibetan Buddhist temples. Buddhists don't believe in God, and the many meditational deities one sees are symbolic representations of enlightenment that are used as skillful means to remember the qualities one is attempting to bring forth in meditation. Buddhism is the only religion with teachings on emptiness. Deity practice cannot be understood without a thorugh grounding in the teachings and the experience of emptiness.
Emptiness is not nihilism. It is not nothingness. Emptiness points to the truth of how things really are and to the insubstantiality of all phenomena which impermanent and interdependent, dreamlike.