The Other Shore
Apr. 17th, 2025 07:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mickiThis was quite a long chapter which covered a lot of material, focusing on what can and cannot be said about the nature of God, the Buddha, nirvana, reincarnation, life after death, etc. The basic idea behind it all was that most of these can only be known through experience, not conceptually.
“Our faith must be alive. It cannot be just a set of rigid beliefs and notions. Our faith must evolve every day and bring us joy, peace, freedom, and love. Faith implies practice, living our daily life and mindfulness. Some people think that prayer or meditation involves only our minds or our hearts. But we also have to pray with our bodies, with our actions in the world. And our actions must be modeled after those of the living Buddha or the living Christ. If we live as they did, we will have deep understanding and pure actions, and we will do our share to help create a more peaceful world for our children and all of the children of God.”
“All of us possess the energy of mindfulness, the energy of the Holy Spirit, only its intensity and strength vary in each person. Our daily practice is to increase, to strengthen that power. There is no need to wait until Easter to celebrate. When the Holy Spirit is present, Jesus is already here. He does not have to be resurrected. We can feel him right now. It is not a matter of reincarnation, rebirth, or even resurrection. Dwelling mindfully, we know that each moment is a moment of renewal.”
This chapter also pointed out that Nirvana/ the Kingdom of God are available in the here and now. It's all a way of seeing deeply into reality. It also talked about the need for us to manifest the Buddha in the world /manifest the Kingdom of God. “Christian contemplation includes the practice of resting in God, which I believe is the equivalent of touching Nirvana. Although God cannot be described by using concepts and notions, that does not mean you cannot experience God the Father. If the wave does not have to die to become water, then we do not have to die to enter the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is available here and now. The energy of the Holy Spirit is the energy that helps us touch the Kingdom of God. Tillich has said that Speaking of God as a person is just a figure of speech. He said that God is the ground of being. This makes me think of the water that is the ground of being for the wave. He also said that God is the ultimate reality, and that makes me remember Nirvana. I do not think that there is much difference between Christians and Buddhists. Most of the boundaries we have created between our two traditions are artificial. Truth has no boundaries. Our differences may mostly the differences in emphasis.”
“Our faith must be alive. It cannot be just a set of rigid beliefs and notions. Our faith must evolve every day and bring us joy, peace, freedom, and love. Faith implies practice, living our daily life and mindfulness. Some people think that prayer or meditation involves only our minds or our hearts. But we also have to pray with our bodies, with our actions in the world. And our actions must be modeled after those of the living Buddha or the living Christ. If we live as they did, we will have deep understanding and pure actions, and we will do our share to help create a more peaceful world for our children and all of the children of God.”
“All of us possess the energy of mindfulness, the energy of the Holy Spirit, only its intensity and strength vary in each person. Our daily practice is to increase, to strengthen that power. There is no need to wait until Easter to celebrate. When the Holy Spirit is present, Jesus is already here. He does not have to be resurrected. We can feel him right now. It is not a matter of reincarnation, rebirth, or even resurrection. Dwelling mindfully, we know that each moment is a moment of renewal.”
This chapter also pointed out that Nirvana/ the Kingdom of God are available in the here and now. It's all a way of seeing deeply into reality. It also talked about the need for us to manifest the Buddha in the world /manifest the Kingdom of God. “Christian contemplation includes the practice of resting in God, which I believe is the equivalent of touching Nirvana. Although God cannot be described by using concepts and notions, that does not mean you cannot experience God the Father. If the wave does not have to die to become water, then we do not have to die to enter the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is available here and now. The energy of the Holy Spirit is the energy that helps us touch the Kingdom of God. Tillich has said that Speaking of God as a person is just a figure of speech. He said that God is the ground of being. This makes me think of the water that is the ground of being for the wave. He also said that God is the ultimate reality, and that makes me remember Nirvana. I do not think that there is much difference between Christians and Buddhists. Most of the boundaries we have created between our two traditions are artificial. Truth has no boundaries. Our differences may mostly the differences in emphasis.”
