Secret Chief
Very strong language
Yes, I was just checking that was what you meant.
My original comment was not meaning all Buddhist traditions/schools, (same as with Hinduism I think). - post #3 "within"
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Can Religion Exist Without God?
- Thread starter Exaltist Ethan
- Start date
My original comment was not meaning all Buddhist traditions/schools, (same as with Hinduism I think). - post #3 "within"
firedragon
Veteran Member
Yes, I was just checking that was what you meant.
My original comment was not meaning all Buddhist traditions/schools, (same as with Hinduism I think). - post #3 "within"
I think in Hinduism, the Advaita is a smaller school of thought. So it's not the same as the Buddhists who worship things. I mean, the comparison as percentages in my opinion is not similar. But I guess this would also depend on what someone defines God is. Some people define the word God as the Supreme one God as in monotheism. But even in any school of monotheism the word is also used to define even your own ego when you worship your own ego. So God is anything that you worship.
But I am not very sure about the Zen Buddhists in lets say Japan. I know that there too people worship the Buddha. They ask for things from him. Just like in India and Sri Lanka. Even in the Itipiso Gatha, when you say Dheva manussaanang buddha bagavathi it is referring to Gods and Humans. That means the Buddha is above the Gods and Humans.
It's a line that's very difficult to draw.
I know your question was valid. I was just giving examples so that you exactly know what I mean. You know in most of the temples in Southeast Asia, there are various statues of Gods around. Many a time, they have a small Devala with a particular God or a few in it where people go and worship them.
Well hell, even the Jathaka Vatthu's have so many Gods in them. Including Kali. Including Sakra the God with a 1000 eyes. He is the God who bit through the ropes the wood was tied with when a woman tried to defame the Buddha with tied wood inside her clothes pretending to be pregnant by him.
Anyway, Secret Chief. You've been missing haven't you?
Secret Chief
Very strong language
Not that I'm aware of! You must have taken me off Ignore
Anyhoo, yeah gods. Tricky things definitions. For a secular zennist like me devas inhabiting the thirty one (?) planes of existence is...not really something I'm onboard with. I can accept something like the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara representing an embodiment (of compassion) rather than be seen as a "god." At the other end of the spectrum, the Vajrayana tradition seem well big into their deities...
firedragon
Veteran Member
Not that I'm aware of! You must have taken me off Ignore
Lol. Im sorry. Sometimes I don't remember avatar names. I honestly remembered you by the way you wrote the second post, not by name. So I must apologise.
Anyhoo, yeah gods. Tricky things definitions. For a secular zennist like me devas inhabiting the thirty one (?) planes of existence is...not really something I'm onboard with. I can accept something like the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara representing an embodiment (of compassion) rather than be seen as a "god." At the other end of the spectrum, the Vajrayana tradition seem well big into their deities...
Hmm. I'm not clued on these things. Though I ordered and got the book Mystic realist, I still have not read beyond the TOC.
Ashoka
श्री कृष्णा शरणं मम
Why did I forget that?
Haha! It's not the most well known.
Balthazzar
N. Germanic Descent
I would suggest yes, and by definition of, as it relates to my personal view of God as a panentheist. Others would disagree based on their own.