How do feel about the Dalai Lama talking a Christian scripture and reinterpreting it in ways that some Christians would disagree with to find common ground?
You can discuss the differences with me. I won't develop an allergy. Promise!
LOL Thank you.
The version of scripture he chose I'm not familiar with but it has the same meaning. I only have a few I understand the best.
How do I say this, I honestly don't agree with finding commonalities among religious faiths. It isn't like finding what's in common in two friends personalities and interests. Religion is very individual at the core and when someone is likened to someone else outside of that religion at it's core insults the very religions that maintain its strength by their community or self-sustained.
I do agree that both Jesus and The Buddha says to put it simply humans "walk in darkness." What I disagree with is the nature of the darkness they walk in. The Dalai Lama, to me, simplifies darkness to make the two connect. By Buddhist sect, they don't connect at all.
For example,
Then Jesus cried out, "Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.
To buddhanise it, it would be:
Then The Buddha taught "Whosoever believes The Dhamma does not believe in me [as savior] but only of the teacher who taught the Dhamma. The one who is my student will knows The Dhamma. The one who is a student to himself, IS The Dhamma.
Very different context. In Christianity, salvation does not exist without Christ. In Buddhism, The Dhamma was there before The Buddha was born. In Christianity, Christians are give a new life. In Buddhism, The Buddha had lived many lives, but he wasn't given something new but realized something old.
But if anyone hears my words and disregards them, I am not his judge; I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world. There is a judge for anyone who rejects me and does not accept my words; the word I have spoken will be his judge on the last day.
But if anyone hears my words and disregards them, I am not the judge. I have come...to save the world. There is only one law of life which is kamma that one does not realize (rather than reject) but ignorant of. If you don't accept my words, your actions and illusions will make you fall into less healthy conditions than if you'd understand The Dhamma from a Buddha or Bodhisattva, than the Dhamma you receive is correct.
The isn't a judge so the authoritative nature behind followers motivations between the two religions are different. They build different karma. The Buddha saves lives by sacrificing attachments of the mind. Christ saves lives by telling Christians to sacrifice themselves-their flesh.
or I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say."
The Buddha isn't given words to say but he express words through dialogue rather than commands. He leads people to practice the teachings for themselves.
So, I think the Dalai Lama is building a surface level of similar virtues () that both Bahai and Buddhist believe all humans share. Buddhist do acknowledge the differences of religions but unlike Bahai, the similarities don't include god.
Jesus said that a prophet was without honour in His hometown.
One of the distinguishing features of the Manifestations of God is their enduring legacy in spite of opposition.
Nichiren Shonin,a Buddhist Monk, was imprisoned, tortured, and just got out of being beheaded when he found his "enlightenment" as a votary of The Lotus Sutra. He was imprisoned for spreading the The Buddha's teachings.
Interesting on that note, I was listening to a Dhamma talk earlier and the nun says that in Tibet, I think, and other countries in X year (have to go back and find it) could not pray any of The Buddha's prayers. They couldn't have buddhist books. If they spoke of The Buddha, the authorities imprisoned them.
This made me think of the validity of Nichiren Shonin's teachings. He was born in 1222. There was a Japanese war at that time and different Buddhist practitioners also had civil wars among themselves.
I'm sure a lot of people died in their faiths. I would think there'd be more than five manifestations if the whole world's religions where taken into consideration not the top five.