What makes you differ from mainstream followers of your religion?

[Slaedi7324]

Salaam Aleikum, Asha.

I would realy love to here more about your beleifs, and how they are mentioned in your scripture.

God mentions Buddha twice in the Quran as "Dhul-Kifl," which is a title for Buddha. God praises Buddha as a prophet. The first time Buddha is mentioned in the Quran, he is described as a man of constancy and patience, which is true. He also called him for a righteous man. The second time that he is mentioned, he is praised yet again as the Company of the Good. These describe Buddha, the name is a title for Buddha.

Buddha taught peace and Jihad (i.e striving, good deeds), he met with many of the divine through his asceticism. One of these were Mara (which is Satan), other times he met with God or the Angels. He learned to control his desires and he performed several miracles.

What proves Buddha to be a prophet is that several of his teachings are very similar to Quran, Buddha taught about a messiah will return to restore the true messages of his that has been corrupted. He knew that all the prophets' messages will be destroyed and predicted Muhammad to return and restore them.

He had divine knowledge from God, taught good as God commanded him to. He believed in Brahman, but not through incarnations like Hindus, but either way, the result is the same, God. And therefore, he is a prophet of God. Both mentioned in the scriptures and history to support these ideas.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

What makes you differ from mainstream followers of your religion?

What I find remarkable about Judaism is that the answer would depend almost entirely on how one defines mainstream. I am a synagogue-active ignostic in process, one with an abiding love of Torah and a long standing interest in the history and archaeology of Israel, and yet find myself well within the bell curve of engaged Jews.

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[Katzpur]

Unlike most pantheists, I'm convinced that not only is the universe God, but the universe is conscious

Could you elaborate on "the universe is conscious"?

 

[Asha]

The Buddha clearly preaches that Brahma, a hindu demi-god, is a false God, not worthy of worship, and definitely not the Creator. In fact the Buddha goes to no small length to deny the importance, not existence, but importance of ALL the Hindu gods and goddesses known at the time.

According to our scripture this is because the true Vedic system had become corrupt and that the people were going against true Vedic tradition and were making offerings for material gain, So the way the Buddha dealt with this was to teach against the Vedas in the corrupt form that was being practiced at that point in time.

As a Vaisnava I accept Buddha as an expansion of Vishnu and that Vishnu in turn is an expansion of Mahavishnu. Mahavishnu being another name for the Supreme and not a Demi God.

Demi gods are those invested with temporary powers, these aswell should not be worshiped according to the Vaisnava tradition. I beleive this is what Buddha was teaching asa you will find that many Buddhist countrys still have many references to these demi gods in their culture, but their Temporary position and power is understood.

Then he goes on to preach the source of his wisdom, the emptiness, which means empty of physical form, full of spiritual form. It is my sincere opinion after years of study that the emptiness, the most difficult concept in Buddhism to understand, next to Nirvana, is indeed GOD, ALLAH, know also as the TAO in China, You don't have to believe me, but trust me on this issue Brahma is preached as a false god by the Buddha, Brahma is not ALLAH.

This is true Brahma is a demi god as he was created by Mahavishnu for the purpose of the creation of this material universe, He is not the Supreme, who can be seen as both formless and with form, this too is sometimes difficult to understand. But Brahma and Brahman are quite differnt this is often a source of confusion.

 

[Lyndon]

I'm sorry, I was just presenting my understanding of the Buddha's teaching, not my own Opinion of Brahma or Hindu deities as I have little knowledge of such.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Though my views are not mainstream, but even if they were, I do not try to deceive myself into believing that I am unique. And it takes too much effort into trying to be unique, and by trying to be unique, you are trying to be something other than yourself, and you will always fail because someone has already done it, said it, or thought it.