BB Part Two

It has also been surmised by historians, that because the Nazarene Sermon on the Mount contains that wonderful mixture of faith and reason. Such as - blessed are the peacemakers - rather than in commands like - thou Shalt, the Mount Sermon appears more like the sweet reasonabless of Greek philosophy than that of the Bible. Maybe it is true that the young Jesus attended the Great Libary of Alexandria, as has been perceived by scholars.

Unfortunately, it seems according to history, that the Trinitarian Christians, unlike the Nestorians, gradually developed a hatred of the Great Library calling its Greek architects, Pagans, reaching the stage in AD 11, that they sacked and badly damaged the buldings, as well as stoning to death a woman teacher philosopher Hypatia, who is also said to have had Christian connections.

Must also thank our contributors who carried on with the story of Alexander's Great Library, telling how in the AD 600 years the library was burnt and pretty well destroyed by the Caliphates.

Now that is interesting because the Caliphates were mostly Persian and have been commended by historians for helping dig our Western ancestors out of the Dark Ages and onto the Age of Reason and the Age of Enlightenment.

Looks like there appears to have been enmity between the followers of Greek philosophy themselves. Something about Aristotle, who actually taught the young Alexander the Great.

Thanks, mates, would like to hear more about it.

Cheerio - BB - WA.

To get back to the article, if I may, surely the most relevant thing is not what clerics argue is the faith, but what most people make of it. In the religion of my upbringing, Judaism, I have read much about the theory, which is based only partly on the Bible and mostly on interpretation, have been sermonized often about what I should do and believe, but in fact have met very few Jews who actually follow the Rabbis. I have also met a number of Rabbis who bend the rules like crazy.

Religion is what a significant body of followers actually believe and do, and this changes with time. Islam changes just as much as Christianity. Problems occur when religion and politics mix.

And bushbred, I think you will find that Jesus didn't change Judaism nearly as much as you think. The unique Christian content occurred long after his death.

Goodthief, Sam explained a bit. This is about Buddhism, so anybody irritated about this, stop reading now.

Buddhism is not at all about suppressing emotion or being unemotional. On the contrary. Very, very simply, it asks you to think about what makes you feel anger and unhappy or joy and happines. So, it is about becoming more aware, about things like greed, envy and attachment. The goal is to be happy and joyful.

If you ever get to converse with a seriously practicing Buddhist, what is striking is the sense of humour and joy. Not different really to seriously practising Christians. Just the path is somewhat different. You are to discover truths to be true yourself. You are not to take anybody's word without question and personal contemplation. Not even teachings from the Buddha. Therefore, there is absolutely no 'missionary' work to 'convert'. That is not possible.

Incidentally, the Buddha is silent on the existence or not of God or even Gods. This is a truth you have to discover for yourself.

Sam & Yvonne,

I’m suffering from empathy failure, here. Motley points:

i) I don’t think I’d have the patience to make a very good Buddhist: not too flash at meditating, I think.

ii) If I were to meditate (with my regular Christian hat on), I’d be seeking out the scent that I believe God has probably left on his creation. Because I consider God to be love, then the scent might be profoundly lovely in that sense.

iii) How does the Buddhist explain, in the absence of creation and ongoing supervision by a loving God, how love gets into the world?

iv) Sam, Are you talking about removing desire, or governing it? My own attitude is that its removal would actually make me less human. On the other hand, there is a moral obligation that I govern it rather than vice versa.

v) Yvonne, Granted that there is no “converting” agenda. Question: why would a Buddhist be altruistic? So far, your description is of a very private state-of-affairs – private and, potentially, selfish.

(Just curious, and happy to drop it.)

BB, Might logic be right about Jesus not overhauling things? After all, we Christians believe that “the Father” is the same Lord God of Israel we find in the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures.

Pax,

You may have noticed that all the rational people have left this debate, leaving room for the religious to disappear up their own backsides.
Wasn't there something about "how many angels could dance on the head of a pin"? Seems the debate has already reached this level.

pax wrote "Are you talking about removing desire, or governing it?"

...depends on what you want...governing leads to balancing material/spritual in ones life which is what most practicing buddhist achieve...'removing'essentially its asking when I stop all desire then what as there is no drive to act...destiny takes over...which further up on the same scale...Give a example on bible. the 12 disciples of christ...before meeting him were like us, born/lived in this material world of needs, basic to indulgence...after christ were driven men following destiny guided by hand of god...so converting this to buddhist terminology... first part was living with desire, second was other limit of scale...destiny/duty to gods work-important point is the only choice they made was to 'follow''(the voice of destiny)and everything they did was result of this and not of personal choice...question is when were they happier...

To answer that pax old son, you have to find the soft voice of destiny within you(as loud as the sound of wind on a windless day) and make your way to the guided place and circumstances and let go into the unknown abyss to be caught and guided by god in action(as they say...and each of us is given a destiny by god...an act to accomplish...and power to refuse/act against/act blind/accept)...to know...

Every person has a spiritual component and which made more acute when we stop distracting ourselves with desire... awareness and developing this is their choice...its reasonable to say that even the most ardent atheists at moment of certain death would think/hope for god and his grace...so essentially the answer is how strong is the spiritual need in you will determine what you chose to do...

Every religion on earth essentially is different roads that lead to the same place...the same god. A spiritually developed buddhist, jew, christian, hindu, muslim, jain etc ie with a daily meaningful relationship with god should all behave the same among brothers save for cultural tones...

Sam