Posted on 07/02/2024 7:07:09 PM PDT by DallasBiff
Zen, important school of East Asian Buddhism that constitutes the mainstream monastic form of Mahayana Buddhism in China, Korea, and Vietnam and accounts for approximately 20 percent of the Buddhist temples in Japan. The word derives from the Sanskrit dhyana, meaning “meditation.” Central to Zen teaching is the belief that awakening can be achieved by anyone but requires instruction in the proper forms of spiritual cultivation by a master. In modern times, Zen has been identified especially with the secular arts of medieval Japan (such as the tea ceremony, ink painting, and gardening) and with any spontaneous expression of artistic or spiritual vitality regardless of context. In popular usage, the modern non-Buddhist connotations of the word Zen have become so prominent that in many cases the term is used as a label for phenomena that lack any relationship to Zen or are even antithetical to its teachings and practices
(Excerpt) Read more at britannica.com ...
Flame away
You can be both.
Zen is basically resignation, since it does not recognize the God of Heaven and Earth.
As a Christian, when terrible things happen, I can have faith that in the overall picture, the misfortune has a place in God’s plan. I can tell you that my misfortunes have served to teach me some lessons.
In Zen Buddhism, you are working out the wrongs in your life or a previous life. There is no grace or forgiveness in Zen Buddhism. That’s why there is so much suffering in places like India. They consider it a kindness to let you work out your suffering.
Zen is basically resignation, since it does not recognize the God of Heaven and Earth.
As a Christian, when terrible things happen, I can have faith that in the overall picture, the misfortune has a place in God’s plan. I can tell you that my misfortunes have served to teach me some lessons.
In Zen Buddhism, you are working out the wrongs in your life or a previous life. There is no grace or forgiveness in Zen Buddhism. That’s why there is so much suffering in places like India. They consider it a kindness to let you work out your suffering.
Zen - Don’t even think about it
You can be Catholic and Buddhist at the same time - like you can be a vegan and a Catholic...or an artist and a Catholic.
Not really. You either believe that Jesus is the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified and died on our behalf, rose again, and sends forth the Holy Spirit (also God) to live within us…or you don’t. (This is a simplified version of the Apostle’s Creed, and incomplete.)
Buddhists do not believe in God. They believe in karma. Totally, totally different.
You can’t believe in the Trinity and be a Buddhist at the same time. They are incompatible.
Over the centuries, religious beliefs have accrued around the original teachings and many Buddhists do hold such religious ideas.
But the Buddha's teachings (assuming he really existed) have no religious baggage. They are about understanding yourself. It is perfectly compatible to accept Buddhist philosophy and also believe in some religion, or be an atheist.
“a God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones;
who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one;
who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short;
who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it;
who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body;
who mouths justice and invented hell—mouths mercy and invented hell—mouths Golden Rules, and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell;
who mouths morals to other people and has none himself;
who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all;
who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man’s acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself;
and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to worship him!”
-Mark Twain
So why not give as much attention to the one you are "nominally" following as you would to the new one and see what happens?
Try finding a church you like and attending Mass faithfully.
Start observing the rites and rituals you have been avoiding.
Study the principles and rules.
Open your heart to what you learn rather then filtering it through your old stale preconceptions.
You might find that you are actually where you should be.
“What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
“Whiff whiff whiff?”
“Throw that stupid bastard out of the monastery.”
Who found fault with everything but himself.
*** They are about understanding yourself.***
My understanding is that it goes further than this. There is no Holy Spirit. Which means there is no God, nor any Jesus Christ.
I am not a student of Buddhism, other than I have discussed this with the few Buddhists that I do know. I have been told that they do NOT believe in any God, but I assert, if there isn’t one true God, then you have fashioned one for yourself.
I do not hold followers of Buddhism in contempt. On the contrary, I pray for them, that true wisdom comes to them.
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.
So in order to have Wisdom, you need to first understand that the Lord is real, not some fairy tale.
Well said. I echo this advice.
One of the topics that isn’t discussed enough in the Christian church is why suffering happens. It’s very simple as to why it happens.
Our ears burn at the honest truth as to why it happens. Everything in life can be explained in terms of consequences.
God gave us the tools, through His Word and the natural world consequences the tools to build a nice world. A plentiful world. A world without pain and suffering.
How many of us live our lives that respect consequences and learn the rules of goodness, as defined by the Bible? Very few I say.
What is God supposed to do, outside of being a tyrant of the worst order to get us to live the kind of life where we make lives better?
The liberal thinks the solution to a good life requires tyranny and the willingness to kill people who fail to be good enough by the standard of the liberal. That is the liberal arguement for goodness and it comes straight from Satan.
God is not ignorant of suffering. He sees every one of his children when they are in pain and damaged in their ability to respond to goodness.
The angels were not spared. Those who held fast in Heaven, while their family and friends rebelled. They are going to see fellow angels that were once closely bonded to them be thrown in the hell fire and destroyed.
God has spared nobody, not even Himself. The reason being is that, when we get to Heaven and are translated and be given that second chance that we all wish we could have, we will by free will and choice, walk that narrow walk that is required for a paradisiacal eternity.
A high school friend of mine had his father convert to Zen-ism from Judaism. He shaved his head and converted one room in the house to a “Zen Room.”
We nicknamed their 1966 VW Bug to the “Zenmobile” in honor of his beliefs.
Another fellow I knew had an orange Toyota Corolla with the license plate ZENFLOW. That car ended up being crushed by a falling oak tree in a thunderstorm.
This all transpired in the 1977-1981 time frame.
That’s about all I know about all things Zen, other than also having read the book about motorcycle maintenance.
I’m not 100% sure, but the person I had a lengthy discussion with, I think is a Zen Buddhist. He does describe it as a philosophy, a way of life, but he does acknowledge karma as a real phenomenon for poor choices that we make.
He definitely definitely definitely doesn’t believe in the Christian God, Jesus as the Son, nor the Holy Spirit. He has made that very clear.
Mind you, he is an extremely nice person from another country where Buddhism is practiced by many. He is happy to be an American citizen, and sometimes I like to pick his brain on things. I like to think we respect each other and even our faith differences. We are kind but straightforward with each other. Maybe we are just exploring what the other thinks.
When the conversation begins to be too “heavy” we switch topics and stay in more safe issues, like how was the weather on your recent trip? Can you believe the price of groceries these days?
I’m just telling you of my experience with someone who professes to be a Buddhist.
“You can be both.”
Ephesians 4:14
(one version) “Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.”
Also you may want to check out the first of the Ten Commandments. It’s the big one. It says to have no other gods beside HIM. (IE: idols/lucky charms/lean on anything or any person - even the foolish dead people like buddha, Mohamed, etc who swayed millions of people telling them they could find peace (or whatever) inside yourself, in stead of what God says that we humans cannot have peace (or do any good thing) without HIM.
“ You can be both.”
“ It is perfectly compatible to accept Buddhist philosophy and also believe in some religion, or be an atheist.”
What gives you this idea?
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