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To: mlo; DallasBiff

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.


7 posted on 07/02/2024 7:44:52 PM PDT by FamiliarFace (I got my own way of livin' But everything gets done With a southern accent Where I come from. TPetty)
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To: FamiliarFace
"Buddhists do not believe in God. They believe in karma. Totally, totally different."

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.

8 posted on 07/02/2024 7:57:30 PM PDT by mlo
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To: FamiliarFace; Jonty30

“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


9 posted on 07/02/2024 8:03:59 PM PDT by pigeoninthepark
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To: FamiliarFace
The OP concerns ZEN Buddhism. Zen Buddhists do not believe in reincarnation, worship of deities or karma. Zen is, if pigeonholed, more concerned with meditation and mindfulness than anything else.

Having said that, Pope John Paul II issued a warning against Catholics studying Zen. For what it's worth, of course.
12 posted on 07/02/2024 8:14:09 PM PDT by Retrofitted
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