Heavy title, right? :) I'm going to type up a few passages from the Dalai Lama's The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus that illuminate my spiritual attraction to Buddhism and how it jibes with my Christian, specifically Mormon, beliefs.
First, a personal anecdote to show you where I've come from. NOTE: These are my impressions, thoughts, and what I've personally learned. If they do not match your experience or understanding exactly, that's to be expected: no one is the same, no one has had the same experiences, and no one understands everything in the exact same way. So it makes sense that God would reveal Himself and communicate with us differently. I will try not to be disrespectful in any way, so as to avoid causing offense or grief. God is a personal experience for us all. I want to share some of what has expanded my understanding of and relationship with God.
God the Power
I grew up believing, for whatever reason, whether it was my own obtuseness or the misinterpretation of my classes or teachers, or whatever--I grew up thinking of God as some guy (well, two guys, Heavenly Father and Jesus) who were somehow more than mortal, floating up in space somewhere, who created the universe and were watching us very carefully to keep track of our good and bad deeds so that they (undercapitalized on purpose) could send the appropriate and respective blessings and punishments. Somehow, although they are physical beings, they can be everywhere and in everything all at once.
I've been on a very intense scripture study for the last few months, keeping notes, asking questions, investigating my beliefs and religion. I've learned a lot.
One of the most enlightening and exciting developments has been that I developed this idea, through study, prayer, and honest, thorough thought, that God is a power. God is the power of everything that is. God is truth. God is reality. So God is in everything. You can point to anything, and that's God. Heat. Gravity. Light. Sound. Love. Compassion. As it says in Doctrine and Covenants 88:6-13:
"He
that ascended up on high [Christ], as also he descended below all things, in
that he comprehended all things, that he might be in all and through
all things, the light of truth;
Which
truth shineth. This is the light of Christ. As also he is in the sun,
and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made.
As
also he is in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power
thereof by which it was made;
As
also the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they were
made;
And
the earth also, and the power thereof, even the earth upon which you
stand,
And
the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who
enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your
understandings;
Which
light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity
of space--
The
light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which
is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God
who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is
in the midst of all things."
And 88:41:
"He
comprehendeth all things, and all things are before him, and all
things are round about him; and he is above all things, and in all
things, and is through all things, and is round about all things' and
all things are by him, and of him, even God, forever and ever."
These are hugely beautiful passages to me. I came to this conclusion and testimony that God is a power and then read this and it was amazing to have my "own" discovery (ahem, truth revealed through the Spirit of God) substantiated in print.
So, God is a power. Christ the person is God because He is within God the power. He is a part of that power as the Son of God because He was conceived by the power of God and subsumed into God the power through the process of the atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection. The actual mechanics of all that is something I'm looking into, as much as is possible, through my own study and through reading the thoughts and insights of Christian theologians. :)
Causality: Commandments and Karma
So, God the power existed before Christ, although Christ has become God through becoming one with God the power. This idea of God, as the "ground of being," or "base of reality," makes so much sense and is so clear and comforting to me.
My next discovery was the idea that God the person does not just sit in heaven waiting for us to screw up so he can punish us, or to obey him so he can bless us. The reason God has given us commandments, through His prophets and the scriptures, is because God the person knows how God the power operates. God the person wants us to be happy, so He has told us how we are to interact with God the power (or "the law," as I call it in my study journal) so that we can obtain blessings. We are told that if we act certain ways, we can expect certain results: if we obey the commandments, we will receive blessings; if we disobey the commandments, we will receive punishments.
It's like teaching someone about gravity: If you jump off the building, you will go splat. It's not like the person teaching about gravity is waiting for the person to jump so that they can inflict the splattening. They understand the law of gravity and have communicated what will happen if the person jumps off the building. It's up to the person how they will interact with the law.
The same thing goes for God's laws. Doctrine and Covenants 130:20-21:
"There
is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of
this world, upon which all blessings are predicated--
And
when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law
upon which it is predicated."
This fits exactly with my understanding of karma in Buddhism: "In the
Gospel passage [John 12:44-50], Jesus says, 'I have not come to
judge....the word I have spoken will be his judge....' I feel this
closely reflects the Buddhist idea of karma. There is not an
autonomous being 'out there' who arbitrates what you should
experience and what you should know; instead, there is the truth
contained in the causal principle itself. If you act in an ethical or
disciplined way, desirable consequences will result; if you act in a
negative or harmful way, then you must face the consequences of that
action as well. The truth of the law of causality is the judge, not a
being or person who is handing out judgments." (The Dalai Lama, The Good Heart, 115)
So, first point for why Buddhism makes so much philosophical/theological sense to me: karma and how God's law operate. They're both causal relationships. They're both natural laws.
Creation and Interdependence
Second point for Buddhism and me: Creation and karma. I'm going to start with a quote from the Dalai Lama from the same book, which will seem a little confusing at first, since he's talking about how Christians and Buddhists cannot possibly share anything in the way of belief in a divine creation or creator. But bear with me:
"The entire Buddhist worldview is based
on a philosophical standpoint in which the central thought is the
principle of interdependence, how all things and events come into
being purely as a result of interactions between causes and
conditions. Within that philosophical worldview it is almost
impossible to have any room for an atemporal, eternal, absolute
truth. Nor is it possible to accommodate the concept of a divine
Creation. Similarly, for a Christian whose entire metaphysical
worldview is based on a belief in the Creation and a divine Creator,
the idea that all things and events arise out of mere interaction
between causes and conditions has no place within that worldview." (The Good Heart, 82)
Ok, I don't want to second-guess the Dalai Lama. And let me say now, to be clear, I definitely believe in a divine Creator. I'm a Christian, after all. But I personally don't see the disconnect between the two theologies. Why can't God the power be the engine that started and sustains interdependence? We've already talked about God's law and commandments and how they are a causal relationship, like karma. God the power and the person operate in natural laws, because God is the law. So I see interdependence as another facet or manifestation of God the power, of "the law."
It's like how I don't see why there's tension between evolutionists and creationists. Why can't God use evolution in creation? He is all-powerful, after all, and understands how things work. I'm totally comfortable with God and evolution co-existing and being part of each other.
Anyways...
So, that's some of what I've put together thus far. What I've learned about the nature of God and how serious Christian scripture study and studying Buddhism. I love how they teach and how they work together. I love what I've learned and my deepened, enriched understanding of and relationship with God.
More uplifting passages and hopefully helpful thoughts to come. Thanks for reading. :)
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