Ever prayed to God?

[zeebo phillips]

You could apply the same thing you said about rules in Buddhism to any form of Christianity or any other religion for that matter. :smokin:

There are some Catholics who don't always follow the rules and just use everything more as a guideline. There are some Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, etc. that also do the same.

But then again, if you ARE religious you have to ask yourself: If God made the rules, does he really want them to be followed in a half-ass manner?

:smokin:

Yeah that's kind of in the direction I was going.

I got myself confused while writing it, haha.

[zeebo phillips]

Why do people in the West always think Buddhism is the answer...

I live in a country where many people practice it, and I have been to many temples and such throughout Asia and I really mostly see alot of incense burning and kneeling before statues of various ancient kings, spirits, landowners, etc... It's not like you go to a Buddhist temple and there are hundreds of monks sitting in the lotus position searching for enlightenment...HAHA!!! :Smokin: In the temples I have been to, all of the monks are selling little doo-dads and asking for donations.

I remember this time in Jiuzhaigou (I believe it is in Northwestern Sichuan province extremely close to Tibet) when I climbed up this mountain for four hours to get to the top. At the top they have this huge temple that was built over a number of years of workers carrying all this material up this huge mountain. There was a monk standing in front of the main hall of the temple banging on a gong, smokin a cigarette, saying, "Give me money! Give me money!"

Is that how you picture Buddhists? Don't leave one religion behind and escape to another one until you do real world research and aren't just living off the image inside your head...

I also see a lot of Buddhists here who are perpetually afraid of ghosts and spirits. They always leave offering of fruit and such at the door and burn incense and chant and such not in an attempt to find enlightenment but in an attempt to ward off evil spirits and bring in good luck and money.

The pictures are of Jiuzhaigou. Enjoy! :smokin:

I never said Buddhism is the answer, I'm just saying it generally has better morals, for me at least.

[Binzhoubum]

Hey guys! Don't get me wrong...I am not bashing Buddhism. In fact, I agree with many teachings of Buddhism and try to live my life accordingly. :smokin:

Except for that vegetarian thing...HAHA! That ain't happenin'!

I guess I was just trying to make the point that: All the icons we associate with a religion and all the ideas that such iconography has created within our minds, coupled with our own unique social and cultural contexts and upbringings often brings to mind the wrong concept of a religion and what it stands for...

:smokin:

[Binzhoubum]

I never said Buddhism is the answer, I'm just saying it generally has better morals, for me at least.

Buddha and Jesus, for all intensive purposes, taught the same morals and principles to live by. They more or less just disagreed about what happened if you followed these principles and why you should.

I found this on the internet and thought it was interesting:

Buddhism is not a religion. It is about ending suffering. It teaches you how to end your suffering. It is common platform so every body can practice the teachings no matter what religion you are in.

:smokin:

[mrdevious]

Buddhism is not a religion. It is about ending suffering. It teaches you how to end your suffering. It is common platform so every body can practice the teachings no matter what religion you are in.

While that's true, it's also a bit oversimplified. It teaches a philosophy to end suffering in ones-self and to those around you. The idea is to attain an extinction of the ego, the concept of "self", which leads to an end to suffering. But it also teaches, through lifting the illusion of "self", that compassion for all life is not just essential, but logical. When the ego is gone, one realizes that the end to suffering for your own being is no more or less important than ending suffering for all other beings. It is the conditioned ego that convinces us that our own needs are somehow more important than that of any other life, which suffers just as you do.

[braddog10]

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Braddog-

I was just wondering what your opinion is reagarding my situation.

I grew up in a household that wasn't very religious but they all believed in the Bible and Christianity and all of that good stuff. As a child, I went to church two times a week and was involved in a Bible study group known as AWANA. I deeply believed everything I was told to be true in that Baptist church, and basically it just made me scared that I was going to hell unless I behaved just like all the adults around me. I really looked up to those people for some time until I got older and realized they all had problems and were all sinning just as much as everyone I knew who didn't go to church.

This observation started making me question the validity of the Christian faith. I guess my young mind couldn't comprehend why people who preach love, peace, goodwill toward man, marital fidelity, abstinence from stealing, not taking the Lord's name in vain, etc...would also be capable of ignoring most everything they claimed to deeply believe when they were not in church. I figured that maybe some other religion held the answers. Or perhaps maybe it was just the Baptist's who were wrong. Now I was only about 12 or 13 at this time, but I guess this initial immature thought lead to a deep investigation of most of the world's religions and my decision to major in Philosophy while in college.


After trying different denominations within the Christian faith, attending a few Hindu worship services with some Indian mates, reading the Quran and listening to my Lebanese friend explain it to me during late-night talks at the Sunoco he worked at, coming to Asia and viewing Buddhist temples, while all the while reading about and trying to comprehend the major tenets of the world's religions, I came to the conclusion and belief that religion IS useful but only as a framework and that books such as the Bible, Quran, the Vedas, etc. should not be taken literally but used as a sort of foundation upon which to build the virtues preached within each of the respective books.

I have read these books with an open mind, but something inside me cannot accept some of the more mystical statements. I am unable to logically understand how any of these religions could be completely true word for word. I believe that the most important thing we can learn from these religions are the major tenets that they all preach---i.e., don't steal, don't kill, be good to your neighbor, etc.

I guess, and maybe I am wrong, but I truly feel this way, that if you are a geniunely good person and you make an attempt to be a good person while you are on this Earth, that God, if he does exist, could not hold you responsible for not believing the CORRECT religion.

Doesn't that kind of scare you too? I mean if God does in fact love us and wants us to be with him in His heavenly kingdom, why would he throw so many other religions out there? To test us? That scares me...I mean we have no real way of telling which religion is correct or incorrect, it's all based on faith! What if someone is a good person and chooses the "wrong" religion? Why would God play games with us like that?

I suppose I will just go on trying to be a friendly, helpful person while I am here, and hope for the best.

The only religion, which I don't really like to label it as anyway, that I have found appealing to me are religions in the tradition of Buddhism or Hinduism; however, I don't buy into all the idol worship and incense burning ceremonies. I only find their respective ideas and tenets to be more reasonable than other religions.

How could anyone else tell someone that their religion or belief system is wrong unless they were in fact God?!

__________________
:smokin:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is alot to this, It will a bit lengthy to atempt to address just the first part. One thing that struck me, are similarities with something I haden't seen before. My wife and I housed a Satanic ritual abuse victim. We knew her issues to a degree and to offer spiritual aid was our primary goal. We learned a tremendous amount during this time, she was fractured into countless multiple personalities, we learned from one of the adolescents, (who is a part of her), some of the activities involved. It may not make much difference but we do know that she was at least a third generation practicing satanist. Her father was actually very high up in the local organization.

These poor kids are lead to do sick things with others, themselves, animals, whatever.....then afterward.... told how unworthy they are,...â?�look what you did!!! God does not like you!!!....He hates you! He condemns this!..... people dressed in police uniforms and would do disgusting things, some even in clerical robes.

Itâ??s hard for me to understand this, I do know that there is primarily demonic possession and control at these times.
Can you imagine?......... the systematic destruction of safety, and security, .....the loss of respect and trust, .....the fear and avoidance of authorities, ........ the abuses by authorities......Starting to sound familiar?


What we suffered growing up binzhoubum, was the effects of a â??Spirit of Religionâ?� it is similar, for it is demonic. The situation above is an extreme case, but much clarity can be gained by the comparison of extreme cases, a popular tool especially used in calculus, to observe the end result of something. The methodologies vary to a degree but primarily in there severity, the fruit however is the same. If A = C, and B=C, then A=B.



I should qualify,.... that the grasp ..that ..the â??Spirit of religionâ?� has on many churches has greatly diminished but only to the degree of which religion has been rejected in the lives of those that are involved in the given church. The lord has imparted much insight now concerning this, largely through the honesty on the part of leadership and others worn out by the burden of carrying the weight of self righteousness, And finally accept His imputed righteousness He has provided for us. This is when we change, when we are smitten with his provision, especially after laboring ourselves, It makes it all the more special,...... at least a consolation.

This subject could easily take volumes. I could define terms which would help but one is necessary .... ~ Self righteousness ~ , the quote â??people of Godâ?� during Jesus earthly period were under the delusion that their own righteous acts provided them refuge. The fruit of this error is ugly and would require time to explain, ...However.... Jesus, to break them out of this, said some shocking things, â??If your righteousness does not exceed the most disciplined religious man you will not enter. He expanded the ten commandments, If you have hated your brother....you are guilty of murder. If you dig the chick in the skirt or tight jeans and find you imagination wandering......you are guilty of the sin of adultery. He made this clear through the entirety of His earthly ministry, that this level of righteousness is impossible in our skin. To place a final nail, He said if we are guilty of one, we are guilty of all. The possibility of our own righteousness is road kill, to remain in the road and to be repeatedly run over by traffic.

Religion comes in through our pride, In our skin.......we donâ??t want to need God. We want to be Ok,....Sure relationship with Him is fine, But,......Hey God!......Man! Iâ??ll beat this! Forgive me for now! But Iâ??ll whip this thing!!! Not realizing that this is just one of the many cars in the traffic that will smear us across the pavement. He says All who are weary come to me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, I will also lead you to places that you know not, and have no ability to get to on your own. Back then they would never yoke two new ox â??s together, they place the new ox with one familiar with the path.

â??If we say ..We have no sin, then the truth is not in us and we make Him out to be a liarâ?�. ....

Religion is slave driver It greats heavily on me to face Him as a failure in some ways. The temptation is strong. The need to be Ok....

We must be very honest here our selves, the deception, the delusion is too great. I could go around slamming the church, others, whatever, and find myself having fallen right into it myself, I must also not allow myself to be deluded to think that I am totally free from it. It (this demon) works extremely hard against the church. To get a believer, a church or denomination to look to ones self for satisfaction of ones own righteousness, is to ensnare them, big time.

It is imperative to accept appropriate humility, realizing that I suffer the same disease. When I do so, I can love others through this, and be the spiritual one that the lord can use to remove the speck from my brothers eye. Even though ......I am the leper, and I am the blind man.

Well, to conclude, to labor under this perception of God as a the harsh task master making all jump thru these impossible hoops, the "religious" church and parents, claim that X, Y, and Z. Are Good and Imperative, but reality reveals itâ??s absence, respect of authority is castrated, God, Parents,

...Remember,.....then afterward.... told how unworthy they are,...â?�look what you did!!! God does not like you!!!....He hates you! He condemns this!..... .. . . .again, sound familiar?...... (what ever they despise), Subconsciously accepts other behaviors (hay there socially acceptable, In my circles). Historically,.how about slavery, the civil war, preached from the southern pulpits. Did they here God, Or were they operating under a political spirit, that has been so prevalent thru the time of the prophets thru the period of the kings clear to today......Speaking basically what people want to hear. We desperately need God.... Is the world laboring under a false perception of God???
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[Binzhoubum]

Very interesting. :smokin:

I think the majority of the world is laboring under a false perception of God. Or perhaps it's more of a misconception.

:stoned:

[braddog10]

I never said Buddhism is the answer, I'm just saying it generally has better morals, for me at least.

Hey Zeeb, Interesting sig......I have to chuckle everytime I see that.

[Sun Is Shining]

I have prayed before...whether or not there is a God...I found it to be therapeutic at the time. I've been raised Jewish..though I really do not follow any of the "guidelines" in my religion. I've never been one for organized religion much, as I find myself too open-minded to dismiss anyone's beliefs entirely. Do I think it's likely there is a God? No, I don't. But I can't bring myself to completely dismiss the possibility one may exist.

[zeebo phillips]

Hey Zeeb, Interesting sig......I have to chuckle everytime I see that.

Hahahaha, thanks dear.