4 posts tagged “buddhism”

Christianity makes sense to me exactly because it explains what i have been observing and experiencing my entire life, that there is much more pain and suffering than peace and wholeness, not only in the world around me but in myself as well. Christ never ever promised a utopian rose garden where, if one followed Him, there would be happiness and blessings forever more. He said it straight out -- the world hated Him, and so it would hate His followers. When He sent His disciples out, He told them that when, not if, they would suffer persecution and death. However, in their sufferings Jesus promised that His followers would find purpose in their suffering. So much pain and suffering is seen as arbitrary and random -- often good men die and rats get fat. Yet to paraphrase CS Lewis, Christ died not to take away our suffering, but to make our suffering like His.

However, daily crucifixion and tension with a world that we are aliens and strangers too is not the whole story. As the Apostle Paul says, we are resurrected from our crucifixion to a new life, one that can and should be lived abundantly.

"Or have forgotten that when we became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ Jesus, we died with him? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives" (Romans 6:3, 4 NLT).

Joy is a complete mystery to me. I have learned over the years not to trust happiness, as that state of mind is often tied to circumstances beyond our control. One of my favorite movies, Tender Mercies, makes this point very well. Right when things seem to go well, often tragedy will strike. Robert Duval's character Sonny, the washed out yet redeemed country music song writer & singer, perfectly exampled this as he realized at the end of the movie that he had no clue as to why things happened as they do, that he could only trust on the mercy and will of God.

Joy and unhappiness often exist at the same time. It isn't any secret to those who have been reading this for almost a year now that i have been having a really bad day for about the last seven years. It has been a miserable and stark experience. I can count the number of times, on one hand, that i could have said i was happy. Yet at the same time i experienced times of joy so intense that often i was overwhelmed, and could only stare wind eyed in wonder at the love God had for me and had given to me to love others. I came to realize that happiness was dependent upon circumstances, while joy was an inner state of mind. Joy depends upon who we know ourselves to be, or, in my case, who God, thru the power of the Holy Spirit, created out of the ashes of my old, selfish man. Yet make no mistake: I was more often than not, by a wide margin, unhappy and depressed. As i look back with the benefit of hind sight, i realize now that if i wasn't feeling that way, then i probably wouldn't have qualified for the label "sane." These feelings were completely appropriate for the context I found myself in.

I think the key to this ability to be in mourning, or hurting, or depressed while at the same time experiencing intense and overwhelming joy has to do with the ability to crucify ones self and being raised again by the power of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that rose Christ from the dead.. Christianity has these two beliefs (the only agreement, imo) in common with Buddhism -- they both believe that life is suffering and that suffering can be excised. Suffering comes as a result of a person's desires or expectations. Our desires betray us every day, and expectations easily are frustrated due to our lack of ability to control the circumstances and people around us. That we live in such an idealistic society makes sure that more people suffer than ever before. This is why considering one's self as a dead man (or woman) walking can lead to the joy of the dead who resurrect: If one tries to save their life they will lose it, if they give their life away they shall find it.

Without desire or expectation, what can hurt us? I guess i shouldn't say that a Christian doesn't have desires or expectations, i should say that they have been radically translated and altered. Our desires and expectations are to be for the Kingdom of God, and while we are in this state of being all the other stuff we schemed and plotted and worried and obsessed over, things like respect, security, meaning, love, understanding, and even everyday things like food, water, and shelter, shall be provided for us by a loving heavenly Father. It comes down, from the beginning to the end, to trust, faith that God is who He claims He is, that Christ has done what He promised to do, that the Spirit gives these mortal bodies the ability to become disciples. Love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, patience, and self-control -- are not these things, provided for us by the Godhead, the ingredients of an abundant life?

I firmly believe this: i laugh more fully and deeply now after all i have come thru than i did before.

I am really looking forward to tonight's last "Sorprano's" episode. What i have loved since the very first time i watched the very first episode is Chases commitment not to glamorize these thugs. They are brutal and violent people, and Chase has taken great pains not to soften the edge of these people's personalities. That is why i was so surprised about some fan's reactions to the episodes immediately before tonight's episode. I was reading in Friday's USA Today that the last couple of episodes, which saw the demise of several long term characters, were upsetting to some viewers as they had come to see these characters a beloved.

BELOVED!!!!??????

I am continually in awe of the extent of humanity's falleness and their failure to understand evil when its right under their noses. These people, these characters in "The Sorpranos," were not meant to be loved, they are examples of the damage that is inflicted, not only on themselves but on others, when one gives one's self over to the Seven Deadly Sins. It was the same with "Seinfeld's" last episode. Jerry purposely made his characters to be the moral pygmies that New Yorkers are familiar with, the people that represent the banality of of evil in an urban setting -- the petty, the selfish, people who cut in lines and steal taxis away from old men and steal bread from old ladies and who look out only for themselves. These people should have ended up in jail; the last episode was a masterstroke.

I am excited about watching tonight's "Sopranos" because, like the Psalmist often said, the evil dig a pit for the innocent and then fall into the pit they themselves have dug. I wanna watch these people get what they have coming to them because i love the irony. I especially want to see Paulie Walnuts get whacked... There are very few characters in the history of TV as vile as that SOB. There is something satisfying seeing justice done, even if it is fictional.I hope Tony's demise is as satisfying as well.. what a shit and waste of space. My first impression of Tony was that this guy was breathing air that actual people might be about to use. I NEVER saw him as some noble, trapped, hero that was just misunderstood.

After the episode, tho, i know that i will have a lingering feeling of unease at how deeply satisfied i will feel about justice being served to the "Sorpranos." This subject, that of justice and grace, has often been, for me, a source of tension in being a Believer and being in the world but not of it, Although it is satisfying to see justice done, i am very aware of the scandal of grace that is notorious of Christianity. It is exactly where sin abounds most darkly that grace shines all the more brightly. It is also exactly these types of characters that Jesus made the heroes of his parables: whores, liars, cheats, thieves, slacker younger sons and extortion artists pretending to be tax collectors. The villians of his little illustrations were "righteous" people: the priests, Pharisees, the rich, and those who were secure in their own smug knowledge of their innate goodness and moral superiority.

How strange will whatever heaven turns out to be in that those who rightly and justly had justice served while all the while they begged God's mercy and received it? It is reported that a couple of notable serial killers converted to Christianity, one just before his execution, the other before being killed by a fellow prisoner. And our Church building are full of people who, as in the case of the judge who sentenced Paris Hilton and received a standing ovation when he attended worship the Sunday morning after -- i wonder what's gonna happen to them, those so happy and satisfied that justice was served?

I like the fact that God will balance the scales of justice, either thru cause and effect in this lifetime, or that failing, in the time of Judgment after time is ended. I hate Buddhism with a passion because they try to reduce life, and therefore suffering, into some kind of unreal illusion. I think stuff, really henious shit, like a Nazi slaughter of Jews in some small forgotten village in Ukraine or Russia ("Everything is Illuminated"),should be answered for, and i think i am lucky in that it is God who orchestrates justice and vengance. It isn't some kind of dream that means nothing... that didn't really exist. I hate Rationalism for the same reason, because if everything really is meaningless, arbitrary and random, then nothing means anything. I love Christianity because of this strange and counter intuitive grace and in that at the same time justice will eventually be served and all accounts settled. My satisfaction is tempered by the fact that i wasn't any better than Tony or Paulie and God gave me grace. I shoulda been whacked as well, but God loved me before i knew Him and decided to have mercy on my idiot ass.

I've been getting quite the kick out of the whole atheism debate that has been building over the last several years. At first i was a little concerned, as i HATE ideology, and this particular "ism" has been responsible for turning Eastern Europe, Russia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, and China into one vast unmarked graveyard (and makes me thankful for the Second Ammendment, ironically brought to us by functioning atheists that were also humanists, such an animal as has never seen again here in the States since, unfortunately).

But now i am relaxed again, because i remember that most of these rationalists, these empirical, dateless, joyless wonders, are such a small part of the American culture as to be considered shades in a Greek tragedy, ghosts walking among us that occasionally make a racket before everyone forgets about them all over again. Over 90% of Americans believe that there is a God, and that God loves them. Figure the other 9.9% as agnostic, and you can kinda get a picture of just how small and elitist this bunch is, their influence far in disprorportion to their actual numbers. The ONLY reason numbnuts like Sam Harris or wingnuts like Dawkins are even on the cultural scene is because everyone considers their beliefs so outrageously insane that they are largely a curiosity, a novelty act that are promoted for their entertainment value. It turns out you think your hearing a human being talking, but it turns out to be only the wind in the leaves.

The question is not if God exists, it is how a world of deeply flawed people who believe differently and repeatedly falls for that old temptation, the will to power, can exist together in some type of workable tolerance. People are wired to worship -- hell, even Buddhism, which is atheism with spiritual trappings, isn't all that evangelical about denouncing people who believe in God -- which even atheists do, as instead of God they enshrine rationalism or the intellect, and bow down low, which makes them twice the hypocrits they denounce. Like Dylan said once, everyone serves somebody or something. So i will still glance over all those blogs written by atheists and tagged in the christian, christianity, or religion subjects, as otherwise, who would even care? But no more of my writing space will be used on this dead subject...

You scored as Christianity.
Your views are most similar to those of Christianity. Do more research on Christianity and possibly consider being baptized and accepting Jesus, if you aren't already Christian. Christianity is the second of the Abrahamic faiths; it follows Judaism and is followed by Islam. It differs in its belief of Jesus, as not a prophet nor historical figure, but as God in human form. The Holy Trinity is the concept that God takes three forms: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Ghost (sometimes called Holy Spirit). Jesus taught the idea of instead of seeking revenge, one should love his or her neighbors and enemies. Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross to save humankind and forgive people's sins.
Christianity 92% Judaism 67% Buddhism 63% Islam 50% Paganism 25% Hinduism 17% agnosticism 17% Satanism 8% atheism 0%

Wow. Can't say i was suprised.

I liked this test because it gives you an idea about just how sympathetic you might be to other religions. Although i already knew there are similar parallels in the big four as represented in the above, perhaps my use of the word "sympathy" isn't the right word. I really actually hate Buddhism, as i figure its just a spiritual way to be an atheist, and the 20th century was the bloodiest century in the history of humanity primarily from ideologies sringing directly from secular philosophy. Atheism isn't just real high on my list of approved "isms," i guess.

I forget the link i found this on... i was exploring vox and was looking on some wiccan chick's blog page and she had it linked up....