Path_of_one, you said,
"I don't think there is one right and perfect way... they all have flaws."
--> There is one more factor. There are different kinds of people, so we need different kinds of religion. For example, some people are of the devotional type -– it sounds like you are one of these kinds of people. I am not a devotional kind of person, I am more rational and logical. I think the mistake that Christians make is they think one kind of religion works for all, and it does not.
I entirely agree. I'm quite interested in where religion meets spirituality- which is an intersection that is similar to where culture meets personality.
--> I think that both Buddha and Jesus taught the same thing, and both of their teachings have been greatly changed as the centuries have gone by.
I don't think they taught the same thing, at least based on the records we have of their teachings. But I think the underlying ethics were the same, and I think they both offer a path toward spiritual development that is useful.
--> I am afraid I cannot accept such an idea. But if it fits into your belief system, then go for it.
That is not my belief, it is just what I have been taught concerning Buddhism, and so where my ideas about nirvana, enlightenment, and other Buddhist concepts differ from yours.
--> I think that all great religions were created by one great teacher, but then bureaucrats slowly take over as the centuries go by, and change the original teachings. I think it is human nature for this to happen, and that it happens in all religions, and that it is unfortunate.
Well, religions are useful in many ways- spiritual development is only one of them. They usually get mixed up with politics.
"…God is pretty all-encompassing…"
--> I would say that our Buddha-nature is all-encompassing. Perhaps we are talking about the same thing, just using different words.
Probably. God, or what I call the Divine One, is what unifies all beings. Separation from the Divine and one another is an impermanent and illusory condition. Individuality and all that occurs as a result is sort of like an ongoing art exhibit. It manifests from the creative impulse of the Divine. At least, that's what I have come up with so far that fits with my own experience. I'm probably not "right" but such is the nature of a limited being.
I think that reincarnation better explains cause and effect of unhappiness in people’s lives than any other theory.
Well, it is preferable to a rational person to believe that things happen due to certain causes than entirely at random. I don't think everything happens in a cause-effect fashion, but I do think that there is a broader tapestry we're woven (weaving ourselves?) into, and so there is meaning in what happens.
--> I think that we have "bad karma" in life for more than one reason. Yes, we have to burn off the bad karma that we have created. But I believe we also set up learning situations for ourselves in each reincarnation. It sounds like you and I are saying the same thing.
Probably not the same thing, but quite similar. I don't think there is good or bad karma- just karma. People do stuff, there are consequences. Good and bad are largely in the eye of the beholder. It doesn't mean there aren't ethics or a proper course of action, but rather than it isn't good and bad as much as it's a question of optimal and suboptimal action (in my own opinion). Even we choose optimal actions (and attitudes, thoughts, feelings) consistently, we're bouncing up against oodles of other beings and their choices. So sometimes life sucks no matter what you do. LOL
In my own case, it wasn't so much that I burned off bad karma as that I dealt with past trauma. Some of that trauma was due to my own faulty perceptions, some of it was stuff that happened to me, etc.
I do think that one can learn from one's life, and there is meaning behind the circumstances of it, but I think we largely create that meaning. I don't think, for example, that all those kids in Darfur are burning off bad karma from the past. The world sucks in a lot of ways and is injust because people in the here-and-now make it so. I think there is room for randomness in the universe... but random doesn't equal meaningless.
--> Can you give some examples of things you have been strugging with?
While I have always been mystically oriented, I am also quite rational and logical. This is why I am attracted to science. That part of my brain is highly skeptical. I have a hard time accepting my own past-life memories, real as I experience them, as "really" real. So that has been a big hurdle.
Other struggles have mostly to do with feeling out of place, homesick, lonely, and generally discouraged about the body and world I am in. Then there is dealing with a lot of trauma in these memories and the emotional baggage from this. And it is a challenge to figure out how to integrate what I have been, what I am experiencing as the essence or origin of myself, and what I am now. They don't mesh up that easily- it's a bit like a puzzle to put together.
--> Rather than say an eternity, I like the phrase, "a length of time without any conceivable beginning nor imaginable end". Our finite minds cannot comprehend the infinite.
I like that.
--> Our job is not to conceptualize the entire path (another example of our finite minds trying to comprehend the infinite),
our job is to only make progress up to the next level along the path.
I think our job can be more than that, but our spiritual development is certainly a big part of our work. But who knows? Maybe some people's job is just to enjoy the ride and do nothing else!
But in seriousness, yes, I think it's helped me to see the journey itself as the "point" and not the end of the journey.
--> What work is it that you were created to do?
There are some general things I do, and then there are things I feel are specific to what I experience as my essence... that probably are not specific to everyone, but perhaps an unspecified number of beings. But this is a complicated question to answer in a way that would make any sense, and has to do with how I conceive of and experience the self, the soul, the Divine, and how these are entwined.
There is the work I was created to do that I have in common with any manifestation/creation of the Divine. There is the work I was created to do as a particular kind of manifest entity, from the point of my origin. There is the work that unifies my lifetimes and weaves through my journey, both as a particular kind of entity and as a particular individual being. There is the work I did in past lifetimes that informs my life now. There is the work that I am meant to do in this particular life, as an individual being and as a particular kind of entity, both put into a particular body and brain, culture and society, and world.
I feel I am only partly informed about all this. But I have a fair bit of information about myself in each of these categories.
My desire is to dedicate myself to God, so that the work I have to do is clear to me and I have the perseverence, wisdom, strength, courage, and so on to do it.
In general, I would say my work (and perhaps all beings') is to love, to create, to liberate. Ultimately, our work is to spiral outward from the Divine and return to Her. There are specifics to each of us, because we are all individual manifestations/creations. Some of us are more alike than others, and so our work may be similar.
