quote:
Originally posted by Etherfish
This is interesting TMS, are you saying neither system is better, but they are different?
And OK, I'll take the bait; why did Buddha reject God? I assume you mean the concept of God, as separate from oneself.
Well Etherfish, aren't you swimming after bait? In short, the Buddha rejected God, not because he did not believe in Brahma. His discovery was that a first person was created. The Buddha's claim (affirmed by some meditators) is that all mind emanates from some basic elements, and the basic elements emanate from one white light, and the white light emanates from a seed, a dense gathering of intention. The seed arises from emptiness.
The Buddha gathered that Brahma's ego causes him to believe he is first and last. But he is not, nor is he immortal. Brahma is the creator creating worlds. But he is the created creator.
The Buddha realized that Brahma's life is dependent on emptiness, the seed, the five lights, dimensionality, and the constituents of mind (memory, cognition, imagination and perception). Thusly, Brahma is an emanation, and relatively speaking, is illusory, a light show, as are we.
The Buddha surmised that Brahma's incredibly long life and great power has deceived him into thinking that he is immortal and all powerful. Brahma's attachment to ego, is a barrier to his enlightenment.
The Buddha placed incredible value on our Earth. Perfect balance between the material worlds and the spiritual worlds exists here (there are worlds less and more material than this one, the Buddha says). Therefore, this is our unique opportunity to realize the truth.
All things arise interdependently, beginning with dualities becoming aggregate compound structures like we are. We are like a crystalline emanation of lights.
Enlightenment is realizing our true potentiality, and our potentiality is realized when we open our hearts to the source and power of God and the Cosmos, emptiness, voidness, Tao, or as I like to call it "The Great Mystery of mysteries."
HA!
TMS