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I’ve a lot of time for Buddhism, and have studied it deeply, and used some of its practices… but I think we romanticize it sometimes because it is exotic.
Christianity itself can be boiled down to love thy God and love thy neighbor, and a simple prayer of accepting Jesus as your savior.
That’s Christianity in a nutshell – what we often get is Buddhism in a nutshell. In both cases, those nutshells are buried deep in a lot of soil and dirt.
I can’t say I have studied Buddhism deeply, but I have tried hard to search broadly, even reading disaffected Buddhist sites and posts. What I gather from that bit of searching is no one religion will claim everyone. I know Buddhism does not consider itself a religion, but for this discussion I will set it in that category to make communicating easier. What I have found from my limited experience is the day to day assistance meditation, and reading the path does for me. I have been a scripture reader most of my life, and I know I gain much from that, but sometimes it’s unclear how the present chapter in Deuteronomy works for me. However, when I give 15 minutes a day to a Loving/Kindness or a Forgiveness meditation – I feel my soul impacted. I have images in my mind and heart that are healing and healthy.
Todays meditation revolved around forgiveness, a profound statement was made during the process, I was encouraged to try to forgive or release my hold on my negative feelings by just a milligram. Then the instructor said, if we each give up just a milligram great healing would proceed. A milligram. I can do that. It’s visual, it’s practical, and it’s inviting.
So yeah maybe a full switch into Buddhism won’t be my answer, but my Universalist soul is going to keep doing meditations and reading the path reminders as a spiritual daily exercise.
There is certainly stuff that can be taken from Buddhism which does not contradict the LDS. I find the most useful things to be psychological techniques such as meditation. (I recommend a chair not the lotus position) Meditation is best done in a group with a leader. I have even tried meditation in the celestial room. But it’s actually hard with people coming and going and chatting!
As for the religion thing… no, it’s not fashionable to talk religion anymore, unless you’re LDS. I’ve heard born again say that they have a faith not a religion, Buddhists a philosophy not a religion and Theosophists a science not a religion.
hawkgrrrl wrote:Now, what does that sound like? Oh yeah, every religion ever.
That’s one of the beautiful things about personal faith is that we get to leave out all the dogmatic stuff we feel hinders our ability to have rewarding spirituality! All religions have their points worth considering as well as their points worth dismissing. But, even in dismissing those points it is worth considering what made them important to the people practicing them. A good example of this for me is the endowment ordinance that we practice in Mormonism. There are parts of it I don’t think are divinely created, but I feel they help me rember my Savior and the type of man I’d like to be, so I appreciate that and let the literalism go.
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