What Kind of Buddhist-Mormon Are You?

[Anonymous]

Ray, I think there is a significant difference between the esoteric sense of “I AM”, which may be very difficult for anyone to understand, and the more pragmatic “I am” of living in the present, much the same way you reflect in your comments.

Key to the practical approach is a re-assessment of “perfection” – what I consider the most damaging teaching of Christianity and Mormonism. Yes, this requires that LDS drop the idea of “Be ye perfect as your father in heaven is perfect”, and the idea that we are striving to be perfect people – gods in the long term. But that is a concept to which I bid “good riddance.”

Even the Oxford English Dictionary mistranslates Matthew 5:48:

OED wrote:

Of, marked, or characterized by supreme moral or spiritual excellence or virtue; righteous, holy; immaculate; spiritually pure or blameless. In a state of complete excellence; free from any imperfection or defect of quality; that cannot be improved upon; flawless, faultless

c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) Matt. v. 48 Be ȝee parfit, as and ȝoure heuenly fadir is parfit.

Yet you and I know from the Greek that the idea of moral perfection, immaculate, spiritually pure, blameless, free of any imperfection or defect, cannot be improved upon, flawless, faultless…. These are all the WRONG definitions of “telios” – this is the Great Straw Man of perfection in scripture. And to understand the scriptures as they should have been translated correctly – none of that applies.

This is not esoteric teaching. This is not something that will blow mental gaskets. This is something that HAS to be taught to a set of people, particularly NOMs, that struggled as TBMs with the view of a perfect church, prophets, and doctrine when found to be quite the opposite.

I believe that the false teaching of ‘perfection’ is at the heart of all cognitive dissonance borderlanders feel, and it is the essence of the problems faced with the LDS church and the majority of Christianity. A single problem: we strive for something unobtainable, because we’re human, and thus condemn ourselves as depraved, wicked, deficient, etc. Then we look towards some irresponsible concept of the ideal person, be it Christ, the Prophet, the Guru, or what have you, to save us from this state of deficiency. Christ saves because by virtue of being one with him and with our fellow-mankind, we become whole, complete, integral in the moment. We don’t have to do it alone…in fact, we can’t — and by virtue of oneness with “I am”, we become “whole”.

It’s not abstract teaching. It’s immensely practical. We embrace IMPERFECTION as the key to knowing that we need help, every day, and with every action. We ask for help — from others and from God. And in asking, we come to a oneness together. We let go of perfection because it defeats us in everything we do, by preventing us from asking for help when we lack.

But that’s not how the church today works — you are expected to be self-reliant, self-determinant, and asking for help from church leaders often results in the opposite of what we need — why? Because we all have the wrong definition of ‘perfection’.

True Believing types expect that the church, in its form of being ‘true’, to be “perfect”, or if there are imperfections, it’s only because we’re not ready for the perfect. The church cultivates this sense of perfection by whitewashing history and the current behavior of leaders. The sense that god is perfect and If this is His church, then it needs to keep the myth of perfection alive. In my opinion, this charade is core to the disaffection to all who find the flaws in history or current behavior.

When we read the Sermon on the Mount and the Gospel of John, we come to understand a more enlightened Way.

[Anonymous]

Fwiw, wayfarer, I agree with everything you just typed.

[Author]

Posts