A Partial Diary of the Collective Buddha

[Jim Metcalf]

Artur:
You wrote: "The idea of a "Divine Operating Plan (with the creator being
the COO...) would be a non-sense and probably an heresy for a Buddhist.
An probably also for a non-manicheist Christian."
You have succinctly described one of the chief heresies operating in the
name of Christianity today, at least as I see it. Thanks for giving me
words to use in another part of my life.

Love, peace and joy,

Jim


-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Artur
Ferreira da Silva
Sent: Monday, May 06, 2002 8:03 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: A Partial Diary of the Collective Buddha

At 11:33 06-05-2002 -0800, Julie Smith wrote:

>The next item of note is Birgitt's September 9 invitation
>"to participate with us... to "open space" for harmony in the world
with
>a commitment to collectively holding this space."  And then another
>lull.  And then September 11 and everything that followed.

Interesting coincidence of dates...

Now about your main point:

By the end of last year, the Dalai Lama has been in Portugal and he gave
an
important interview to a Portuguese newspaper. At the time I had the
intention
of translating part of it for this list. But I never did... Quoting from
memory...

Asked if Buddhism is a religion he answered: "I have learnt in an
English
dictionary
that religion is the believing in a Creator. In this sense Buddhism IS
NOT
a religion"

To the question "Do you agree with the (Catholic) Pope that once said
that
Buddhism is an atheism?" he answered, "Yes, Buddhism doesn't believe in
a
Creator
and in this sense it is an atheism".

He also said:  "It is not easy for a Christian to do a conversion to
Buddhism nor
to fully understand Buddhism, and probably that conversion is not good.
In the
beginning it seams easy, but the problem is that Buddhism has not a
Creator,
and that makes things completely different...".

With individual or collective Buddha's, Buddhism is not waiting for an
omnipotent
creator to (have created and later) "regulate" life on earth. They
believe that
must be done by humans and humans are solely responsible for the good
or the bad they create. By their concrete actions - and not by what they
claim
they believe, neither by what they say/believe they open the space
for...

The idea of a "Divine Operating Plan" (with the creator being the
COO...) would
be a non-sense and probably an heresy for a Buddhist. An probably also
for a non-manicheist Christian.

So, Julie, your is not an easy task and I am afraid that a lot of stones
will appear
in your search. But a truly and honest search is something that must be
honored.
At least to compare with people that don't do any search because they
"know" everything, people that often "use the name of God in vain" to
justify bad
purposes (Sharon, or Bush, to give only two examples).

Good look for your search

Artur

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html