A Partial Diary of the Collective Buddha

[Toni Petrinovich]

And I wish to point out that it was not Jesus the Man/Christ who said that
he was God - it was man who said that he was.  Jesus (if indeed he did say
the words that are often quoted as his) simply said that he and the Father
were one.  Out of this mankind (and the Catholic Church in particular) has
extrapolated the belief system that he is the ONLY Son of God - albeit that
you must first believe in a God to believe it can have a Son.  Yet, if you
go beneath the words (which have been VERY poorly translated over the years)
to what he could have meant, there lies a very great possibility that he was
talking of himself as being part of that energy source of which we are all a
part (including Buddhists) and not an anthropomorphic god at all.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Artur Ferreira da Silva" <artsilva at mail.eunet.pt>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 7:37 AM
Subject: Re: A Partial Diary of the Collective Buddha


> At 15:47 07-05-2002 -0800, Julie Smith wrote:
>
> >I can't concentrate on all the important things you had to say because
> >I'm thinking about this:
> >
> > > PS: it's interesting that your adress is @mosquitonet. Do you know
> >waht is
> > > a "mosquito" in Portuguese?
> >
> >In Alaska, the mosquito is our most prevalent and most persistent
> >pest.... we groan just THINKING about them....
> >
> >....hoping for a nicer definition from the Portuguese....
>
> Hello Julie:
>
> To answer you I have been obliged to consult my dictionaries... The point
> is that I did not know that "mosquito" was used in English (and I also
> didn't know that mosquitoes were a so big problem in Alaska - sorry about
> that). And I still find strange that the word "mosquito" is used in
English
> with the same sense that here...
>
> The point is that in Portuguese and Spanish the common word is "mosca"
> (fly or flesh-fly) - and "moscas" are not kind, but are not a big problem.
And
> then "mosquito" is a diminutive to refer to a "small «mosca»". Except near
> water,
> we don't have many mosquitoes and they are not really a danger. They will
only
> bite you from time to time...
>
>  From that we sometimes call "mosquito" to a person that is around you and
> sometimes will "bite" your thoughts a little (like myself in this list or
> even you
> but in a different sense ;-)
>
> The other point is how to react to "mosquitoes" (the real ones, not people
> that act
> like "mosquitoes"...). In the Occidental culture we will normally try to
> kill the mosquitoes,
> or at least that is not condemned.
>
> In the Orient, and in Buddhism namely, as they believe in the
> transmigration of
> souls, one will not kill mosquitoes - or any other animal - because one
> could be
> killing is own grand-grand-father... Mosquitoes - as all the other forms
of
> life - are
> respected - like the earth where they live. For sure, a Buddhist will
never
> bomb
> any place where there is (always) life. And people that act like
mosquitoes
> are
> also not in danger...
>
> Also because of that, in Buddhism there is a clear sense of the wholeness
(the
> Earth and all animals) and that sense of wholeness has nothing to do
> with any God. To respect life, to love any form of life, in the Orient
> will not imply that one has a certain faith or believes in a creator.
> That's why the
> atheist Taoists can live quietly in the middle of the religious Buddhists.
>
> And Buddhists, by the way, have many Gods for different purposes and not
one
> that regulates everything, judges you and if he finds you guilt will also
> punhish
> you - eventually with a cruel dead penalty like in the Old Testament,
> unacceptable
> in Buddhism for all animals and in many civilized countries in what refers
> to humans.
>
> Now, dear Julie, can you see why the Dalai Lama wrote that it is very
> difficult for
> a Christian to understand Buddhism (and vice-versa). But now you can also
see
> how, even in the Occident, there are major cultural differences between
> countries,
> and namely between Europe and America.
>
> Things that are current in the USA - like the dead penalty, the use of
arms
> by non-militaries, the use of force and war to solve any international
> problems -
> and that were also accepted in Europe some centuries ago - are no longer
> accepted in many European countries.
>
> The world is not divided in a dualist way between "us" and the others -
the
> "otherness" refers to many different realities and all those realities are
> "us"
> to themselves.
>
> Warm regards to all the "others" out there
>
> Artur
>
> PS: I am afraid that your "collective Christ" is much more heretic than
> your "collective Buddha". After all, Buddha is not a God but only someone
> that become enlightened -and that can happens to a collective as
> well...
>
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