In Judaism, we are encouraged to enjoy the world as long as we are aware that it is God himself. But there are limits, and the Ten Commandments, which God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, express this. The Ten Commandments are a precious jewel of the Judeo-Christian heritage, helping us to know what to do and what not to do in order to cherish God throughout our daily life.
All precepts and commandments are about love and understanding. Jesus gave his disciples the commandment to love God with all their being and to love their neighbors as themselves. In First Corinthians, it says, "Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not envious, arrogant, or rude. It does not rejoice in wrong. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth." This is very close to the teachings of love and compassion in Buddhism.
"Love bears all things, believes all things, endures all things." Love has no limits. Love never ends. Love is reborn and reborn and reborn. The love and care of the Christ is reborn in each of us, as is the love of the Buddha. If we invoke the name if Buddha or pray to Christ but do not practice love and understanding ourselves, something is wrong. If we love someone, we have to be patient. We can only help a person transform his or her negative seeds is we are patient and kind.
To take good care of yourself and to take good care of living beings and of the environment is the best way to love God. This love is possible when there is the understanding that you are not separate from other beings or the environment. This understanding cannot be merely intellectual. It must be experiential, the insight gained by deep touching and deep looking in a daily life of prayer, contemplation and meditation.
"Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing." Love instructs us not to act in ways that will cause suffering now or in the future. We can discern when something that seems to be joyful has the capacity to destroy future happiness, so we do not abuse alcohol, ingest unhealthy foods, or hurt others by our words. Real love never ends. It will be reborn and reborn.
4 comments:
Regarding a previous post: Was Jesus a buddha? and the notion that Jesus once denied being the messiah.
The gospel accounts indicate that Jesus never denied being the messiah -- a refusal that was eventually used to justify having him executed.
However, either did he brag about that title. When John the Baptist sent emissaries to Jesus to ask whether Jesus was the one who was to come (the messiah), Jesus replied (paraphrasing via memory): Tell John what you've seen: lepers are cleansed, the blind see, the dumb talk, the lame walk and the dead are raised"
But, Jesus said elsewhere: "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly." [Again, quoting from memory.] He also made clear that it was really God in him that was doing the talking and performing the miracles. He wasn't taking credit for anything.
I apologize. I looked thoroughly to find the passage I was thinking of, and it appears I was conflating the passages where John the Baptist denies being the messiah, and the passages where Jesus entreats his disciples not to let the outside world know he is the messiah. That shows insufficient respect for the Dharma on my part.
However my point was supposed to be that Jesus evolved into the notion that he was the messiah. He affirmed he was the messiah after a while, but at first, so I thought, he wasn't aware of it. Now I see that there is no biblical evidence for this idea, just my own faulty memory.
The main thrust of my post, if there is one, is that Jesus is not unique as a son of God. My idea is that he was/is more awake than most. We are all children of God. All of us have the divine spark, are vessels of the holy spirit, and have inherent Buddha nature.
In Buddhist tradition, you can call upon the power of the Buddhas and other awakened beings, of which there are hundreds of thousands of millions of billions, to help you in your quest to help all sentient beings. I submit that Jesus can be included
in the list.
I thought the deal was Jesus never affirmed being the Messiah specifically, but implied it.
Like when he was being questioned about whether he was the Messiah, his response was "You say that I am."
I looked it up. He does affirm his messiahship to his disciples.
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