I can't say for most people, but  for me its both; Buddhism is a great practice to end suffering and theism is having faith in a benevolent spirit, Christianity is  the iceing on the cake.

Like Buddhism is my portion of responsibility and Christianity is a promise to be blessed fruitful multiply with all things given to our care.  Compassion for all sentient beings and a Stewardship of care for all sentient beings is the similarity, benevolent care is the word. 

I would like to be a Buddhist Theist believing Benevolent care exists even if I have not yet reached the ability to be benevolently careful, and even so, being benevolently cared for.

To my mind benevolent care is something like Dharma? If no, please tell me what Dharma is.

Apr 17, 2012 -- 11:56AM, Kartari wrote:

I think what most distinguishes Buddhism from Christianity is that third qualifier in the above passage, the cleansing of one's own mind.  I do not know of any traditional Christian branch which addresses this.

It is called Hesychasm.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm

Apr 17, 2012 -- 11:56AM, Kartari wrote:

dio,

Apr 17, 2012 -- 10:40AM, dio wrote:

I can't say for most people, but  for me its both; Buddhism is a great practice to end suffering and theism is having faith in a benevolent spirit, Christianity is  the iceing on the cake.

That's fine.  Personally, I do not find it necessarily problematic to follow both traditions, Buddhism and Christianity.  It could be problematic, such as if the theism becomes an attachment one clings to, but not necessarily problematic as far as I can discern.

Apr 17, 2012 -- 10:40AM, dio wrote:

Like Buddhism is my portion of responsibility and Christianity is a promise to be blessed fruitful multiply with all things given to our care.  Compassion for all sentient beings and a Stewardship of care for all sentient beings is the similarity, benevolent care is the word. 

I would like to be a Buddhist Theist believing Benevolent care exists even if I have not yet reached the ability to be benevolently careful, and even so, being benevolently cared for.

To my mind benevolent care is something like Dharma? If no, please tell me what Dharma is.

Well, it could be part of it.  Dharma (or dhamma) is more generally the truth or teachings of the Buddha, forming one of the three "jewels" which Buddhists formally take refuge in (Buddha and sangha being the other two). It refers to, basically, the entirety of teachings, not just compassionate action, crucial as it may be.

One passage I am aware of summarily describes the dhamma or Buddha's teaching:

"The non-doing of any evil, the performance of what is skillful, the cleansing of one's own mind: This is the Buddhas' teaching." (Dhp 183)

I think what most distinguishes Buddhism from Christianity is that third qualifier in the above passage, the cleansing of one's own mind.  I do not know of any traditional Christian branch which addresses this.

What does the performance of what is skillful mean, can you expand? And agreed what I know of Christianity infers cleansing but doesn't say much on the nuts and bolts of doing it.  

There is  Jewish tradition Jesus used called hedging, where he says before killing your neighbor don't be angry at him.

(Now please Bobs don't accuse me of proselytizing just because I mention the name of Jesus, I'm only looking for similarities. Please be at peace)

Apr 16, 2012 -- 7:27PM, SeraphimR wrote:

Three others aren't hard to find:

they both have monastics,

they both use incense,

they both have chanting.

If we assume the thread refers to superficial similarities, then no doubt and these are good examples Sera.  Indeed, it's like saying "both women have blonde hair".  Which is an intelligent statement if the discussion is about their superficial similarites... but completely idiotic if talking about meaning (ie who she is, what she did, etc. in the blonde example, and likewise with Buddhism.... blathering about "compassion" for example is indeed idiotic-as the INTENT is deep similarity, when in reality it is superficial AT BEST.  It's not even defined the same in the 2 beliefs.  

Myself, I see the thread as self explanatory... just another pushy theist thread.   So instead of giving any thought to a claim made with no real evidence (need real, not superficial, or a higher IQ would really just speed up this redundant process of explaining that ONLY Buddhism can define Buddhism, etc.) I simply wonder why theists are so concerned with Buddhism being like their religion, or copycat religion as the case may be.  Again I have to ask the obvious:  Isn't your faith enough, why must you worry that other things, totally unrelated to your theism, don't agree with your theism.  Note... I've never seen a Buddhist in the christianity boards acting desperate and trying to get the xians to agree that Buddha and Jesus said this or that claiming "same" blah blah blah....  Yet, the reverse is clearly and sadly true.  That alone tells us how different these faiths are-kinda funny, your own behavior HERE proves YOUR points wrong (ie they are NOTHING ALIKE)-really funny, too bad the theists won't be able to get the very rich irony here.

The question is rhetorical, I know the answer.  But the fact that you (and there's a few of you, I don't even know who wrote the OP of this thread-it doesn't matter, all of you have about a pamphlet of knowledge COLLECTIVELY on Buddhism-yet not one among you ever shows humility... and without that, you can never understand Buddhism, even if you did ACTUALLY try to learn about it instead of insecurely selecting ONLY books backing your needs in faith (faith isn't supposed to be so insecure lol) and avoiding real dialog with actual Buddhists.... on ... the .... subject.... of .... BUDDDHISM (once again showing how different they are-Buddhists tend to debate, Christians tend to murder... maybe not lately as much, but the point here is... this whole "talking and learning from others concept" (and really the last part is just being nice, christians haven't gotten that one yet, just the "talking" lol) is NEW to christianity, before it was lecture and kill, kiss the cross or die, ciivilze the savages, kill the "animals" (ie non-christian humans), etc., etc., etc..... through MOST of christianity's history.  All the while, Buddhists were debating, and LISTENING to others.  

So.... we can only blame you folks (for your arrogance and inability to listen) so much, and we can not pretend your hostiily makes no sense (it's very frustrating when your religion leaves you only with instincts of anger and intolerance toward those who disagree with your "holy" books, .... and ... disagree with you), but that is all I can say and any careless thought that is HONEST about the two religions (assuming one actually has a thought based on a little HONEST research) immediately proves without a doubt that they are so different that only a fool or someone with a silly faith that says crazy things (ie a faith that makes you more concerned with Buddhism's doctrines than YOUR OWN DOCTRINES is so very clearly obviously far from the right path... that I would argue your dog could offer a superior philosophy..... and that's not a joke-dog's thinking DOES make more sense than that which leads to threads like this and frankly, dog's actually understand "unconditional love", christians do not, they make it up as they go, and love is a buzz word-like what the rest of us call "hate" like harassing gays or young girls getting abortions, etc..... is HATE, but christians call it "love".  It's so funny that christians talk about love so much and have no concept of it.

Lastly, a few folks here continue to reveal how shallow, and unhelpful, and illogical their faith is.... They do this repeatedly, with NO Love, and NO humility, and NO Interest in learning from Buddhists..... yet ironically all of them profess to understand Buddhism better than Buddhists, even though not one here has practiced any version of Buddhism... again, with such arrogance, we are never suprised with the crazy claims made (well really more idiotic, like "compassion" is the same in both religions, I hope whoever said that was drunk, otherwise I may feel bad as I think it would require an IQ of about 60....to think such a thing and boldly state it where everyone would know it's wrong (lies work better if your audience is ignorant of the subject)

And Again, to concern yourselves with Buddhism instead of your faith... and not in a study/interested way, but rather as though it's important to your unrelated faith and worse-that you're upset that Buddhists listen to the sutras, and NOT jesus or even tag along abrahamics that are in no way related to Buddhism... says that you don't realize what it says about you and your faith.  And firends try to help each other grow, not stay stagnant, especially in faith.  And while I don't want any of you as friends, if you took some smart advice, or did even pay attention to a dog for a moment, then this forum will go back to being about Buddhism, not Jesus, or Bahai, or other self absorbed nonsense from selfish people who never learned to share toys... .we know because as adults, they don't know how to share a dialog.  And that part does concern me as I feel there is a very strong correlation between never listening or respecting others... and a life of unhappiness.   So consider this hint a fresh opportunity today-you could spend all this nonsense, pointless, duplicitous time in the Buddhist forum... on topics unrelated to Buddhism, and instead really just selfish topics about your needs... not Buddhism, never Buddhism, not once, not that I've seen.  But worse you  lie to our faces (the actual Buddhists and those humble enough to ACTUALLY study) and call it "Buddhism", showing as much disrespect for this board as you can-classic passive aggressive behavior however  And... every claim made here about Buddhism in your case is really.... just pulling it out of your ass-and thus, no coincidence it all smells like shit, and belongs in a toilet.

And .... never learning either.  You could spend all this time learning about your faith-I assume you study that, surely you don't disrespect your own faith as you do Buddhism...  Yet.... you DON'T.  Which suggests, deep down you don't have faith at all.  That's simple logic-if you had real faith, you wouldn't be here trying to redefine Buddhism to fit your religion-yet it's your favorite place lol (and yes still talking to a few people, you know who you are.... well... we do).  

It's very much like a child... one with a good parent, one with a poor one... the latter is poor as he/she never learned the basic life lessons-thus the chance of them teaching them are much smaller than the former.  What's the difference in the outcome?  (Good Parents know lol, bad parents won't):  CONFIDENCE.   You being here in this desperate, illogical, and duplicitous way (there's never any real evidence, it's always a rigged deal-thus no learning, just insecurity can explain such weird desperationa) says your parent... ie your religion, is a poor one-as you continue to show, you have no confidence in the parent's/religion's teachings....  And instead act childish, telling lies, throwing tantrums and getting upset that we don't agree with your claim that "Luke Skywalker is Flash Gordon, and Star Wars is about Flash Gordon"...... Memo to selfish ones with no confidence in their faith who instead worry about Buddhism instead of practicing using their faith to become happy guys.....that's (the star wars claim above) exactly what you sound like here, and exactly how much evidence could be found for the claim.... to our shallow posed as "real" thread.... (always with the duplicity that one), it would be like claiming that my evidence for the above christianesque claim is "both have space ships and bad guys".    

Regardless... the real problem here is that your faith is obviously doing nothing for you.... yet you claim to believe in one life (all of  you).... so I don't see you using logic-just a thought.  Logic dictates that you should either trade up in faith to something you can be confident about-and find it worthy of practicing instead of leading you to worry about some other faith more than practicing your own (ie insanity lol)... or trade up to NOTHING, as nothing is superior to something that makes one think so irresponsibly....  It's just like the lousy parent-the child grows up socially maladjusted, unhappy, angry and sounds like he's lived in a cave for 30 years.... or 50 lol....   when in reality-he just wasn't fortunate enough to have a parent who taught him "everyone is your teacher, son"..... sad lesson to miss.  

I'd also point out that I don't know too many Buddhists that would indicate some great respect for christianity.... naturally logic dictates they know very little of Buddhism if they respect something that contradicts it on so many levels, including fundamentals....

Yet.... notice how many christians seem to respect Buddhism.  Since christianity has no cultural history of respect.... they wiped out more civilizations than likely all other religions combined.... so the only logical explanation is that Buddhism commands respect, even from the most disrespectful.... and also that it seems most christians really don't have much faith... or they wouldn't be sniffing around the neighbors yard so much.

And absolutely I have more respect for the drive by christians, or the backwoods hicks, who say things like "Buddha Didn't Create Nothin'"  .... their knowledge, even with the missing teeth and bad accent... is superior to what you've all collectively shown here on a subjecct none of you need any further lessons on... yet won't shut up about (like a child pretending to be the teacher, except when the child does it, it makes sense).  And also-they don't show some weird, sad insecurity about their faith somehow depending on Buddhism.  No, they show a more common traith:  competitive behavior, and the "My god is better than your god syndrome".....  But never do they claim to understand Buddhism nor act desperate to get you to agree that Buddhism is l.ike/similar/etc. to christianity.  

So, since they seem to be at least satisfied with their faith, and just throwing  a little mud-well, I can respect that.

But what goes on here is a sad reflection of faith by you theists..... 

See-that's the one that proves your faith in christianity or "miscellaneous" or whatever, is weak, as in nothing't there.   You do realize faith is experience, not your hope that death ends as well as that guy said... clearly NOT ONE of you knows this truth-or you'd have confidence and not be worried bout how your religion fits into Buddhism.  And frankly-I think such a fear would make Jesus mad..., nobody likes a cheater lol. 

Look at it this way:   Let's say you love Sally, and you're dating Sally... yet all you do is talk about Daphne.... Doing so proves that the Sally stuff is all talk, you really care about Daphne.

You guys have issues, this stuff is common with teenagers and dating... but it's pretty weird to do the same thing with your religion ... as adults...   

Seraphim,

Apr 17, 2012 -- 1:30PM, SeraphimR wrote:

Apr 17, 2012 -- 11:56AM, Kartari wrote:

I think what most distinguishes Buddhism from Christianity is that third qualifier in the above passage, the cleansing of one's own mind.  I do not know of any traditional Christian branch which addresses this.

It is called Hesychasm.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm

Very interesting, thanks.  Hermits, of course.  Sounds offhand like something related a bit to other west Asian and perhaps Indian religious practices. For instance, "Hesychastic practice involves acquiring an inner focus and blocking of the physical senses." seems, in phrasing at least, not dissimilar to two of the eight yogic limbs, concentration (dhyana) and withdrawal of the senses (pratyahara).

But this Christian practice has a few distinctions that, according to the Wikipedia link you gave, are not found in Buddhism.  It appears the hesychast retains the Christian reliance on asking for God to grant "mercy."  It also employs the use of "extremely directed and controlled anger" against temptations.  Both of these deviate strongly from Buddhist philosophy and practice. (Dhp 160,165)(anger in Buddhism)