Mar 15, 2011 -- 1:25PM, Nerdygothchick wrote:

I was Catholic for seven years, but left the Church because I began to have too many disagreements with many of its public policies and political standings.  Right now I am taking time to learn as much as I can about other faiths.  I want to figure out what it is I truly believe and why.  Buddhism has always fascinated me.  I don't really see myself converting, but I would like to learn more about it.  Please feel free to educate me.  Any suggestions for reading material or websites would be appreciated as well.  Thanks!

Victoria

The Spiritual Director of Satipanya was given a Roman Catholic Education but became a Buddhist. Firstly, he practised Soto Zen Buddhism but, later he changed his School to Theravada Buddhism. This audio Dhamma Talk entitled 'A Buddhist View of Christ's Teachings may be helpful to you.

www.satipanya.org.uk/audio/Gaia%20House%...

www.satipanya.org.uk/

Jupiter:

From the standpoint of Buddhism the view that man is a flawed being simply disparages the only living reality manifested by the universal laws that actually exist. What I means is that there is no other actual reality other than our lives and experiences in this world. To offer such a disparaging lable simply suggests that its antonym "ideal perfection" lies elsewhere in the universe. But Buddhism says that this is simply not the case. 

Buddhism teaches that all phenomena are governed by the mystic law of cause and effect. The Buddha was a person who awakened to this principle of life within himself and thereby understood that this law operates in the oneness of life and the environment.  This law is perfectly recorded in the Sad-Dharma Pundarika Sutra aka Lotus Sutra.  Causes which promote life are considered good and causes that destroy life are considered bad. The name given to the fundamental law of cause and effect is Myoho Renge Kyo. This phrase constitutes the deepest reading of the Sad-Dharma Pundarika Sutra. Consider the following teaching of Buddha wisdom taken from the writings of Nichiren the teacher of Myoho Renge Kyo or the Lotus Sutra.

To reply, the ultimate Law of
life and death as transmitted from
the Buddha to all living beings is
Myoho-renge-kyo. The five characters
of Myoho-renge-kyo were transferred
from Shakyamuni and Many Treasures,
the two Buddhas inside the treasure
tower, to Bodhisattva Superior Practices,
carrying on a heritage unbroken
since the infinite past. Myo represents
death, and ho, life. Living beings that
pass through the two phases of life
and death are the entities of the Ten
Worlds, or the entities of Myohorenge-
kyo.
T’ien-t’ai says that one should understand
that living beings and their
environments, and the causes and effects
at work within them, are all the
Law of renge (the lotus).1 Here “living
beings and their environments” means
the phenomena of life and death. Thus,
it is clear that, where life and death
exist, cause and effect, or the Law of
the lotus, is at work.
The Great Teacher Dengyo states,
“The two phases of life and death are
the wonderful workings of one mind.
The two ways of existence and nonexistence
are the true functions of an
inherently enlightened mind.”2 No
phenomena—either heaven or earth,
yin or yang,3 the sun or the moon, the
five planets,4 or any of the worlds from
hell to Buddhahood—are free from
the two phases of life and death. Life
and death are simply the two functions
of Myoho-renge-kyo. In his Great
Concentration and Insight, T’ien-t’ai says,
“Arising is the arising of the essential
nature of the Law, and extinction is the
extinction of that nature.” Shakyamuni
and Many Treasures, the two Buddhas,
are also the two phases of life and
death.

Jul 23, 2011 -- 6:26PM, etoro wrote:

Jupiter:

 

From the standpoint of Buddhism the view that man is a flawed being simply disparages the only living reality manifested by the universal laws that actually exist. What I means is that there is no other actual reality other than our lives and experiences in this world. To offer such a disparaging lable simply suggests that its antonym "ideal perfection" lies elsewhere in the universe. But Buddhism says that this is simply not the case. 

Buddhism teaches that all phenomena are governed by the mystic law of cause and effect. The Buddha was a person who awakened to this principle of life within himself and thereby understood that this law operates in the oneness of life and the environment.  This law is perfectly recorded in the Sad-Dharma Pundarika Sutra aka Lotus Sutra.  Causes which promote life are considered good and causes that destroy life are considered bad. The name given to the fundamental law of cause and effect is Myoho Renge Kyo. This phrase constitutes the deepest reading of the Sad-Dharma Pundarika Sutra. Consider the following teaching of Buddha wisdom taken from the writings of Nichiren the teacher of Myoho Renge Kyo or the Lotus Sutra.

To reply, the ultimate Law of
life and death as transmitted from
the Buddha to all living beings is
Myoho-renge-kyo. The five characters
of Myoho-renge-kyo were transferred
from Shakyamuni and Many Treasures,
the two Buddhas inside the treasure
tower, to Bodhisattva Superior Practices,
carrying on a heritage unbroken
since the infinite past. Myo represents
death, and ho, life. Living beings that
pass through the two phases of life
and death are the entities of the Ten
Worlds, or the entities of Myohorenge-
kyo.
T’ien-t’ai says that one should understand
that living beings and their
environments, and the causes and effects
at work within them, are all the
Law of renge (the lotus).1 Here “living
beings and their environments” means
the phenomena of life and death. Thus,
it is clear that, where life and death
exist, cause and effect, or the Law of
the lotus, is at work.
The Great Teacher Dengyo states,
“The two phases of life and death are
the wonderful workings of one mind.
The two ways of existence and nonexistence
are the true functions of an
inherently enlightened mind.”2 No
phenomena—either heaven or earth,
yin or yang,3 the sun or the moon, the
five planets,4 or any of the worlds from
hell to Buddhahood—are free from
the two phases of life and death. Life
and death are simply the two functions
of Myoho-renge-kyo. In his Great
Concentration and Insight, T’ien-t’ai says,
“Arising is the arising of the essential
nature of the Law, and extinction is the
extinction of that nature.” Shakyamuni
and Many Treasures, the two Buddhas,
are also the two phases of life and
death.

 

Please note:  The above passages derive from the teaching of the Lotus Sutra.  Those who wish to understand the Buddha's most important teaching, ie. his own enlightenment, should take the above quotes very seriously. Nichiren fullfilled the prophesy of the Lotus Sutra and revealed the direct path to Buddhahood for all mankind as revealed in the Lotus Sutra.

The Buddha's philosophy is divided between two kinds of teachings, provisional teachings and the absolute all encompassing principle, conventional truth and ultimate truth. From the standpoint of the Buddha both of these forms of truth are not separate and apart from each other but rather form a "single great truth". But in order to understand them correctly one must first establish one's perception of reality upon the Buddha's insight into the ultimate reality permeating all things. The Lotus Sutra says that this can only come about through taking faith in and embracing the Lotus Sutra, reading and reciting and teaching others.  Among all the teachings of Buddhism no other sutra teaches the highest correct relationship between ultimate truth and conventional truth, then the Mahayana Lotus Sutra.

Ultimate truth at its highest level consists of the Buddha's own self identity in the state of enlightenment and this teaching is found in its deepest expression within the teaching of the Lotus Sutra.  This is known as the phrase "infinitely deep and most profound". The conventional view ( as viewed by unenlightened beings) is to understand and percieve the Buddha as a common mortal who attained Buddhahood at a certain stage of his adult life. But this is not the way the Buddha, as an enlightened being, percieves his own life and by extension the actual reality or Law governing the rise and fall of all things and phenomena, sentient life as well as insentient objects. This is because the Buddha's enlightenment concerns the wisdom into the law of karmic causality and the evolution and changing nature of all phenomen throughout the past, present and future and throughout the ten directions of space. The Buddha was able to percieve the chain of causation spanning from the infinite past on to the eternal future, the transmigrations of his own life as well as all other living beings. In this regard the Buddha could percieve the law that brings about all states of life as well as the eternal principle that is simultaneously the state of absolute indestructable happiness that exists at the core of all reality. This view merges subjective consciousness  and all objects of awareness (all phenomena) into a single great truth.

Proceeding from the established basis of Buddhist philosophy aka that the Buddha did in fact attain the state of life that is one with the eternal law of the universe, the Lotus Sutra says that the function of a Buddha's appearance in the realm of temporary existences is to open the way for all temporary living beings to realize this state of wisdom for themselves.  This is called the function of "all Buddha's".  This principle itself - the appearance of a Buddha as an object to be discovered within awareness for the sake of unenlightened beings - is in itself a profound concept of Buddha wisdom. In itself it contains a vast meaning.  Such meanings are encased within the twin concepts of the provisional meaning and the true meaning.  Both types of teachings are vast in themselves. The provisional meanings are vast upon the horizontal plane of time and space and the true meaning is vast in terms of the vertical plane or the infinitely deep roots of existence. -----------> www.tientai.net/lit/hkmg/chapter2/ogkd2-...

The Lotus Sutra teaches that there are innumerable Buddha's who have made appearance throughout the universe into the realm of temporary ever changing reality, displaying the marks of birth, maturing, decline and death, in order to reveal the oneness of the ultimate eternal law and the conventional reality of temporary existence.  All these Buddha's are emanations of the one true Buddha, reality in itself, the universal mystic law of cause and effect; the oneness of a single moment of thought and the eternal span of caises, conditions and effects, past, present and future.

Since the law of change and decay is the source of all suffering, how is it possible for human beings to attain true happiness while living the life of a common mortal.  A common mortal is an ever changing entity of life that proceeds from birth to death, a process of stasis and decay? This is the fundamental issue at the heart of all religious teachings. The Lotus Sutra teaches the correct insight to understand the relationship between the temporary and the eternal while undergoing the process of change as a common mortal.  This is the highest teaching of wisdom and insight into the affairs of true reality. This is known as the principle of the oneness of the three truths and the three properties of an awakened being. This is the correct insight into the oneness of conventional and ultimate truth.  This truth is revealed in its ultimate sense in the passages quoted by Nichiren above.  People seriously wishing to understand the teaching of the Lotus Sutra as regards the true aspect of their own lives should deeply ponder this matter carefully.     

Gassho

I'd like to refer you to my post at 'where to start?'