March 07, 2006
Bill,
I've heard (read) you say something similar to this before which really opened my mind up to the possibility of Buddhist Gods and Goddesses being "real". But until I read this I didn't extend the concept to include the big Christian God. I love Thich Nhat Hanh but his references to God have always given me heartburn. I'm going to ponder what you said and see if I can relax about the whole Christian God thing. I don't really understand the part about facilitating the flow of energy back to humanity. I mean, what's wrong with leaving it the way it is?
VW
I started chanting Om Mani Padme Hum about a year ago after the chant popped into my head one morning and the next day I met a practitioner of this practice. It opened me up to alot of new ideas. Sometimes I chant it in my head, sometimes I chant it combined with Nam Myoho Renge Kyo as 12 syllable chant, sometimes I chant it to my gohonzon.
I too had to deal with the very foriegn idea (to me) that beings such as Chenrizig could possibly actually exist. I still don't know how to deal with this thought but I've managed to synthesize the possible existence of these higher form beings with my previous conception of them as "Mythical Symbolic Imagery at best; or vitality draining superstitious nonsense, in its more common manifestation."
The way that I think about it now which helps me deal with the dissonance, is to imagine all the spiritual power which people have given to these concepts through their prayers and hopes and dreams. This is real power, real energy and just because people place these powers and functions of the buddha outside themselves does not mean that the powers and functions cease to exist. I concieve of these beings/symbols as the repositories of these energies.
Instead of focusing on the weaknesses of humans manifested by their yearning to be saved by these beings, I try to focus on the beauty of the deep desires that humans have as manifested by the personification of them in these beings. I then pray to open my life so that I can become a conduit for the energy stored by us in these symbols to flow back to me and all that I'm connected to, to be used by us to manifest the power and functions of these symbols in our lives.
This way of viewing things has totally changed the way that I deal with religious symbols and concepts of god, no matter how they are expressed.
Anyway I no longer ridicule christians or any other religion. I feel it's incumbent upon me to facilitate the flow back to humanity of the spiritual energy stored in all religious symbols.
Does this make sense to you?
Bill