Dear Buddhists

please explain your view on God - is he / she external and / or internal - is he in all of us - even adolf hitler or only certain persons - can we ever know - where is the proof?

also when Jesus Christ said to love our enemies and to pray for those that persecute us is this karma or is karma an absolute equality of good and bad as loving my enemies seems to be rewarding bad with good.

my questioning is sincere and not to trip anyone up.

thanx so much for your assistance as i thirst for truth

peace

Buddhists do not believe in a creator-god like we find in the Abrahamic religions. Some Mahayana Buddhists, especially Asians, often believe in minor deities, but the view is that they do not have much affect on events, plus they are generally not viewed as permanent, unchanging entities.



"Good" and "bad" are not viewed as being equal. "Good" essentially arises when we do that which helps to alleviate or eliminate suffering in ourselves and others. "Bad" is when we do not do the above. Karma is viewed as sort of an automatic process whereas good generates more good and bad more bad. However, there are many different takes on exactly what karma may or may not be.

One major difference between Christianity and Buddhism is Christianity's emphasis on belief, which is largely absent in Buddhism. According to the Buddha and his subsequent teachers, we are to question even the most basic teachings and draw our own conclusions. One can be Buddhist and even question the original existence of the Buddha, since he was and is not viewed as a god or deity of any type. Therefore, Buddhism has very much a scientific bent to it.

Good questions, btw.

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"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."-- Einstein

You're actually more describing Hinduism here.

Quote:

to learn how to be in harmony with everyone and everything, to feel the oneness instead of feeling independant and alone in other words. Once you reach this state you are able to relate to everyone and everything, you're able to treat the others the way you would like them to treat you, you're able to understand others, to love others...And you do all these things naturally. A person who has reached this state of awareness is also what buddhists call a buddha right? Buddhists call it that way, others call it prophets, but it is all the same. You can even feel the conection between the different religions as different as they might seem to be! Even though i'm not buddhist, buddhism is very close to my religion Peace be upon ya'll DeistPrincess

By and large you hit it, with the exception of the "prophet" part-- in Buddhism, there's no intermediary between god and man since there in no belief in a creator-god. The purpose of having monks and lamas is for the purposes of teaching and with helping others achieve higher levels of enlightenment.

Your statements about awareness and the interdependence of all are right on target. I'm glad you attempted to fill in some answers as I hadn't checked this forum for many months.

__________________
"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."-- Einstein

Most modern Hindus are monotheistic, and the name of God in Hindi is "Brahma". However, God is all-encompassing (pantheism) and is in all creation. Also, Brahma may manifest himself in all different forms. You can get more information at this site: http://www.hinduism.co.za

Quote:

And yes there is intermediary between god and men, a buddha is " connected" with God too, but in order to understand this you shall first understand what God is...

Again, there is no creator-god in Buddhism:


"God in Buddhism


The Concept of God

Generally, we use the term 'God' to designate a supreme power, who is the creator of the entire universe and the chief law-giver for the humans. The God or Almighty is considered to be concerned with the welfare of His creations and the 'moksha' or salvation for those who follow His dictates. Different religions and sects follow the God differently by different names, but as far as Buddhism is concerned, it has a different perception for Him.


The Origin Of God - Myth and Reality

Fear: The Buddhist system of religion do not believe in the concept of a personal God. The theory of Buddhism rejects the notion of an abstract principle of God operating in the universe. They rather believe that the concept of God is a response to fear and frustration. According to the Buddhist ideology, when primitive humans found themselves in a dangerous and hostile world, the fear of wild animals and of natural phenomena like thunder and lightning, they created the idea of Gods to console themselves.


Lack of Evidence

However, it was the Buddha who preached to try to understand the fears, to lessen the desires and courageously accept the things one cannot change. He tried to replace fear, not with irrational belief but with rational understanding. Secondly, the Buddhists do not believe in God because there has been no real and concrete evidence to prove the idea of God. Even the research on God for thousands of year has not proved the existence of God. Thirdly, the Buddhists argue that belief in God is not necessary to have a happy and meaningful life as there are millions of Buddhists, atheists and free thinkers who are happy without belief in God."-- God in Buddhism,Concept of God in Buddhism,Buddhism And Nature of God

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"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."-- Einstein

DeistPrincess:

Let me just add one thing to my last post. The overall best site on Buddhism on-line that I have run across is BuddhaNet - Worldwide Buddhist Information and Education Network . And here's how they answer your question about God:


Do Buddhists believe in a god?

No, we do not. There are several reasons for this. The Buddha, like modern sociologists and psychologists, believed that religious ideas and especially the god idea have their origins in fear. The Buddha says:

Gripped by fear people go to sacred mountains, sacred groves, sacred trees and shrines.

Primitive humans found selves in a dangerous and hostile world, the fear of wild animals, of not being able to find enough food, of injury or disease, and of natural phenomena like thunder, lightning and volcanoes were constantly with them. Finding no security, they created the idea of gods in order to give them comfort in good times, courage in times of danger and consolation when things went wrong. To this day, you will notice that people become more religious at times of crises, you will hear them say that the belief in a god or gods gives them the strength they need to deal with life. You will hear them explain that they believe in a particular god because they prayed in time of need and their prayer was answered. All this seems to support the Buddha's teaching that the god-idea is a response to fear and frustration. The Buddha taught us to try to understand our fears, to lessen our desires and to calmly and courageously accept the things we cannot change. He replaced fear, not with irrational belief but with rational understanding.

The second reason the Buddha did not believe in a god is because there does not seem to be any evidence to support this idea. There are numerous religions, all claiming that they alone have god's words preserved in their holy book, that they alone understand god's nature, that their god exists and that the gods of other religions do not. Some claim that god is masculine, some that she is feminine and others that it is neuter. They are all satisfied that there is ample evidence to prove the existence of their god but they laugh in disbelief at the evidence other religions use to prove the existence of another god. It is not surprising that with so many different religions spending so many centuries trying to prove the existence of their gods that still no real, concrete, substantial or irrefutable evidence has been found. Buddhists suspend judgement until such evidence is forthcoming.

The third reason the Buddha did not believe in a god is that the belief is not necessary. Some claim that the belief in a god is necessary in order to explain the origin of the universe. But this is not so. Science has very convincingly explained how the universe came into being without having to introduce the god-idea. Some claim that belief in god is necessary to have a happy, meaningful life. Again we can see that this is not so. There are millions of atheists and free-thinkers, not to mention many Buddhists, who live useful, happy and meaningful lives without belief in a god. Some claim that belief in god's power is necessary because humans, being weak, do not have the strength to help themselves. Once again, the evidence indicates the opposite. One often hears of people who have overcome great disabilities and handicaps, enormous odds and difficulties through their own inner resources, through their own efforts and without belief in a god. Some claim that god is necessary in order to give man salvation. But this argument only holds good if you accept the theological concept of salvation and Buddhists do not accept such a concept. Based on his own experience, the Buddha saw that each human being had the capacity to purify the mind, develop infinite love and compassion and perfect understanding. He shifted attention from the heavens to the heart and encouraged us to find solutions to our problems through self-understanding.

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"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."-- Einstein

Yes, this is one definition of God, but some people have very different views of what/who God is.

In my case he is not a being who detains the power of the entire universe, he is everything and everyone around us and a synonyme for love.
Following this logic, when a buddhist reaches nirvana, his mind becomes filled with love and love only, he's in harmony with everyone and everything around him, he loves everyone and everything, there is no place for fear or anger like you yourself said when you answered my questions in the other thread. God being love and everything, a buddha is in fact God when he reaches that state of purity.

That is what i meant, it all depends on what/who God is in your own opinion. I explained who he was in my opinion in the other thread so you should reply according to my view of god and not the one of the catholics/muslims/jews.

I think that in the (Tibetan) Book of Living and Dying, these 'deities' are actually seen as manifestations of aspects of the unconscious, although that could be wrong, it has been a looong time since i read it.

It's on the internet somewhere, i considered putting it on my (modest) site along with The Tree of Enlightenment, the author of which is no longer with us.

I may well take up this project again, as i have so much time on my hands....


Edited to add:
The Tree of Enlightenment
It was the Tibetan Book of the Dead by W.Y. Evans-Wentz which i meant earlier, not the Book of Living and Dying.
Some links to it:
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
Tibetan Book of the Dead
The Tibetan Book of the Dead



Peace, Love, & Light

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The Peaceful Place: http://www.agedhippy.plus.com/

"An object is perceived, or not perceived, according as the mind is, or is not, tinged with the colour of the object. "
Patanjali - Sutra 4:17

I didn't state that you believed the same as the Abrahamics and I do understand where deism is coming from. However, Deism is simply not that which Buddhists believe in, and that was my point. Let me quote parts from your explanation as to what you believe in:


Note that even though you have a different take than what is typically found in the Abrahamic religions, nevertheless you are still dealing with the concept of one god that is the cause of all, which is not what Buddhism teaches, and that was my main point. Buddhism does not teach that we will be one with god or that we ourselves are deities-- the Buddha made it clear that he was only a man.

What I was not doing is to imply that your belief is wrong.

__________________
"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."-- Einstein