Buddhism

The aspect of God being omni present and omni potent is accepted by all the religions. Buddhism however refused to discuss the issue of God and it felt it was of no relevance. It neither rejected nor confirmed. Every religion has its own prescription for the God. Man has evolved on this earth over many years and originally he was a cave dweller and aboriginal. He lived by hunting animals and birds and as time passed, man learned to live in societies or tribes. From the beginning, man was fascinated by the powers of the nature such as fire, thunder, Storm and winds, stars, sun and moon, rain, earth quakes, volcanos, ocean waves, powerful wild animals, fearsome serpents, fearful monsters in sea and rivers, disease and big mountains. He had no control over them. He could not explain birth and death. Thus he believed that there was something highly powerful than him on this earth which could not be overcome. He revered all these forces of nature. Thus worship of powers of nature began. These powers were called Gods and were depicted in variety of forms as the imagination grew along with capacity to depict, paint and carve as civilization progressed (1).

continue reading "God is Omni Present, Omni Potent, and Merciful; the Religions of the World Confirm"

Purpose of man’s existence, the origin of universe, existence of God, soul and super soul and life after death, Satan, paradise and hell have always been intriguing factors to the people of all religions. All world religions are fundamentally aiming at realization of the truth and salvation by their followers and have accepted the presence of God as a force of unmatched potential, attributes and infinity. While some are rigid that the God of their religion only is the ultimate, others are tolerant and are prepared to accept Gods of all religions as one and the same. While certain religions particularly of Eastern origin believe in the cycle of birth and death and transmigration of souls, Semitic religions believe in the Day of Judgment when one’s fate would be decided. Therefore, the aspect of Realization and Salvation in a man’s life is most important as the purpose of every religion is to attain salvation that is freedom from the cycle of death and birth or attaining the paradise by it’s followers. These aspects are discussed:

continue reading "The Aspect of Human Realization and Salvation in World Religions"

The life of a human being on the earth, the purpose for his birth and death and the universe have always been intriguing factors to human mind. Human being is the only living being on the earth that has the power of judgment, reasoning and analytical mind. Therefore, these aspects always tormented the minds of prophets, philosophers and saints in all parts of the world belonging to all religions. All religions have put forward their own interpretation regarding the human life on the earth. These are deliberated up on.

continue reading "The Aspect of Human Life and World Religions"

Tolerance towards others is a very important trait for any religion if world peace is to be maintained. All Eastern religions have been tolerant in this aspect. Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism are the pioneers in this aspect. The scriptures of Christianity and Islam have also taught universal love, compassion and brotherhood. However, the aspect of God became the point of focus and conflict.

continue reading "World Religions and Religious Tolerance"

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The Multifaith Information Gateway is the World's First Blogsphere Created with the object of disseminating information in the area that is called: Multifaith. And, as a domain Multifaith encompasses faiths, beliefs, religions, spiritualities, cults, cultures, races, regions, meditation, mysticism, etc.

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In The Temptation of Belief, Bethany Saltman, a dedicated Buddhist, visits her Christian cousin seeking to understand Christianity and even her own struggle for redemption. It is a very insightful piece.

“When a Buddhist enters a Christian realm, faith without work is difficult to understand, but easy to envy.”

continue reading "One Buddhists' View of Christianity"

Many new blog feeds have been added with a new category of feeds, called Emergence & Compexity, in the right hand column.

Emergence & Complexity includes blog posts tagged (that's Technorati tags) with emerging church, emergent, emergence or complexity. With this category I hope to help visitors find information to understand how the phenomenon of emergence, or complexity, is affecting the church in particular and society in general. I will add to it as I find new sources.

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Note: the following is cross-posted, in a somewhat different form, to my blog.

In response to a flippant comment I made last week to his post, What If There Were No Church?, Bill challenged me to offer "a quick list of parallels" between Buddhism and Christianity. Touché. But, never one to ignore a challenge, here we go.

Unfortunately, Bill, there's nothing quick about Buddhism. And, while there are certainly some parallels between the teachings of Jesus and those of Siddhartha Gautama [see note below], the Buddha, there are very few similarities between Buddhism and Christianity. I'm going to take a stab at offering an overview of the similarities and differences (always with the understanding that this is as I see it, and I would hesitate to call myself a Buddhist; rather, I am one who finds the teachings of the Buddha more complete and truer than those of any other sage I know.)

There are three things, I think, that most clearly distinguish the Buddhist teachings from the Christian scriptures: the authenticity and coherence of the scriptural documents, the differing natures of Jesus and the Buddha, and the vast differences in the core doctrines. I'll take these one at a time.

continue reading "Buddhism and Christianity"