God and Heaven

The most fundamental difference of the western God and the eastern Heaven is, the one imagined in a brain (modeled from such as the Gilgamesh Myth) or the one observed as the natural phenomenon.   So that there could be a complaint to someone who created the idea of western God, why the Evil was also created ?  And there, the matter is whether you believe its story or not.  Unless you believe it, it doesn’t exists.  

In contrast, as everybody in the east can see, the Heaven or the Nature is existing even before the human being or the universe was created.  Whether it was believed or not, it is a real existance to anybody.    Therefore, they knew the utterly evil earthquake, tsunami, volcano etc are a part of the nature.   (If the people has  ever encountered those utmost power of the nature, they become aware, they have to live with this without making useless complaint. )   So, that is how those evil were accepted as their part of the destiny.   The system or the existence of those phenomena all together IS the existence of which the Buddhists calles the Dharma, or the Taoist calles Heaven.   The strange phenomenon is, some profound Zennists are able to communicate with this Heaven or Dharma.   (save, other than a nuts)   😀

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In REALITY

All over the world, there are kind of Haunting Ghost Stories.

Still, I never heard a Ghost came back to his Priest, complaining a failure of the teachings

to give him a proper Nirvana. ( or reaching to the Heaven ) 😀

As a matter of fact, Nirvana doesn’t necessary mean a Death. Original meaning is “Put-off a Fire”

and the Fire is a metaphor of the Suffering in the Life.

In this context, its metaphor is quite Buddhist-like understanding, still somewhat akin to the Original Sin

of the Christianity.   It is a sale’s tool to sell the religion to unsuspecting innocents —– exactly same tactics

to sell a body-spray saying “You smell” even though the man is having virtually no body odour but simply

because a man himself can’t judge his own smell.

So, a first step, persuade the people to start to feel, his life is not satisfactory and having trouble and the

sufferings —– when they were persuaded “Having something wrong” then start to sell a remedy.

Irony here is, if there is no religion in the first place, there may not be a notion of Sin or Sufferings.

—– Any how non of the Life is perfect as nobody is perfect.

—–

I used to have a friend of the owner of a big department store.

Since he had inherited huge share of the company, automatically he was earning too much amount

of dividend, therefore having even a headache of what to do with that money.

Donating so much so to this and that Conservationist Organization, and others etc while chased by

other organizations who want his money too, etc etc.

He doesn’t want to deal with money, so that his company has appointed another relative to be a executive

to run the business —– though, because of he got so much money, the people coming to him, were all

after his money, include his 6 wives ( of cause, one at the time 😀 )

Women who got tender sensible character were scared off from him, hence he had to live all through

his married life with gold-diggers. ( Once I was asked by him to judge a woman, I instantly told him

“ Never marry her “ but the woman was much more clever than him in the tactics of psychological

warfare, make him to wait too long, away on her holiday, then gave a call from  China, saying

“Government wouldn’t allow me to leave the Country, unless I got British passport “—– its mean

get marry and get nationality. —– as she got what she wants, she divorced him )

—-

He didn’t need to be Greedy, or Egoistic. Very intelligent Cambridge graduate, hence some time

hard to follow his too academical subject (not mention Cambridge accent 🙂 ) still maintain child like

perception and openly cried like a child with his loneliness ( when woman was not there ) —– though,

he couldn’t understand what’s wrong with his life. —– It was his hopeless Karma.

I don’t think he got anywhere near to a Nirvana though, ( still, at least a Greek wife then was his bed

side —–when he passed away ) I don’t think he would come back as a Ghost. ( He needn’t to haunt

anybody ) —– So, what is the Nirvana ? —- Is there anything like a perfect Nirvana exist ?

I don’t think so.

Someone said, the quality of the man will be reviled when how many number of the attendance came to

his funeral. —– ?    Is the quality of famous pop-star higher than the others ?

Anyhow, the deceased wouldn’t know how many people ever came to his funeral.

—-

Here is the another irony, if a man didn’t ever had a notion of the Enlightenment nor Nirvana, he

would just live his life as it is with high and low.—– Though, a Snobb would say, it’s a dog’s life,

man has to aim spiritually higher existence. —– ?   Really ?    Interesting !

—-

If any Buddhist having this kind of snobbish delusion, better read the Books again.

You will find the description such as

“As long as you have the notion of the Enlightenment, it is not the Enlightenment “.

This is the description of ultimate Mushin. If only the accomplished Buddhists reborn to the human again,

and rest of people would reborn to the another creature, human population will be soon dwindled.

Think how many times more number of   Non-Buddhist population in the world.

So that, in reality, there is no problem to re-produce bad boy by the un-enlightened parents. 😀

If this is the reality, what is the point to study and chase the Buddhism.

Because after all, the goal is just carry out ordinary life without having the conscious of own life.

This is the situation, I described long time ago with a metaphor of Room A and Room A’. (Ref: )

—-

Funny Paradox is, in the Mahayana understandings, as every body born with the Dharma within,

there is equal potential for everybody can achieve the Enlightenment and Nirvana.

But in the same time, nobody is the same (even the same person is different, moment to moment),

nobody is perfect, still everybody can get their Enlightenment as his own INPERFECTION, there

can not be any one standard of the LIFE.

Therefore, neither a standard of what the Enlightenment should be.

Only the person who can assess Who I am and the State of the Mind, and the progress to reach

the Enlightenment, is the very person —– might be you who is reading this.

—-

In the fundamental paradox of the Buddhism, as long as a person is thinking about

the Enlightenment, the person will get no Enlightenment. —– in fact,

the Idea of the Enlightenment itself is nothing but a delusion.

“There couldn’t be any Enlightenment exist” —– might be the ultimate Enlightenment.

To see the thing as it is, in reality is the Buddhism.  And to think it by yourself was the Order of

Buddha himself.   And above all have to live in Reality, not waste the time with fantasy. 😀

Is it a daunting task ?   No, I don’t think so neither.

Because, to be a Buddhist is as easy as Just Do It, Just Live.  😀

___/\___

—

Dharma and Heaven

( This post may read as an addition to the previous post  Dharma = System )

In the east a word Heaven ( Ten in Japanese, Tien in Chinese ) having somewhat similar meaning like

the word Dharma.  Heaven  can be just a sky above but not necessary a Paradise like in the west.

Heaven is where the invisible but ultimate power,  the Ruler reside.  Or the Rules itself.

As the Heaven cover everything on the earth, there is no escape therefore this notion affects every other

notions and the fundamental philosophy and the ethos.

Unlike under western humanised or personified notion of God, in the east there is no margin of negotiation

to the morality, like the situation of crime and punishment.  There is no such things like ” If the God doesn’t

arrow this I’ll go to another God, or our church justify this killing since enemy is pagan”.  Killing is killing.

( I’m not talking the sheer number of execution in China, or having  sever  punishing flood and earthquake)

Without having the insight of this fundation of ethos,  ” Wrong is wrong. There is no escape” it is hard to

understand the hidden psyche of Fatalism in  Taoism or  Zen Buddhism.

As the basis of the Buddhism lie in the word / notion of the  Dharma which is all the Existence /

Nature and the Rules behind or Existence / Nature itself is the Rules, it is naturalto see why

eastern culture is so well harmonized with the nature,

or to see why the Hinayana Buddhism says The man’s life itself is the Enlightenment —— as

the man born with the Dharma within.

___/\___

East and West ( 2 )

To the people in the East,  the huge scale natural disaster is a part of the  Nature.

Even worse, they are coming every year like Hurricane, Typhoon, Earthquake, Land-slide etc.

So that, there is no possibility to conceive a God whose client is the human fork.

—– As far as the eyes can see,  was  their world.  And see the flood of Yellow River as far as the eyes can see,

must be the act of  Supreme Power above there. ———There is no possibility to imagine

any personally accountable,  human shaped  God.  (Who speaks same language !)

If the God created this world,  what is he doing with this devastation,  not once, not twice, but every year !

What is the purpose of this for ?   What a waste.  Isn’t he got a brain ?

—– (Eastern emvilonment is not very good to the Western God )

——————–

Biblical  Grate Flood which story was originated from a legend of a flood happened after the end

of last Ice Age and the rise of sea level,  (So that, such legend / myth exist all over the world.

The Biblical story is the word to word copy of the Gilgamesh Myth of Mesopotamia ) and the earthquake

which was the back ground of the story, demise of Sodom and Gomorrah, such disaster  were not

repeated again and again so, they could be construed as one-off punishment of the angry  God.

So that this God can be imagined as the one who is working together with human —– a friendly type,

speak same language,  hence he could answer your call.

Because of such convenient design, there is the free choice of   ” If this God wouldn’t give me a divorce,

I’ll go to another”  was possible.  ( Free choice is a Western Idea,  which is the basis of so-called

Democracy too,  and that is why a kind of Democracy in the west doesn’t necessary work in the East.)

(A dubious Leader who happen to be elected by a number game, can not to be respected in the Eastern

psyche, though in reality, a politician who managed to fool the people with false Charisma is in power.

Yet still, originally, the Ruler in East was expected to be able to communicate with Heaven,  that is why

the Emperor  was called as the Son of Heaven  in China and in Japan.)

——————-

Therefore,  the Eastern Belief System goes to the abstractic Order of Universe, the Rules of

the Dharma  or the Heaven ( note, Heaven  is not an idea of Paradise.  The Sky and the invisible Power

above there ) and  not a humanized God figure.  (Though, Pure Land Buddhists got different view )

In the same time, by observing the intricacy and the cohesion in the Nature gave the insight,  that is

the Order is perfect, beyond the human comprehension, ” If the power and the wisdom is such superior,

there is no competition,  we have to just accept and follow”.  This the God in the East.   ( The Hindu

idea of the Deity  and  its depiction, might be the Greek influence which came to India after

the Alexander the Grate. —— this must be an interesting field to study)

——- This Eastern God may not even be the religion, but the awareness, where we stand.

Because,even  a non-believer couldn’t escape from this Order.  When ship sunk under a Hurricane even

a Christian sunk too.  It is the Karma affecting everybody, who took that ship, on that Day.

East and West

While exchanging the comments with formidable Theologian Irishanglican DPh ThD and others,

Stark contrast of, probably the best Epitome of the East and West emerged.

Christianity was based on the universality of the pain on the body and the Emotion.

As all the human has evolved from the single ancestor, all the physical system, brain, naval system,

function of hormone etc are all virtually identical.

And the upper system constructed on it, the Instinct, Emotion, most of the structure and function

and the tendency of the Subconscious is more-or-less the same to each other,  in any race.

So that the depiction of the crucified Jesus and his pain strikes the Emotion straight, together with

the fear of death.  On top of this, yet another Emotional topic of the Love appeals to anybody too.

Even it based on the instinctive fear though,  to be as an attractive Religion it is necessary to have

an exit, Salvation and the Heaven.

——————–

In contrast, the Eastern Philosophies are based on the Notion of  Supreme Power who controls

the fate of the individual,  therefore leaving the matters of inequality,—– one may feel pain but

not others and accept the trouble of the life as an individually given fate or Karma.

Then went to find the solution in the mechanism of the Psyche —– to over come the trouble

by shifting the way to see the trouble, and the way to control the Emotion, by proposing

ideal personality and his life style.

The beauty of the Buddhism is, as they found the most effective way to deal with the troubles by

the technique of the Selflessness, which is effectively cut off the Emotion and its detrimental

effect to the life.

——————–

In short, The Christianity after Jesus is based on the universality of the Emotion,

In contrast the Buddhism is based on how to detach from the Emotion.