AboutJudy Expertise I am more interested in answering questions of practical uses of Buddhist teaching in daily life experiences, of self-improvement/growth, and of overall practices with full awareness meditation.
Experience Have searched spiritual path for long.
Have tried various Buddhist practices/methods.
Have practiced Buddhist teachings for 20 years
Education/Credentials BFA in Art. BA in Music
MA in Art
Question Hi, most religions accept a creator God and that gives their religion meaning. Yet most Buddhist don't believe this concept. Whereas a Christian may say God tells us to love and forgive eachother and in that there is meaning, a Jew may believe that God exist and God is good and therefore we should be good to each other and therefore find meaning in that. WIthout belief in God, what then is the meaning of Buddhism? I know its practice, I know we should be compassionate, I know it wants to end suffering. But what is the meaning of creation, under Buddhism, without a creator?
Answer Hi, Marc,
Thanks for the question.
With the meeting between early Christianity and the great Graeco-Roman philosophical and intellectual heritage it became necessary to face questions about the ultimate meaning of creation, the inner nature of God, the notion of grace, the analysis of how Christ could be both God and human being, and so on. These concerns led to the elaboration of Christian doctrine. In the case of Buddhism, to take another example, doctrinal ideas were more crucial right from the start, for the Buddha himself presented a philosophical vision of the world which itself was an aid to salvation.
Everything or every phenomenon or every human accomplishment, either mental or physical or usually both involved, is the Unity of Existence of Emptiness. In other words, Emptiness is the ultimate Truth of the dependently co-arisen unity of a contingent main cause and a set of contingent supporting conditions. Succinctly put, Emptiness is the Unity of Existence derived from conglomeration of the necessary dependent conditions to create a conditioned phenomenon.
Buddhism describes that creation of a conditioned phenomenon should be perceived in terms of conditionality in which a cluster of elementary constituents (dhammas) integrate with another cluster of dhammas. The newly created cluster of dharmas integrates further another cluster of dharmas producing another novelty. The process of creative advance continues endlessly. This explains the evolution of the human civilization since time immemorial hitherto.
Man is not merely physical but also psychological and ethical. In Buddhism, for instance there are certain universally binding precepts, known as the five precepts or virtues, together with a set of further regulations controlling the lives of monks and nuns and monastic communities. To become a Buddhist, having taken refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha, he or she has become more self-restrained morally than before. Consequently, his or her moral behavior improves further. The moral improvement has created an ethically better person in him or her. The new improvement is a form of psycho-ethical creation of moral value created or added to his or her human personality. The elevated morality is an accomplishment. Every accomplishment is a creation. Creation should be viewed rightly as a newly dependent co-arisen phenomenon.
Every accomplishment is a phenomenon, physically as well as mentally. Next, he or she meditates. His or her calmness and awareness power also improves progressively. The added value of tranquility and awareness is another created accomplishment in his or her human personality. Creation should be understood from the perspective of harmonious integration of all necessary contingent conditions.
Subsequently, he or she continues to participate in mindfulness meditation. He develops insight in the four foundations of mindfulness. His or her religious wisdom is elevated. The added value of elevated wisdom is another created accomplishment in his or her human personality. Thus we witness that every created accomplishment is actualized by the will and effort of an aspirant by imposing and determining additional contingent conditions to create an accomplishment. A human personality ought to be rightly perceived as a process Reality participating in the creative advance of his or her human personality. A human personality is the unity of existence of five aggregates. The five aggregates are contingent conditions subject to change. Their change abilities due to the nature of their impermanence and Insubstantiality permit human development and self-cultivation.
Studying Buddhism is actually to learn about ourselves and free ourselves from authority. The primary cause of our so many conflicts in ourselves is the seeking of reality promised by another; we mechanically follow somebody who will assure us a comfortable spiritual life. Understanding is not accepting a description of the view of the world mapped by another no matter how lofty the map maker. Having realized that we can depend on no outside authority in bringing about a total revolution within the structure of our own psyche, there is the immensely greater difficulty of rejecting our own inward authority, the authority of our own particular little experiences and accumulated opinions, knowledge, ideas and ideals.
When you are not left with any authority, you are already free to discover. When there is freedom, there is energy; and when there is freedom it can never do anything wrong (Please note, the freedom I am referring here is "liberation" but not the freedom literally that anyone does whatever he wants). The freedom I am referring here is entirely different from revolt. You are free and from that center you act. And hence there is no fear, and a mind that has no fear is capable of great love. And when there is love it can do what it will.
Karma,that has much to do with the Unity of Existence of Emptiness (mentioned in the first few paragraphs here), is in relationship with the way the Universe works: interaction the energy in the universe. In short, what you put out is what you get back, or what you give you get to keep. If you look out at your world or give love, you get love. To me, to experience oneself in relationships with all the elements in the universe is the whole meaning of creation. We are all INTERDEPENDENT in the universe, yet in ALL of creation nothing is held from us, this is why there is freedom.
References:
Comparative Religious and Philosophical studies by Wong Weng Hon & Freedom From The Known by Jiddu Krishnamurti
