Welcome to Gaia! ::

I was hoping to get some input and some help from the guild on this one.

I have a very good friend with whom I have just come into contact with again. Now, she is very Christian, and I am now very Buddhist, but was not when I had known her.

Now, our argument and discussion is thus: I can't accept Christ's divinity and God, because accepting that would mean that I have to accept everything it stands for and accept their rules and laws, and in essence, cease to be a Buddhist and become a Christian. I don't think that a belief in God is productive to my finding Nirvana, nor do I think that it's anything more than another attachment to this reality.

She just doesn't understand that, and I can't think of a way to make her understand. She doesn't understand how I don't have a personal relationship with Christ, and she doesn't understand how I don't believe in God. That apparently is her stopblock, the agnosticism.

One particular point in the conversation, I gave in, and said, "Ok, God exists. What has changed?" Her reply was, "Just because you've come to the realization that God exists, doesn't discount his existence prior to your realization. He has always been." Granted, by semantics, she's right, but still, whether or not I believe, it serves no end to a Buddhist, does it not?

I'm looking for some discussion here.

I can accept God (not the Abrahamic version, mind you), but not Jesus. The problem I have with Jesus is this:



It's interesting to note as well that most people who say the follow Christ's teachings are all too quick to reject what Christ actually taught, in favor of the other junk in the Bible (which speak kindly of rape and slavery). If one is going to follow Christ, then one necessarily has to reject a lot of what the other authors of the Bible have written.

Reading the Sermon on the Mount, I'm reminded of the Buddhist teachings. The whole "eye for an eye" thing has been taken out of context by so many people, the exact verse says to never take an eye for an eye, but to forgive. It says to love everyone (sinners included) as God loves everyone - to be perfect as God in Heaven is perfect. This exact teaching reminds me of the Buddhist saying, "when you sit, sit like a Buddha. Be Buddha."