@secondson saidEnlightenment is the release from the cycle of life and death.
What is the Hindu cure for the finality of death? Enlightenment?
How does that work?
@ghost-of-a-duke saidThen what? Ethereality?
Enlightenment is the release from the cycle of life and death.
🤦♂️
@ghost-of-a-duke saidI see. So then, after a multitude of lifetimes, if one should perform up to the standard of performance necessary, one achieves a state of perfection, i.e. nirvana, heaven. Patatoes patatos.
Nirvana, heaven. Tomatoes tomatos.
All by themselves, or is it a team effort? Does one get a little help from someone or something? Or is it every man for himself?
@secondson saidYou asked what followed the release from the cycle of life and death. I answered Nirvana. Again, how is that different from heaven?
I see. So then, after a multitude of lifetimes, if one should perform up to the standard of performance necessary, one achieves a state of perfection, i.e. nirvana, heaven. Patatoes patatos.
All by themselves, or is it a team effort? Does one get a little help from someone or something? Or is it every man for himself?
The Hindu 'karma' and Christian 'reap what you sow' are cut from the same cloth. Neither is a team effort. As a Christian, you want to elevate your own religion and at the same time ridicule the beliefs of other religions, I get that.
All the same to me. Neither is more or less ridiculous.
@ghost-of-a-duke said"That sounds like something someone might say with a finite mind."
All the same to me. Neither is more or less ridiculous.
😉
@Ghost-of-a-Duke
I never said that JESUS was alone...
When I mentioned Jesus, automatically Jehovah and the Holy Spirit are included.
For THEY are ONE!!!
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@saintjaymz saidYou said:
@Ghost-of-a-Duke
I never said that JESUS was alone...
When I mentioned Jesus, automatically Jehovah and the Holy Spirit are included.
For THEY are ONE!!!
'...and this Christian God (JESUS), '
Why single out Jesus and place him in brackets (and capital letters) if you believe in the Trinity?
@happy-chappy saidIf you are keen to go back to the subject, please do. You could start by addressing the OP question. The subject is the purpose and efficacy of prayer in the context of slavery. If you want to discuss retail politics in the U.S., which I think you do, I suggest you take it to the Debates Forum.
Anyway,back to the subject,
@secondson saidIn Pure Land Buddhism, it is generally believed that Bodhisatvas actively interfere on our behalf and help those who are devout.
I see. So then, after a multitude of lifetimes, if one should perform up to the standard of performance necessary, one achieves a state of perfection, i.e. nirvana, heaven. Patatoes patatos.
All by themselves, or is it a team effort? Does one get a little help from someone or something? Or is it every man for himself?
It is also just generally believed that devotional acts will earn yuo in a rebirth in a higher plain of existence (a Heaven) in which you will be able to hear the teachings of Bodhisatvas more directly, and thus ascend into Nirvana.
Nirvana is sometimes conceptualized as total non-existence but many believe that Nirvana does have actual parallels to a heaven and that a sort of consciousness does remain, and that a sort of interaction with reality does remain, for the Buddhas. But this is all very controversial territory. The safest, most obvious interpretation is that Nirvana really is non-existence, but there are plenty who still treat it as a sort of Buddhosis where one becomes merged with the great, vast enlightened, contented, peaceful being, and that is what is meant by non-existence.
It'd really depend on who you are talking to - even within traditions there are conflicting ways to interpret this. Buddhism tends to be less dogmatically rigid.
@philokalia saidAn analogy I've heard is of grains of salt dissolving into 'the one water.' The grains may appear to no longer exist, but taste the water and it will taste salty.
Nirvana is sometimes conceptualized as total non-existence but many believe that Nirvana does have actual parallels to a heaven and that a sort of consciousness does remain, and that a sort of interaction with reality does remain, for the Buddhas. But this is all very controversial territory. The safest, most obvious interpretation is that Nirvana really is non-existence, ...[text shortened]... aditions there are conflicting ways to interpret this. Buddhism tends to be less dogmatically rigid.