[Avodah] buddhism

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, April 10, 2008 8:16 pm, R Michael Makovi wrote:
: For a Jew, maybe. If I bow down to an idol, regardless of my kavana,
: I'm chayav. But what about a gentile? Is he chayav?

I think this is the essential question.

Buddhism makes effigies of people (on in particular) who they believe
were able to be consciously aware of their panentheistic nature. What
they represent is even less problematic than tripartite notions of
many Xian belief systems.

However, they use many icons, effigies, and other symbols as objects
to focus concentration on. Does the fact that they don't intend to
represent gods make it any different than idolatry? Can a mode of
worship be assur to a non-Jew if the content of the belief isn't?

I went into this assuming that if the belief wasn't assur, neither
could be the activity. RTK and RZS came in on the other side,
commenting on the use of statues and icons.

I haven't seen sources either way. I took it for granted without it
crossing my mind otherwise that if I explained the content of the
belief, the forms were irrelevant.

For Jews, OTOH, derekh emori would ban worshiping HQBH using
idolatrous modalities anyway.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
micha at aishdas.org        and he wants to sleep well that night too."
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