[Avodah] buddhism

[Micha Berger]

I apologize for this ongoing discussion of tum'ah, but I really see no
other way for us to determine whether we should support Tibetan
independence.

There is another issue that could have halachic impact, and that is
whether Chinese Communism really is all that vehemently atheistic
anymore. IOW, is there a religious component left to the oppression,
or is it entirely political?

On Fri, April 11, 2008 11:23 am, R Zev Sero wrote:
: I don't recall doing so.  All I recall saying is that it's my
: understanding that Buddhism as actually practised in Tibet is
: nothing like the sanitised theoretical model of Buddhism that is
: taught in the West, but rather is actual literal AZ, every bit
: as much as that of Terach or of Chazal's Romans.

Well, Tibetan Buddhism as described in the book my co worker showed me
a month ago is as I said. He has a bit of a library on his desk, many
of the books published by <http://www.snowlionpub.com/>.

Mahayana Buddhists don't so much have many gods as have many people
who realized (in the sense of: became conscious of) their
panentheistic nature and offered to hang around to help other people
get there. I might seem like polytheism, but again, each is not a
deity.

A related question: Does Catholocism's use of saints as intermediaries
pose halachic issues in how we relate to them beyond trinitarianism?
(Not to mention Zoroastrianism dualism that crept in when they
promoted satan into a demigod capable of turning all of history into a
battle against their god.)

This is even less, as it's not a demigod or middleman.

I have never seen a good discussion of AZ in how it applies to Eastern
Religions. It's not like the paganism that evolved around from Egypt,
Assyria, Phoenicia, Greece and Rome, where there was a well defined
pantheon of multiple deities.

I have been calling Buddhism panentheistic. They would object to my
calling "Buddha nature" their deity, and call their religion
non-theistic (not promoting or discouraging any particular concept
about god or gods or the lack of them). Both are arguable.

So, what would a poseiq do?

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."
http://www.aishdas.org     - Rav Yosef Yozel Horwitz, Alter of Novarodok
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