Forwarded from another post: plane, "I am not worried that anything you or I might say could destroy God ,"
Ha, ha, I know you aren't. I know that all too well.
This statement, of course, is born of the assumption that there is a God. I don't feel like I could destroy God either, but for a very different reason. There is no God to be destroyed. To put it in Buddhist's terms, no birth and no death.
The Christian and the Buddhist look in two entirely different directions in order to find out what they are and how they relate to the phenomenal world that surrounds us. The Christian looks outward, to God. The Buddhist looks inward, to his own mind.
Now, while the Buddhist looks inward, to the mind, he is not looking for the mind to give him the answers. He is not saying, wow, I'm a human, look at my mind, ain't it great? Not at all. He is looking at his mind to discover how it works. He is trying to figure out exactly what is this thing that gives rise to thoughts, emotions, and so forth. How and why does this thing we call mind do all that?
So, when you, Plane, say to a Buddhist like me, "I am not worried that anything you or I might say could destroy God ", my reaction is, there goes Plane's mind again doing all those things that minds do. Isn't it interesting that a mind can create all these thoughts.
Now, what have Buddhists learned from watching the, their, mind? One thing they've observed is what they call our "monkey mind". It's that part of our mind that jumps around all over the place, chattering up a storm, heading off in one direction, and then another. Following itself, it's thoughts and emotions, up all these different paths. Creating, giving rise, giving birth to, notions and concepts. Thoughts, and emotions, to a Buddhist, are arisings. They're creations. They are born, and they die. They're neither good, or bad. They just are. They just come about.
So, is there another part of mind? The Buddhist say, oh yes, there is. The Buddhist say that the true nature of the mind is beyond all these creations, these concepts, that come and go. The true nature of mind is not its arisings at all. The true nature of mind is beyond birth, and death, beyond grasping onto concepts, beyond following thoughts, beyond the past, and the future. The true nature of mind, just is. It's this present moment, in all of its luminosity, its suchness. Nirvana is freedom from concepts, touching the suchness of things.
So, Plane, when you speak to me, a Buddhist, of God, you are taking in arisings of the mind. You are using the language of mental creations.
BSB
