Dhara
Gold Member
- Jan 1, 2015
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I'm not looking for God. I do appreciate ALL people like you who are fully satisfied in their religious tradition. Buddhism does for me, what the RCC does for you, and more.That doesn't make any sense to me, that "God" has a human personality.
We are made in the image and likeness of God. This doesn't make God human, doesn't make us God, but we do share, in different ways, similar traits. The story of Elijah's meeting of God made a great impression on me. With something as magnificent and as infinite as God, one would expect to meet Him in powerful events. Yet, Elijah encountered God in a quiet whispering sound.
Moses also had an interesting experience. He learned that when God is directly in front of us, we are blinded. It is after God passes (i.e., only in hindsight) that we can identify the presence of God.
We are also taught not to let our right hand know what our left hand is doing. God seems to be a master at that.
We can see Godliness in each of these examples. We humans cannot enfold ourselves in a tiny whispering sound; we are better seen directly, not in hindsight; and we leave evidence of where we have been and what we have done all over the place. I'm simply advising people who are looking for God and cannot seem to find Him, that they may be on the lookout for something eye-catching and powerful. Instead of looking for macro, try micro.
I remember when once a Fench journalist started to interview the Dalai Lama he proudly said somehtign like Buddhism is good + blablabla + and: "I do not believe in god". But the Dalai Lama answered not 'Very good. Now you are on the way to become a Buddhist' or something like this. The Dalai Lama answered: "That's maybe the reason why god sent you to me."
You said you left the catholic church, because your father made suicide. The subluminal message was either "suicide is not a sin" or "the rules of the catholic church hold him not back to do so" or "the people in the catholic church did not help me". What you say now with the sentence "I certainly mean no harm to the RCC. I benefited from my early training in the RCC, and I benefited from leaving the RCC too." might be correct or not - but sounds in my ears as if you would try to follow teachings which are not in harmony with your own person. Don't forget please: You are not your father. And don't forget: Psychological traumata are real wounds. It's perhaps not a bad idea to look for a trauma therapist in the real world outside of the internet.
My dad's suicide led me on a spiritual journey toward discovering Buddhism, which has been my resource for longer now than I was a Catholic.