Is God A Thing?

last SG · 2006-06-22T18:38:00+00:00

The 64 verses are excellent interpretation of what? Verse Three If things were 'true' as fools imagine, why not accept liberation as tantamount (i.e. equiv...

longchen SG

Is God a thing?

If God is a thing, then who is the creator of this Being call God?

So can God be a thing? If God can be an object, then it is not the ultimate. Because if it is an object/thing/Being, then who is the creator of this object/thing/Being?

casino_king SG

GOD is Spirit according to the Bible. What is spirit, you might say? I can only speak based on my own relationship with God and I tell you that I have no wish to define God for you or anybody because as far as I am concern, GOD is beyond's any man's comprehension and you only communicate and have a relationship / be aware of God in your own life.

How a man ends up being aware and have a relationship with God is by being "born of the spirit." I certainly know that I was born again. When you are born again, "angels" and "heaven" and your whole being rejoices.

It is not much different then when a baby is born, except that this is personal. You are the one that rejoices with the "heavenly beings."

I put them all in " " because you might have a different understanding of those words in " " that I used.

Many Christians here cannot accept what I say, even though it was Jesus who said, "You must be Born Again" and "You must be born of the Spirit" and insists that it is simply "believe, have faith" and not a "new birth" in you (the other school hope that as long as you believe you then assume you have new birth Rolling Eyes ) As if you need to hope and not know something so obvious as a new birth in yourself.

I believe that Enlightenment has the same effect. If you are Enlightened please tell me what it is like.

casino_king SG

Like I said, Buddha was from Hindu tradition amd if you think that God (as creator is Brahma, the statue that Hindus worship, you are sadly mistaken and Buddha was right to reject the creator god Brahma.)

longchen SG

Oops... forgot to add.

I have no wish to answer to this thread. I just place it here to question concepts and ideas. So that we may ponder a bit deeper about the notion of Creator God.

Mr. Green

concerned_man SG

I came across some Christian friends that they believe their God has no physical form. It's what inside them that matters. Smile

concerned_man SG

From Internet search, there are other group who have the same definition of God, where God has no physical form.

Each inidividual interpret God differently. Regardless of this variation, it is real for them in their mind and heart. Smile

longchen SG

Very Happy

When we try to intepret God, we are trying to imagine/conceptualise the ungraspable. .. and God becomes a concept/idea and in our mind it becomes 'objectified'. It is like a dog trying to bite its own tail.

From my understanding, there is no creator-creation division. It is an optical/perceptual illusion...a matrix. Observer(me) and the being observed (other) is a hypnotic thought... creating the appearance of 'me and other'..

neutral_onliner SG

well tat's wat buddha trying to enlighten us and bring us to focus on the 'main' concern.Tat's ending suffering Cool

concerned_man SG

Interesting. In fact Buddha did say that all creations are the works of our mind.

"Yi Jie Fa Chong Xin Xiang Shen, Wei Xin Suo Xian, Wei Shi Suo Bian" The chinese text is available in the Amitabha and Pure Land thread.

neutral_onliner SG

yes the mind is the creator Cool

Mind is the forerunner of all actions.

All deeds are led by mind, created by mind.

If one speaks or acts with a pure mind,

happiness follows, as surely as one's shadow

-Buddha.

An Eternal Now SG

What if I say that the person called God is uncreated and has no beginning?

sinweiy SG

Originally posted by casino_king:
Like I said, Buddha was from Hindu tradition amd if you think that God (as creator is Brahma, the statue that Hindus worship, you are sadly mistaken and Buddha was right to reject the creator god Brahma.)

u sure Buddha's from Hindu?.. i read there's abt 62 religions then in India.
all already have a God concept. there's no point for Buddha to add another.

ref:
http://www.geocities.com/sinweiy/enlight/budrelig.pdf

/\

An Eternal Now SG

Buddha WAS from Hindu religion before his Enlightenment, and he later renounced the Hindu religion, including the Caste system, and established a Shramana tradition along with Jainism that does not accept the authority of the Vedas. Smile

Anyway Hinduism was NOT called Hinduism in the past. There was no such thing called Hinduism until 1500 years after Buddha entered Parinirvana, and the Muslims invaded India.

neutral_onliner SG

tah mr.casino better listen to sinweiy & read tis http://www.geocities.com/sinweiy/enlight/budrelig.pdf don 'anyhow' 'anyhow' Cool

nightzip SG

If you meant thing as a physical form, then i think God is not a thing. Not even spirit, cuz even spirit may pose a physical form like a cloud or smoke.

God is everywhere and nowhere, cannot be touched or see, but yet could be felt from the inner self. Razz

An Eternal Now SG

Agreed..

longchen SG

Emmm... am not so sure about describing it as a person. The function of existence is impersonal and without self.

Uncreated and no beginning, yes. No beginning because Nowness has no past and no future. Past and future are our memory...manifested realm. But, i think, we may not be able to categorise them as manifested or uncreated. Because the categorisation/labeling itself is a thought manifestation.

An Eternal Now SG

I see Smile

concerned_man SG

Very similar to the teachings of the Dharma. Smile

casino_king SG

Originally posted by neutral_onliner:

yes the mind is the [b]creator Cool

Mind is the forerunner of all actions.

All deeds are led by mind, created by mind.

If one speaks or acts with a pure mind,

happiness follows, as surely as one's shadow

-Buddha.[/b]

I believe that you have intepreted MIND in error. The MIND that Buddha speaks of is not the human mind.

It is like what John, Jesus' disciple wrote:

John 1 WEB
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Does it mean that man's words was with God from the beginning and man's words was God?

No, similarly, when Buddha said MIND, he did not mean man's mind.

Man's actions, yes proceeded from man's mind.

So if you project it up; the universe too was created by a MIND.

John used WORD instead of MIND because in Jewish traditions, it was stated:

What we see now came into existence with the words: "LET THERE BE LIGHT."

Begind the words: "LET THERE BE LIGHT" is the MIND.

In the beginning was the MIND, and the MIND was with God and the MIND was God.