March 16 2020 —
BK said: “This life is only practice.”
Response: Life has meaning and purpose.
BK said: “To understand me you should know that I don’t like religion but I like faith.”
Response: To dislike religion is to dislike the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. Religion amounts to the readiness to attribute a very great and intense belief in and reverence for supernatural being(s) and to a particular system of faith and worship, which widely holds that an unjustifiable belief in supernatural causation will lead to certain consequences of an action or event, e.g. tribulation, apocalypse, etc., which is in fact the definition of a superstition.
BK said: “[Faith] is like looking up from the ground and seeing the skies and stars in the universe. Knowing that there is some greater purpose that is unseen and unknowable.”
Response: Faith is what determines all things, the purpose of which is to develop inner strength. Faith is found in daily life, because “no worldly affairs of life or work are ever contrary to the true reality.” (T’ien-t’ai) Faith points to the outward expression of our life. Faith is about bringing forth the “true reality” of INTERNAL CAUSE(S) or our potential for awakening to the eternal and ultimate truth that is the reality of all things, where boundless wisdom and infinite compassion characterize a supreme state of life. (INTERNAL CAUSE is one of the functions and workings in life; it is the cause latent in life that produces an effect of the same quality as itself, i.e., good, evil, or neutral. Nichiren, the True Buddha wrote “When the skies are clear, the ground is illuminated. Similarly, when one knows the Lotus Sutra, one understands the meaning of all worldly affairs” (“The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind,” WND-1, 376).)
BK said: “Hope is a wonderful thing for the mind. It is a fuel. The energy to help you overcome all the nasty little things in life.”
Response: Hope is NOT faith. Hope is NOT fuel to overcome all the nasty things in life. Hope is having feelings of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. That is different from faith (see above). What is life’s potential energy is POWER.
BK said: “You’re thinking right about now that you want to ask me to prove the existence of God I can also argue that you can’t approve the non-existence of God either.”
Response: That I would ask you to prove or disprove the existence of God or looking to prove the non-existence of God is far from my mind. My views do NOT stem from any belief in a superhuman controlling power. My views stem from my belief in the “Middle Way,” a path that transcends polar extremes or duality, because the true nature of all things is that they are neither born nor die so we cannot define phenomena in either of the two extremes of existence or non-existence. The reason for this; the true nature of things is NON-SUBSTANTIAL. The Treatise on the Middle Way begins: “NEITHER BIRTH, NOR EXTINCTION, NEITHER CESSATION NOR PERMANENCE, NEITHER UNIFORMITY NOR DIVERSITY, NEITHER COMING NOR GOING . . .” This passage termed the eight negations, or the middle path of the eight negations, clarifies the concept of the Middle Way. The truth of the Middle Way means that the true nature of all things is neither non-substantiality nor temporary existence, but exhibits the characteristics of both. Why is this true? This is true because things and phenomena have NO fixed or independent nature or existence of their own. It means phenomena arise ONLY by virtue of their relationship with other phenomena, i.e. dependent origination.
BK said: “I found that unless I look for him, I can’t find God. But what I do see is a grand design in the universe. The endless spirals within spirals within spirals. Every one of those things are a beauty unto themselves.”
Response: Seeking God is NOT something I do; I do NOT look to a superhuman controlling power or toward a “grand design” of unjustifiable beliefs in supernatural causation that will lead to certain consequences in my life, but single-mindedly seek to resolve any doubts about possessing the potential for limitless growth and to deepen my perception of the true nature of my life; this resolve is found in making determinations, which is INTERNAL CAUSE (see above) to gain entrance to wisdom.
BK said: “From the exact moment of the beginning of the universe to what is predicted to be the state of entropy I will end time itself.”
Response: This sentence sounds obscure, except thinking you might mean from biblical time period between Creation to Revelation. We CANNOT define the true nature of any phenomena as existence or nonexistence; it is NON-SUBSTANTIAL and transcends all duality. The state at which one consciously attempts to realize the ultimate truth of life through one’s own observation of phenomena is realization, while the truth of birthlessness is the perception of non-birth and non-extinction of the phenomenal world, i.e. when one realizes the truth that nothing is born and nothing dies. We live in a threefold world; the world of DESIRE, FORM and FORMLESSNESS.
BK said: “Everything in between is beautiful.”
Response: Everything in between what is beautiful? I have no idea what you mean.
BK said: “But you say bad things happen to good people why is that? Is my own belief that your life is full of experiences both good bad and chaotic?”
Response: “Bad things [happening] to good people” is NOT an idiom I would use; I possess an understanding of what a person in that condition would mean, so I wouldn’t say that; and so thinking about my life in terms of “experiences both good bad and chaotic” are not the terms in which I perceive my life. The LIFE of a person AND their ENVIRONMENT, though may seem like two distinct phenomena, but are essentially non-dual existing in the same reality, i.e. LIFE constitutes a SUBJECTIVE “self” of an individual who experiences their past actions, while their environment is the OBJECTIVE realm their causal rewards find expression. That means; When life’s inherent POWER is activated, it has the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself, i.e. having an INFLUENCE on INTERNAL CAUSE, to produce of the same quality as itself, i.e. either good, evil, or neutral effect. INTERNAL CAUSE(S) remains latent, i.e. it exists, but it remains hidden or does NOT develop or manifest until there occurs a RELATION between internal or external conditions to produce MANIFEST EFFECT. This explains other functions and workings in life common to all phenomena.
BK said: “Because when you die the only thing you take with you are your experiences.”
Response: It’s a mistake to believe that just because the body forms a temporary union with form and the five senses that the self is a separate or independent entity and views that surrounds me as my own possessions. That is but one realm of our existence. Nothing in the universe can belong to an individual. We don’t live in perfect isolation, but also exist in a realm with other living beings with whom we form an integrated whole, taken to mean we interact with one another as a collective body. In addition, we exist in a place or land, an environment where living beings’ dwell and carry out life-activities. This place is a reflection of the state of life of the people who live in it. The way to view these three realms is not to view them separately, but as an integrated whole. All of life is contained in a single moment and is not situated along a linear timeline. In a single moment life endows the mind of an ordinary person with characteristics that pervade the entire universe, such as our body & mind, our self & the environment, giving rise to good & evil, and encompassing cause & effect simultaneously. It is only an illusion of thought to believe in the annihilation of life at death without continuance in any form, or that life persists after death in some eternally unchanged form such as a soul.
BK said: “I’d suggest to anybody who might ask to try and convince them to have as many life experiences as possible and a search for beauty and Truth.”
Response: The comment is vague; not sure what the question is that someone might ask where you would answer with that response, or what you mean by a search for beauty and truth. If by life experiences you mean both good and evil causes you made in life I would tend to agree; but the search for beauty and truth? Beauty can combine a combination of qualities, but usually is usually is something that pleases the aesthetic senses and is only temporary; and essentially, truth really is only relevant when it comes to happiness, insofar that they clarify the cause of suffering and way of emancipation. Truth is; all existence is suffering, selfish craving causes suffering, eradicating selfish craving brings about cessation of suffering and enables one to awaken to the true nature of phenomena, and that there is a path to eradicating suffering. That is truth.
BK said: “I know you’re probably saying what the heck. one step back takes us back to the Bible as one of many different religions. the old testament is a bunch of rules and regulations on how to live a better life and make yourself acceptable to God. Well you know how that turned out people just cannot measure up and even God was surprised.”
Response: It’s presumptuous of you to say, I know you’re probably saying what the heck. one step back takes us back to the Bible as one of many different religions.” No, it’s not what I’m saying. Upon whatever it is I reflect and i.e. a great deal of history, the purpose of the Bible is NOT as a panacea. Religion is NOT something I do. Placing my faith in dogma or rules and regulations laid down by superhuman controlling authorities as incontrovertibly true is NOT something I do. I take absolutely NO interest in making myself acceptable to a custodial God or aim to measure up to them. My belief in God amounts to a belief that a neutral source of energy exists, a beam of light; and that’s about it. My life is pretty simple; reason is something I use in its best capacity to understand the true nature of phenomena and I take full responsibility for all the causes I make and that’s about it. That would be NO surprise to impostor Gods who spin the truth for their own purposes. Would you worship a geneticist, because they can clone horses, pigs or sheep, even humans? That’s about what Gods human being worship amount to when you reflect upon historical reliefs and the history of religion.
BK said: “His only solution was to send his son to try and understand us by living as human.”
Response: That comment is ambiguous. If you’re divine, you would not have to be born a living being to understand them. Whether Christ, per se ever existed is questionable in many circles. If in fact He did exist, the Gnostics resisted His deification. It was Constantine who put an end to the Gnostic RESISTANCE to DEIFY Jesus, whom they saw only as an honest spiritual teacher; and at the Council of Nicea (325 AD) Constantine creates the famous NICENE CREED that made the belief in Jesus as the “Son of God” the cornerstone of Christian faith, and put the POWER in the hands of the STATE TO ENFORCE.
BK said: “The goal was still to redeem it’s all in the eyes of God. And certainly, Christ died to atone for sins of all men in all time. All that is asked of you is to accept that he died to atone for your sins and that you might love him.”
Response: The illusion NOT to recognize the law of cause and effect, is an attribute of of personal irresponsibility and a requirement for a savior to exist. This necessary condition arises in relation to delusive inclinations; greed, anger, stupidity, arrogance, and doubt and in connection with the various affairs and phenomena of the world of unenlightened beings. There is NOTHING to redeem in the eyes of a God; only toward one’s own life. As every life-moment passes human beings manifest in both the physical and spiritual aspects of their human activities’ life conditions or states of life marked by factors that are common to all of life and phenomena. (see above)
BK said: “At this point you can tell who does not understand.”
Response: At this point, YOU can tell who does NOT understand.
BK said: “One of the best illustrations is that Jesus walked among the people that society rejected and abhorred. The poor the beggar’s the prostitutes. The message is clear is that redemption is for every person. That you are wanted as you are in all your self-ascribed problems and unworthiness. He just wants you.”
Response: Not looking for redemption. You can experience the effects of bad karma from the past to a lesser degree, but present sufferings have a direction RELATION to past actions or causes that remain in your life as karma, which asserts that you must suffer the effect of every negative cause you make in the past. The way to lessen one’s karmic retribution however, is by protecting the law of causality, then you can diminish both in terms of time and intensity karmic retribution; otherwise, one can expect torment more harshly over a longer period, even lifetimes. If this were not the case, if there was such a thing as Christ dying to atone for the evil causes of all men, no one would be suffering, but that is NOT the case. Everyone gets what they deserve, because causality is the law of the universe is impartial and deals with every human being accordingly. Nichiren (1222–1282) states in his writing Lessening One’s Karmic Retribution: “If one’s heavy karma from the past is not expiated within this lifetime, one must undergo the sufferings of hell in the future, but if one experiences extreme hardship in this life [because of the Lotus Sutra], the sufferings of hell will vanish instantly. And when one dies, one will obtain the blessings of the human and heavenly worlds, as well as those of the three vehicles and the one vehicle” (199). According to this principle, Buddhist faith and practice may cause one suffering and hardship, but will relieve one of the hellish suffering that is one’s due.
BK said: “Okay you’re probably saying to yourself at this point that was predictable. I’ve come to realize that there’s essentially two different types of religions. One that requires you to perform some sort of act or sacrifice to be worthy and the other is that you are worthy because you exist. the second type of religion doesn’t require you to do anything other than change your mind. Islam is a great example of the first. There are acts that you have to do to enter heaven and some of these are certainly Acts that are atrocious by Western standards. You talk about brainwashing just look at radical Islam.”
Response: Expectations? My belief about something happening are mostly about the future; not what an individual might believe. There is ONLY one kind of religion; the belief in a superhuman controlling power. Islam is just another example of how Christian reforms carried out by the Roman Empire to brand pagans as heretics and carry out cataclysmic genocide to create a new world social order while promising utopia, while being led to believe Justinian’s plague was punishment from God, according to apocalyptic prophecy and would yield the coming of a new messiah; that was Muhammad who was born in the year of his reign. You are welcome to read a paper I wrote called “Theft by Emperors” that will take you through what is an “apocalyptic messianic eschatology,” and its affectation.
BK said: “it’s as bad as belonging to the Democratic party in the United States. People are elected into office here with good intentions to represent the people but when they go to the Congress, they are roped into party politics. where if they want to get anything done, they have to vote on party lines actually in the face of what their constituents want in many cases. In the end all you have are ideologues. The same mindless fervor exists both in the Democratic party and radical Islam.”
Response: Politics is a means to a religious goal, especially now with evangelicals at the helm of the government. You can get an idea of what I mean by this in reading a paper I wrote on this subject “Politics, a means to a religious goal; at the center of Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.” Trump may not be an evangelical, but he is under the influence of an evangelical. It was not easy to write the paper and hasn’t as much clarity as I would have liked, but is understandable. This is a difficult subject, because it means taking the history of religion and mythology into consideration. With even a great deal there is to write on the subject of politics, that is not my purpose here. Suffice to say; papal infallibility and the globus cruciger are symbols of divine authority.
BK said: “I choose the second type of religion that does NOT require sacrifice or behavior changes or Force contrition. What would a god of love need of those things? I choose a God that wants me as I am and all my little problems…Additionally I have no problem with other people’s ideas of religion because everybody is on a different path and some quite different. I even respect people who choose no religion as I believe in a compassionate God that will reveal himself to them in his own way.”
Response: There is ONLY one type of religion and i.e. to believe in a superhuman controlling power. There is different dogma one can associate with different religions, a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true. Human beings DESIRE to use their POWER and INFLUENCE you into believing they possess the divine authority to perform certain rites and administer certain sacraments, which are to have an effect on your character, development or behavior; or in the case with Islam, to issue fatwas in responses to questions posed to Muslim jurists who deduce legal rulings for each and every human action, an utterly impossible task. It is incorrect to believe there is no penalty for making evil causes for which you must repent, i.e. an apology, and acknowledging your faults, shortcomings, or past misdeeds, and seeking to correct or make amends for them. The Universal Worthy Sutra, regarded as the epilogue to the Lotus Sutra, states, “If one wishes to carry out repentance, sit upright and ponder the true aspect. Then the host of sins, like frost or dew, can be wiped out by the sun of WISDOM.” In short, since one’s wrong acts ultimately stem from IGNORANCE of the true nature of life, to awaken to that nature, or the true aspect of all phenomena, and bring forth one’s inherent wisdom, thereby PURIFYING one’s life, is the ultimate act of repentance. Such an approach is NOT the practice of a religion; but about activating a different state of life or condition, i.e. LEARNING and REALIZATION, i.e. to seek the ultimate truth of life through your observation of phenomena of life, including your own. Causality is a universal law of seeding and blooming simultaneously. Many choose to live under the illusion that the ultimate truth or reality that permeates all phenomena, and which is in no way separate from them, is NOT the true aspect of all phenomena, but that will NOT change this REALITY, which consists of unchanging aspects of life common to all phenomena, i.e. appearance, nature, entity, power, influence, internal cause, relation, latent effect, manifest effect, and their consistency from beginning to end; some of which I described. This REALIZATION has NO RELATION to the worship of a deity or religion or even the dogma of a particular religion. It is in fact, the TRUTH. “[Choosing] a God that wants me as I am and all my little problems,” then religion is NOT for you; because all religion revolves around a superhuman controlling power that resists spiritual recovery, because genuine spiritual knowledge has never become available. Religion only elevates the status of the superhuman controlling power. Dogma hides the unlimited spiritual potential of human beings, and prevents them from grasping the truth about the true nature of reality and phenomena. The only focus has been to force human obedience and to maintain control over the human population. War and human suffering are much more important. War achieves economic benefit, is reason for forming institutions, and as long as the endless squabbling prevents unity against the conqueror, it does not matter to them over what issues human beings bicker; and if war is NOT an effective enough tool, then massive cataclysmic genocide strikes, and pestilence that serve to yield the promise of the coming of a new “messiah” and utopia with yet the same end of world scenarios. Nonstop warfare always triggers a religious mission! NOT INTERESTED in a “‘compassionate God” to reveal himself to me in his own way;'” that tells Abraham to commit the atrocity of circumcising himself, his household and his slaves as an everlasting covenant in their flesh; it only suggests the Yahweh God of Judaism is a counterfeit version of the story of Genesis, who not only takes credit for Enki’s creation whom he saw as imperfect, but also denigrates Enki, creator of humankind and benefactor into a serpent who seduces Adam and Eve to sin for purposes of creating his own nation to rule. What makes sense is that if you require surgical correction then you are inferior, having been created imperfect and should be placed in subordination to the “chosen” ones, the circumcised “Jewish Master Race” when in fact, circumcision obviously symbolizes an imposed deprivation to fully enjoy sex in the process of “making love.” For Yahweh to suppress the highest human emotion, which is love and what makes us human, is a real indicator of true purpose of the Judeo-Christian God Yahweh: the repression and destruction of humanity. Respect should have nothing to do with religion; but for the dignity of human life, where you recognize that everyone possesses the INTERNAL CAUSE to awaken to the eternal and ultimate truth that is the reality of all things, and where boundless wisdom and infinite compassion characterize a supreme state of life.
BK said: “We have a very short time here. We can choose to search for what is true and always will be true, happiness and experiences.”
Response: It is NOT true that happiness always exists. Earth is a place where we must endure suffering. It is an impure land of earthly desires and illusions, a world full of distress and suffering, but is itself a pure land, the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light. In the “Life Span” (sixteenth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni states, “Ever since then I have been constantly in this sahā world, preaching the Law, teaching and converting.” Happiness is ONLY a temporary state of joy or satisfaction, where one feels upon release from suffering, fulfillment of a desire or completion of a goal, because all human beings suffer from FALSE views, illusion of thought and desire, adhering to misconceptions and viewing them as truth, while regarding inferior views as superior. This world of “heavenly beings” in which some of us live on earth contemporaneously called HEAVEN is a world of rapture, and when viewed from a state of life, represents various kinds of joy we experience. The world of desire symbolizes the desire for existence, instinctive desires, materialistic desires, social desires, etc. You can equate the joy of the world of form and the joy of the world of formlessness with the satisfaction of higher desires such as intellectual, artistic, and spiritual desires, too. However, any of the joys of the world of “heavenly beings” are transient and vulnerable to external circumstances, i.e. INFLUENCE. On the other hand, absolute happiness has as its basis in an eternal view of life, and NOT “a very short time here.” Happiness is something that emerges from within; it’s NOT dependent on externals, but on a philosophy of life reformation, where one can completely transform tragedy, even death into profound joy. It places an emphasis on the human heart, and mind from where both peace and conflict arise. “If people’s hearts and minds change, everything changes. -Nichiren.”
BK said: “There can never be any evidence of an afterlife of any kind or there can never be any faith. The only [thing certain you really know] is that death is coming. Whether you continue on past that is the question. Understatement about the need for salvation begs the question about whether you believe man is corrupt from birth or is innocent and then loses his innocence. As a child and lacking of wisdom and understanding of the world my answer would have been that all people are born innocent and that’s a great idea for infants. But as I became older in the age of Innocence faded, I’ve come to realize that man is corrupt. I mean he is hungry he needs are he needs food and shelter and would do anything as an animal to get these things.” Response: Life is a TEMPORARY EXISTENCE in a realm of five components in terms of how a human being responds to their surroundings, which will determine how their life will express itself in various states of life, e.g. HELL, HUNGER, ANGER, ANIMALITY, HUMANITY, HEAVEN, LEARNING, COMPASSION (BODHISATTVA), REALIZATION, SUPREME LIFE (BUDDHAHOOD) in a realm of existence, i.e. where FORM, constitutes a body and its sense organs, which includes the spiritual components: PERCEPTION, CONCEPTION, VOLITION, and CONSCIOUSNESS. Unenlightened beings live in a threefold world who transmigrate within six paths, from hell through the realm of heavenly beings. They consist of the world of DESIRE, the world of FORM, and the world of FORMLESSNESS. What rules human beings in the world of DESIRE are various cravings, such as those for food, drink, and sex. The world of FORM consists of four meditation heavens, further divided into eighteen heavens; the human beings here are free from desires, cravings, and appetites, but still have physical form and thus are subject to certain material restrictions. The world of FORMLESSNESS comprises the four realms of Boundless Empty Space, Boundless Consciousness, Nothingness, and Neither Thought Nor No Thought; here beings are free from desires and from physical form with its material restrictions. I suppose whether or not there is an afterlife, i.e. a part of a CONSCIOUSNESS that continues after the death of a physical body (FORM) then, would depend upon the particular transmigration of the human being, though into what circumstances a person might be reborn depends upon the kind of life they lived. Some human beings are reborn into these states of suffering due to their evil actions in a previous lifetime. Some human beings are reborn into other states due to their good and virtuous actions in their previous lifetime. We possess provisional and transient identities for purposes of saving human beings, where we employ various temporary, expedient teachings to prepare people to understand the meaning of what is our true identity, that is; by casting off our transient status as an ordinary, unenlightened person burdened with karma and suffering and, while remaining an ordinary human being, reveal our original true identity that possesses infinite wisdom and compassion. The self-nature of the individual nature maintains that all things cause or enable to continue their unchanging identity or is the notion that things or beings exist independently, and separate from all others. Our true identity transcends our attachments to polar extremes, suffering and joy, the framework of time and space, the paths of earthly desires, an ever-changing environment and establish our independence in the realms of voice-hearers, cause-awakened ones, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas. The practical purpose behind NON-SUBSTANTIALITY then is; eliminating attachment to transient phenomena and to the ego, and the perception of self as an independent or fixed IDENTITY.
BK said: “At the higher end aggression and war are the summit of this corruption of mankind. So yes there is a need for salvation and it begins very simply by saying I’m not in control I never expect to be in control and that there’s a greater purpose to life and to just exist and die.”
Response: “Even a sword is useless in the hands of a coward.” (Reply to Kyo’o, pp. 412-413). The mighty sword must be wielded by one courageous in faith. When we consider the Lotus Sutra, we find perpetual youth and eternal life before our eyes, though our lives might be short; we will “enjoy peace and security in our present existence and good circumstances in future existences.” So muster your faith.
BK said: “I’m not much of an infantile list even having been Christian youth group leader. Because I don’t enjoy the religion side of faith it didn’t suit me to be the cheerleader kind. If you got this far one last thought. Tika tanu. U-e! The wedding haka subtitled.” Response: NOT intimidated by tribal opponents; only rely upon the power of salvation through strenuous effort for oneself and for others. If you got this far, then I shall have made my point that the cheer leading is not only about others, but about one’s self, as well. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo!