The existence of God...
Buddhists don't seem to believe in God, but many of them won't deny the existence of God eihter. What logic lies beneath such an attitude?
One person is convinced that God exists: An entity somewhere in Heaven who watches over us people, guiding us, filling our hearts with love, forgiving our mistakes and binding us together as human beings. "God will save us all", he preaches. But another person is sure that 'God' is fake, just an imagination to tackle the mistery of life, a children's story or even an excuse for warfare. "Religion causes more problems than salvation" he protests. Which of these persons is right?
In Buddhism, 'being right' must be considered in a personal, relative sense: the believer is right because he is 'convinced' that God exists, and the non-believer is also right becasue he is 'sure' that God does not exist. It is perfectly well possible for both people to consider themselves right at the same time. In fact, we have an interesting situation here: as human beings we are part of one common thing we call 'existence', or 'life'. However, each and every one of us experiences it in an individual way. Having slightly different bodies, sense-perceptions, socio-cultural heritage, education, likings and dislikings, each of us creates and holds a personalised version of something that we could call 'the truth'. It happens so that there are certain things that we all agree on, like the law of gravity and the fact that water is wet. Other things however, we tend to be uncertain about, such as whether God exists or not.
A Buddhist approach to deal with such a dilemma would be to contemplate the observer; that is: to study our 'ego' or 'self'. In stead of arguing about what is 'real' outside of ourselves, Buddhism encourage us to have a non-judgemental look at what is happening within our minds; how our 'personalised truths' are put together. Where do our thoughts come from anyway? Why do we tend to place so much value on certain beliefs, and what are actually the consequences of (unawarely) doing so? For a Buddhist, the basic question is not whether God exits, but rather to learn who the observer is, who our 'self' is.
In my personal experience, I can neither prove, nor deny the exsistence of God, and I choose to foster the value that anyone may believe what they want. What I do know however, is that my 'self' appears to be much more complex and deceiving (and interesting to study) than I had ever imagined...
One person is convinced that God exists: An entity somewhere in Heaven who watches over us people, guiding us, filling our hearts with love, forgiving our mistakes and binding us together as human beings. "God will save us all", he preaches. But another person is sure that 'God' is fake, just an imagination to tackle the mistery of life, a children's story or even an excuse for warfare. "Religion causes more problems than salvation" he protests. Which of these persons is right?
In Buddhism, 'being right' must be considered in a personal, relative sense: the believer is right because he is 'convinced' that God exists, and the non-believer is also right becasue he is 'sure' that God does not exist. It is perfectly well possible for both people to consider themselves right at the same time. In fact, we have an interesting situation here: as human beings we are part of one common thing we call 'existence', or 'life'. However, each and every one of us experiences it in an individual way. Having slightly different bodies, sense-perceptions, socio-cultural heritage, education, likings and dislikings, each of us creates and holds a personalised version of something that we could call 'the truth'. It happens so that there are certain things that we all agree on, like the law of gravity and the fact that water is wet. Other things however, we tend to be uncertain about, such as whether God exists or not.
A Buddhist approach to deal with such a dilemma would be to contemplate the observer; that is: to study our 'ego' or 'self'. In stead of arguing about what is 'real' outside of ourselves, Buddhism encourage us to have a non-judgemental look at what is happening within our minds; how our 'personalised truths' are put together. Where do our thoughts come from anyway? Why do we tend to place so much value on certain beliefs, and what are actually the consequences of (unawarely) doing so? For a Buddhist, the basic question is not whether God exits, but rather to learn who the observer is, who our 'self' is.
In my personal experience, I can neither prove, nor deny the exsistence of God, and I choose to foster the value that anyone may believe what they want. What I do know however, is that my 'self' appears to be much more complex and deceiving (and interesting to study) than I had ever imagined...
Curiously excavating myself,
Yours, Jerry
Yours, Jerry
posted by Jerry de Groot at 9:03 PM
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