Bruce Michael
Well-Known Member
Peace Friends,
There is a problem with organized religion. The Group Spirit behind each one of them battles it out with what it perceives as competition, and this leads to bigotry in the members. I often drive past Hindu and Buddhist temples on the way to church. I've thought it would be interesting for a christian church to use some of that kind of architecture. I especially like the yellow and red bright flags in front of the Buddhist temple- very festive. Maybe a simple thing like this will bring people together. Perhaps an ablution block too, like the Muslims have.
Human beings do not reincarnate as animals. However, the Eightfold Path is for all men. There is also the connection of the Nirmanakaya of Buddha with the Christian story. You could consider the story of Siddharta, living his sheltered existence till he turned twenty-nine, a picture of the Bodhisattva living the pure spirit life and then descending into the realm of physical manifestation. He goes off and then encounters the Tempter, the demon Mara.
A lot of folk have forgotten how the word "mara" has entered our language. This is the obsolete, 'Mare', now found in the compound 'night-mare'.
Mara is Lucifer; and I know one one person who had the above experience- like someone kneeling on her chest. She was a theosophist, and there was little those folk could do for her unfortunately.
"The 'mare' derives from Old English mara, or a spectra which, it was said, perched itself on the breast of a sleeper and deprived him of motion and speech. One form in which the name of Mara, a demon, survives. The other is 'mare's nest'."
The "mare's nest" tells us of Mara's cave of treasures which turns out to be a delusion/illusion. -Br.Bruce
There is a problem with organized religion. The Group Spirit behind each one of them battles it out with what it perceives as competition, and this leads to bigotry in the members. I often drive past Hindu and Buddhist temples on the way to church. I've thought it would be interesting for a christian church to use some of that kind of architecture. I especially like the yellow and red bright flags in front of the Buddhist temple- very festive. Maybe a simple thing like this will bring people together. Perhaps an ablution block too, like the Muslims have.
Human beings do not reincarnate as animals. However, the Eightfold Path is for all men. There is also the connection of the Nirmanakaya of Buddha with the Christian story. You could consider the story of Siddharta, living his sheltered existence till he turned twenty-nine, a picture of the Bodhisattva living the pure spirit life and then descending into the realm of physical manifestation. He goes off and then encounters the Tempter, the demon Mara.
A lot of folk have forgotten how the word "mara" has entered our language. This is the obsolete, 'Mare', now found in the compound 'night-mare'.
Mara is Lucifer; and I know one one person who had the above experience- like someone kneeling on her chest. She was a theosophist, and there was little those folk could do for her unfortunately.
"The 'mare' derives from Old English mara, or a spectra which, it was said, perched itself on the breast of a sleeper and deprived him of motion and speech. One form in which the name of Mara, a demon, survives. The other is 'mare's nest'."
The "mare's nest" tells us of Mara's cave of treasures which turns out to be a delusion/illusion. -Br.Bruce
