I will pay astronomical prices for that study .Queequeg wrote: ↑Fri Nov 03, 2017 7:25 pmSomeday, someone who is well informed is going to do a comparative study of the trinity and trikaya...RengeReciter wrote: ↑Fri Nov 03, 2017 7:14 pm I find it endlessly ironic that my Catholic upbringing provided me with something of a "Lotus-sized" space in my mind's eye through which I could better grasp the inseparability of Myohorengekyo and Shakyamuni. If I may draw the analogy without inadvertently subscribing to a wholly wrong view, it seems that the relationship between the Buddha and the Law that he taught is similar to that of Christ and the Logos.
The corporeal being is perfectly and seamlessly the manifestation of a mystical reality. To see the former is to see the fullness of the latter. Differences of course arise in the fact that MHRK is intrinsic to living beings and their environments by default. The Buddha, as one who has attained stainless realization of his oneness with the Law, transmits his understanding (or awakening) to us so that we can see what has been right under our noses since time immemorial.
Orthodox Christian cosmology posits that God created the world in a space that He utterly vacated, thus sidestepping the inevitable conclusion that the universe is comprised of God's essence. I have to hold onto these distinctions tenaciously to avoid accidentally falling into the religion of my birth.
That is an interesting distinction...
I know many former Catholic Buddhists... that is a difficult path.
Not to drag the conversation too far afield, but for me the separation between Catholic thought and Buddhist thought is a leap rather than a chasm. There are days where I still nurse the suspicion that Christ may have been another transformation body of Shakyamuni. So much of the Gospel seems reflected in the dharma. It is challenging at times to peer into my own assumptions and to see where I have allowed too much cross pollination between my experiences of either faith.
Still, it is worth noting that I have been chanting with my evolving, Catholic-tinged perspective of Shakyamuni to very pleasing results. Similar to what Mark mentioned in my other thread, there is far less fragmentation in my experience. I can read Nichiren without having to modify his words or the events they describe. When I speak to others in my day to day life about my faith, the words flow because I don't find myself having to continually make psychological caveats.