ellen@ucla-cs.UUCP (03/13/85)
Rich, dear, i think that thousands, if not millions, of Buddhists would beg
to differ with some of what you have to say about the definition of religion
depending on the worship of a deity/many deities/ a divine being/ or whatever.
certainly, there are different sects of Buddhism who may have different
definitions, but my personal experience (with Zen & Tibetan Tantrism) shows
that there is no deity which is worshipped. does that make Mahayana Buddhism
NOT a religion? Gautama Buddha is NOT a god. he was a human who showed a path
to liberation from suffering to others by his example. he is NOT worshipped.
the Buddhists do believe in the existence of deities; these, however, are NOT
worshipped, for they, too, have finite lives and must be reborn. they do not
represent an ultimate goal.
representations in Buddhist art of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, etc., are not to be
worshipped, but are to be taken as examples each of us can follow, or as symbols
of principles to be lived, embodiments (anthropomorphic) of abstractions.
some, of course, were borrowed from the cultures in differents regions that
Buddhism spread through, and some became almost separate from mainstream
Buddhism (the Tibetan cult of Tara, and the Chinese cult of Kwan-Yin, for
example - also, it is interesting to note that these two are or became FEMALE
embodiments, while most other symbolic forms are male (tho' Tantrism tries to
balance the male-female problem, to some extent).
nor does real Hinduism worship a SUPREME deity. the union of Brahma, Vishnu, &
(uh-oh, i'm forgetting the third) was a much later idea and still not one which
is all-pervasive in Hinduism. does that mean that Hinduism is not a religion?
Taoism has no deity/divinity. we are all one with the universe, as seen on this
planet as Nature. but this is NOT a divinity, as it is something we are already
part of, and is NOT outside of us (try as Western man may to "harness" &
"control" Nature, forgetting that he is part of it himself).
i'm a contemporary pagan (where's this raging debate about paganism that Laura
referred to? certainly not here in net.religion!). sure, i have images of
goddesses & gods, but i consider them as symbols to focus on, as ways to
develop and enhance those characteristics within me. they are not beings
outside of me, somewhere Out There. (by the way, where does Ubizmo hang out?).
as in Buddhism & Taoism, they are waiting for me to manifest them. we are not
separate. i am the Goddess. this does not mean that i can do anything i want
to. i must be responsible for my actions within not only the human community,
but within the entire universe. (talk about the weight of the world on one's
shoulders! and i'm not saying that i am always successful in this endeavour)
Rich, don't take the dictionary definition as the ultimate source of meaning.
it, too, has biases which reflect those of the people who write it. after all,
the writers were raised in Western Judeo-Christian sexist ethnocentric society,
and their definitions will reflect this. the fact that research was done, and
that certain illustrious university types are associated with dictionaries
does not guarantee that they will be free of prejudice. they just can throw
their prejudices around with a bit more weight.
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