{"id":2102,"date":"2013-02-24T13:06:47","date_gmt":"2013-02-24T13:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?p=2102"},"modified":"2013-02-23T15:40:45","modified_gmt":"2013-02-23T15:40:45","slug":"the-buddha-on-god-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/02\/the-buddha-on-god-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"The Buddha on God, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Jesus, Buddha, Bieber: The Holy Trinity? (photo by Justin Whitaker, Rangoon, Burma, 2011)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Today\u2019s post will follow up from one last week:\u00a0Buddhist<\/a> Affirm that belief in God is a Delusion?\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/02\/would-a-buddhist-affirm-that-belief-in-god-is-a-delusion.html\" rel=\"bookmark\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Would a Buddhist Affirm that belief in God is a Delusion?<\/a>\u00a0It also relates to a great post last year by a University of the West student at a blog set up for a course on Buddhism<\/a> in America: I STILL DON\u2019T KNOW: BUDDHISM AND\u00a0GOD<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My sense is that a scholarly study of God\/gods in the Pali Canon will find a sort of ambivalence on the part of the Buddha. Call it skillful means. The Buddha doesn\u2019t reject God outright as far as I know(I\u2019m using the term generically, but as we will see, in particular cases \u2018God\u2019 will need to be clearly defined)<\/strong>, but clearly the idea of a creator God is abandoned and replaced with various notions of \u2018lawfulness.\u2019<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the issue of definition is at the forefront here. Barbara O\u2019Brien blogged about <\/a>Buddhism and God\u00a0last fall and one early, helpful comment comes from Sean Robsville<\/a>, stating, \u201cThe Abrahamists themselves have different understandings of God. For example, the Quaker idea of the \u2018Inner Light\u2019, which has more resemblance to \u2018Buddha Nature\u2019 than to the violent tribal warlord of the Old Testament and Koran.<\/strong>\u201d While it\u2019s certainly unfair to call the\u00a0God of the OT or Koran a \u201cviolent tribal warlord\u201d in such sweeping terms, the point is good.<\/p>\n

Barbara responds, \u201cThe Christian theologian Paul Tillich described God as the ground of being, which makes God out to be something like the Trikaya\u201d [or, perhaps the Dharmakaya]. So there you go. Christians who are happy with Tillich\u2019s theology and Buddhists who embrace the Trikaya doctrine clearly have some common ground for discussion and mutual appreciation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Too often the discussion is dominated by those saying \u201cBuddhism has no place for a creator God\u201d vs those finding similarities like the one above between Quakers and the Buddha Nature doctrine. These are extremes.\u00a0Both can be helpful starting points, but only if one is urged to look beyond them toward the other side<\/strong>. Just as Buddhist thought on the nature of \u2018higher beings\u2019 (such as apparent \u2018savior bodhisattvas<\/a>\u2018) evolved, so have Western monotheistic understandings of God.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll look at the Pali Canon in the next post. But before we do, let\u2019s recap. First, there is no simple yes\/no answer regarding the Buddha (or Buddhism) and God.<\/strong> Starting with one is okay, as long as we then show the problems in it. For example:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Buddha didn\u2019t endorse a creator God such as that found in general definitions of Western monotheism. However, in the Pali Canon there is found a complex pantheon of Brahmanic gods (and yakkhas<\/em>) interacting with humans, including the Buddha. <\/em>Furthermore, there are Western conceptions of God that do not include all of the connotations found in traditional definitions. Finally, as Buddhism evolved, certain traditions came to understand the Buddha himself and other supernormal beings (namely Bodhisattvas) in ways that further facilitate comparison with Western understandings of God.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While my interest keeps me in the Pali Canon and comparing only certain Western understandings of God, I encourage people with Tibetan or East Asian interests to conduct or search out their own comparisons. For those with access to the Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies, thumb through their table of contents for many useful studies. For everyone, try the (free online) Journal of Interreligious Dialogue<\/a>. If you do write something, please feel free to leave me a link in the comments below.<\/p>\n

For now, much metta<\/em>, and may God be with you. (links to future parts as they are written)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s post will follow up from one last week:\u00a0Would a Buddhist Affirm that belief in God is a Delusion?\u00a0It also relates to a great post last year by a University of the West student at a blog set up for a course on Buddhism in America: I STILL DON\u2019T KNOW: BUDDHISM AND\u00a0GOD. My sense is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Buddha on God, Part 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today's post will follow up from one last week:\u00a0Would a Buddhist Affirm that belief in God is a Delusion?\u00a0It also relates to a great post last year by a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/02\/the-buddha-on-god-part-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Buddha on God, Part 1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today's post will follow up from one last week:\u00a0Would a Buddhist Affirm that belief in God is a Delusion?\u00a0It also relates to a great post last year by a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/02\/the-buddha-on-god-part-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Buddhist Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-24T13:06:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-02-23T15:40:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/files\/2013\/02\/Jesus-Buddha-Bieber-300x198.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/02\/the-buddha-on-god-part-1.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/02\/the-buddha-on-god-part-1.html\",\"name\":\"The Buddha on God, Part 1\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-24T13:06:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-02-23T15:40:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\"},\"description\":\"Today's post will follow up from one last week:\u00a0Would a Buddhist Affirm that belief in God is a Delusion?\u00a0It also relates to a great post last year by a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/02\/the-buddha-on-god-part-1.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/02\/the-buddha-on-god-part-1.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2013\/02\/the-buddha-on-god-part-1.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Buddha on God, Part 1\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\",\"name\":\"American Buddhist Perspectives\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\",\"name\":\"Justin Whitaker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Whitaker\"},\"description\":\"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. 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