ATDTDA - grace

[Paul Mackin]

On Tue, 2007-02-20 at 08:48 +0000, David Gentle wrote:
> > When Westerners think of 'grace' they quickly go to the Christian  sense 
> > of grace in a judicial sense. Lew's 'grace' is the grace of  Hinduism or 
> > Buddhism (see 48:18 - 'disciplined in the ways of the  East'), a grace 
> > which results in an egoless state which leads to an  unbearable 
> > realization that things are exactly as they are. It is a  grace which 
> > leads to luminosity (42:21) as opposed to darkness and is  one of the 
> > layers of TRP's light/dark theme in ATD.
> >
> > "Your doubts will never be totally destroyed until perception has  gone 
> > beyond mere phenomenality, and such perception is not a matter  of will 
> > but of Grace."     --Ramesh Balsekar
> >
> > This quote parallels 'a condition he had no memory of having sought'
> >
> > Lew's state of luminosity is grace because Lew was not seeking it,  not 
> > doing anything to make it happen.
> "was Jesus a Buddhist?"
> http://web.ukonline.co.uk/buddhism/jesus.htm
> http://jimvb.home.mindspring.com/ser1998Oct11.htm
> 
> "Gospel of Thomas:The Buddhist Jesus?"
> http://buddhistfaith.tripod.com/pureland_sangha/id59.html
> 
> Perhaps Mr. Christ (and the Christian worldview) is not so far removed from 
> the Buddhist or Hindu worldview?
> 



Maybe Mr. Jesus and Mr. Christ aren't exactly the same person.

Nice thing about Christian salvation is that it's a free gift, unearned.
Good works help but are secondary.

Bad thing about Christian Salvation (what repels a lot of modern people,
who are such softies)  is the circumstance of its having being won by a
blood sacrifice.

Bad thing about Buddhist Salvation, Enlightenment, is that it takes so
long, multiple lifetime, and requires a lot of struggle to free oneself
for ego, etc.

As far as I'm concerned it's all just words.