Concerning the Buddhist notion of God, the Supreme Ultimate. At the outset, let me state that Buddhism is not atheistic as the term is ordinarily understood. It has certainly a God, the highest reality and truth, through which and in which this universe exists. However, the followers of Buddhism usually avoid the term God, for it savors so much of Christianity, whose spirit is not always exactly in accord with the Buddhist interpretation of religious experience. Again, Buddhism is not pantheistic in the sense that it identifies the universe with God. On the other hand, the Buddhist God is absolute and transcendent; this world, being merely its manifestation, is necessarily fragmental and imperfect. To define more exactly the Buddhist notion of the highest being, it may be convenient to borrow the term very happily coined by a modern German scholar, panentheism, according to which God is πᾶν καὶ ἕν (all and one) and more than the totality of existence. - Zen Master Soyen Shaku
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 17:37:52 +0000
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