Thinking about converting but too involved with Catholicism.

There are meditative techniques and tools to remember past lives in both Hinduism and Buddhism since ancient times. It is on basis of this information that reincarnation and rebirth was established as a fact in both religions.Same too in the other dharmic religions of Jainism and Sikhism. Knowledge of past lives was useful in understanding the nature of one's mind, talents, attachments and aversions. Often past life incidents and relationships have a strong bearing in the present life too.

In the west too, through the works and books of Dr. Brian Weiss and Dr. Michael Newton, reincarnation have now become a strong scientific possibility and not just an eastern cultural fad anymore. Psychiatrists are now researching this field for its benefits in both psychiatric and physical healing, as most diseases tend to be psychosomatic in nature.

I have written more about this subject in an another post of mine ..

http://www.hipforums.com/forum/topic/432277-life-between-life-regression/?p=7455422

 

I would say that picking and choosing what sounds right to you is the definition of faith. The scientific method often arrives at unintuitive answers which are nonetheless true.

 

don't convert

don't think of buddhism for being a better buddhist

think of religion for being a better human

fuck the labels

and xtianity and buddhism do not mix

 

It's hard to disagree with this given the way Christianity is generally understood, but I'll try anyway. There's a strong case to be made for Jesus' use of 'the kingdom' to mean something very similar to enlightenment, and not to some dubious afterlife. Consider the first line or 2 of the Our Father '. . . Your kingdom COME (as in right now), your will be done on earth as it is in heaven . . . ' If you think sin is a problem, look at how far down the list Jesus puts it - after 'our daily bread'! And then it's all about forgiveness, not punishment.

Thomas Moore, author of Writing in the Sand (highly recommended), calls himself a Zen Christian. Makes perfect sense to me.

 

inimitable personal religious understanding is different from religion proper which historically is a repository of all theoretically worthy knowledge of the day - people historically didn't go to school, didn't read, have books, running water, even toilet paper. religion told people how to go about without getting rat scabbies, inbreeding, or making burnt sacrifices while people starve - in hightened civilizations like ancient rome there was a need for compassion so jesus saved the day - now jesus is a byline for a politician or hungry reverend - in pre-vedic times the burnt offerings and caste system were socially and environmentally destructive so buddha

but this is going off point - my main point is - i think all religions are the same in essence just as all people have two eyes arms legs, etc, however what i think isn't essential since it can't be transmitted

when i was speaking of buddhism and xtianity being very dissimilar i was speaking based on knowledge of say nepalese and american people - they have essentially different outlooks - sometimes they are opposite

yes they both might speak for love and compassion - but they may view how to go about them totally differently

 

An american wishing to learn more about buddhism visited a zen monastery in japan. Inside, he was surprised to find lots of iconography, and to find that every time the head monk passed by a statue or picture of the buddha, he would bow to it. the american said, "I'm confused! I thought you guys rejected attachments and didn't worship buddha! From my understanding, you'd just as soon spit on a buddha statue than bow to it . . ."

the monk replied, "You spits, I bows."