Z: (After hearing about it from H) Gnostic Christianity, as with many things, is very interesting indeed. But life is too short to compare religious similarities and differences to no end. Life can end any time too. Good to 一门深入 (enter one Dharma door deeply) to practise towards substantial results before life expires. I have chosen the Pure Land path. Amituofo
H: Good for you! All the best.
R: Well said! If a victim has fatally injured by a poisonous arrow, will the victim quickly seek for medical help to save the day or sit back to analyse where, what, how, when did the arrow hit him? Z is right. Life is transient and full of uncertainty. 一门深入 is the only remedy to remove the venom from our mind and save ourselves from cyclic existence.
A: When theists say 主说世人都有罪 (‘God’ says humans have sins), Buddhists should counter that 佛说世人以一切众生都有佛性。世人不是有罪而是有病，被三毒的毒箭刺伤，在六道轮回却把它不当一回事，
Z: Indeed, we are already shot. And this poison on the arrow can kick in any time. Honestly, from the truly little I know, there is nothing in Gnostic Christianity that seems uniquely valuable, that the Buddha did not teach clearer. And if Jesus did learn Buddhism in India in his ‘lost years’ before and after crucifixion, it means he was not even close to being a Buddha himself in his time, which is why he needed to learn. It also means it’s more straightforward to learn Buddhism from the Buddha’s teachings.
[Buddhists do not subscribe to the idea that an almighty omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent creator God exists due to these reasons: www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/beyond-belief02.pdf]
At one time I went into a potential US$1KK customer whom we could not penetrate because our strongest competitor was enjoying 100% of the businesses there due to the customer’s perception (and quite rightly) that this competitor’s product is of superior quality and being the nbr 2 in their global ranking. The one and only shortfall this competitor has (or rather their salesperson handling this account) was his superiority complex, speaking of how good they are and the weaknesses of their competitors! When I had a full grasp of the situation, instead of rebutting what my competitor said about my organisation, I did something unusual. I praised my competitor (rightly, otherwise they won’t be nbr 2 in the global market), but, at the same time I spoke about the strength of my organisation and what we can do, if not better, than our competitor. I offered to do a free test (which is costly) of our product by a reputable 3rd party of their choice, and to provide a letter of guarantee on the minimum gold plating thickness of our product (this I am certain my competition cannot match).
Because of the humility in praising the competition and sincerity in wanting the business, I was given an opportunity to proceed with all the qualification and testing of our product. I thanked the customer and went on not only to prove what I proposed, I won 100% of the business within the next 2 years.
The learning from this experience is;
1. Say only good words about others. Refrain from negative comments if there is nothing good to speak.
2. It’s okay, and rightly, to promote our strengths without putting others down. Why is this so? To do otherwise is to show our lack of understanding and confidence of ourself, our product, and our situation.
3. Humility and sincerity in wanting what is good for others (our customers, and ???) will prevail. Be careful, doing otherwise (even if unintentional) may not bring the desired results.
An atheist once said there is nothing but atoms and space, the rest are only opinions. A religion is a belief and a belief is an opinion. Any belief affected by the three poisons and managed by sinners…..I can only believe it with a pinch of salt. Which is why it is important to put our sanity in the first place and our beliefs in the second place. As long as humans are not free from Self and mistaken the self as the master, the real heart is a slave to the self and answer and serve the illusory self, we will always be internally conflicted regardless of the belief. To see the real truth, we must be rid of the Self first. By praising others, one loses the self yet still benefitting the self in the process. Maybe that’s the middle path.
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