tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26883902.post8678290195159626308..comments2024-03-25T11:09:41.538-04:00Comments on a minor friar blog: Bad ThoughtsBrother Charleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07780326836452864455noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26883902.post-90385415787578450562009-03-08T15:17:00.000-04:002009-03-08T15:17:00.000-04:00How can anyone expect to become holy if we run awa...How can anyone expect to become holy if we run away from the fire with fear and trembling? <BR/><BR/>We must face our deamons straight on and constantly exercise placing these unwarranted thoughts under the "Cloud of Forgetting." In other words, as we work to rid our minds of these thoughts, we grow ever stronger in our ability to rid our minds of these thoughts, until God Himself rids our minds of these thoughts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26883902.post-90787226581959966452008-11-04T15:17:00.000-05:002008-11-04T15:17:00.000-05:00This is a beautiful meditation. One of my favorit...This is a beautiful meditation. One of my favorite elements of the life of St. Francis was his desire to die naked on the ground. I like this episode so much because it illustrates in a very profound way the desire of St. Francis to completely overcome his own ego and truly return to the dust from which he came. It is representative of his love for his state as a creature of God totally dependent on Him.<BR/><BR/>Prior to my conversion I studied many other religious traditions. I find the buddhist concept of detachment, which leads to nirvana very similar to some forms of christian mysticism in many ways, but also fundamentally different in important ways. When Buddha discusses "changing the peg", replacing a negative thought with a positive one, the Christian should be mindful that the positive thought is the one from the mind of Christ--it is something specific, not necessarily something restful or pleasing. So there is, I think, a very real sense of the christian "changing of the peg" that is cooperating with the grace of baptism and a real putting-on of Christ.<BR/><BR/>It seems to me that buddhist detachment and the spritual state that it leads to aims at being a detachment for creation itself, where one is not merely detached form the selfish ego, but also from the whole of creation with nirvana being the restfulness of the void. The christian, on the other hand, puts on Christ, and is able there by to detach from his own ego though love. However, unlike in buddhist detachment where the practioner is also detached from the whole of creation, the believer in love with Christ, is drawn away from sin and tepmtation and thus into a closer and more loving relationship with his fellow men and the rest of creation. It seems to me that the Chirstian detatched from sin, who has put an christ becomes more fully a man and more fully himself, and this is something I do not see in buddhism.<BR/><BR/>"For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com