God and Buddhism

The most essential meaning of "God" is quite simple: "God" is a person or event of greatest significance. As such, Buddhism does teach about God.

The Buddha is God. This would also imply that the Bodhisattas (those who are on the path to Buddhahood) are also God. (The Buddha corresponds to God the Son of Christianity.)

The Dhamma is God. "Dhamma" doesn't simply mean the Teaching of the Dhamma. "Dhamma" also means the Reality that the Buddha realized: Nibbana, as well as the abandonment of greed, hatred, and delusion, and the perfection of giving, love, and wisdom. (The Dhamma corresponds to God the Father in Christianity.)

The Sangha is God. Sangha is the community (infinite in number) of those who have realized, to one degree or another, what the Buddha taught. The Sangha includes both monastics and laypersons. (The Sangha corresponds to God the Holy Spirit in Christianity.)

The Buddha is ever-present, never absent, because the Dhamma is always True, and the Sangha is always practicing.

The Four Boundless States of Mind

The Eighty-Four Mahasiddhas and the Path of Tantra

Attainment of this union in Mahamudra, entails elimination of the barriers between oneself and other people. Suddenly the social field opens up as the siddha empathizes totally with his fellow beings, and since he has attained the powers of mind-reading and prescience (as a direct result of uniting self and other) he is capable of guiding them in their sadhanas. And also, simultaneously with the attainment of the ultimate mystical experience, the siddha is imbued with compassion ("suffering together"), and automatically he acts spontaneously to fulfill the Bodhisattva Vow, which is the commitment to serve others without prejudice in whatever way necessary. Loving kindness, sympathetic joy, compassion and equanimity, the four boundless states of mind, constitute a preparatory meditation that cultivates the feeling of oneness with all beings; the Mahamudra union generates these social virtues, and feelings such as love induce that union. The siddhas of the legends were renowned for their spontaneous effusion of emotion, whether it was for a beautiful woman or a starving puppy, and the songs of the siddhacaryas are full of profound sentiments of love for woman.

Without Buddha I Could Not Be A Christian

(From the back cover:) Honest and unflinching, Without Buddha I Could Not Be A Christian narrates how estreemed Catholic theologian, Paul F. Knitter overcame a crisis of faith by looking to Buddhism for inspiration. From prayer to how Christianity views life after death, Knitter argues that a Buddhist standpoint can encourage a more person-centered conception of Christianity, where individual religious experience comes first, and liturgy and tradition second. Moving and revolutionary, this book will inspire Christians everywhere.

Knitter's basic argument is that being a student, even a disciple, of Shakyamuni Buddha can indeed make you a better Christian. Knitter's ultimate commitment is to Jesus Christ and the Christian tradition, and he sees no ultimate incompatibility with Buddhism and Christianity. Heck, he has even taken Refuge in the Triple Gem, which is comparable to being baptized.

Lokiya-Magga

Theravada Buddhism distinguishes between the path of liberation and the path of worldly well-being. This corresponds loosely to the Western distinction between spiritual and secular concerns. The Pali words for these two are literally the ultimate path (lokuttara-magga) and the mundane or worldly path (lokiya-magga). No absolute separation exists, and teachers vary in the degree of distinction or non-distinction they see between them. Even when a strong distinction is upheld, the spiritual and the secular paths are seen as being mutually supportive of each other. The path of liberation is concerned with selflessness and nibbana, which in and of itself does not belong to the conventions, contents or conditions of the world. The path of worldly well-being is concerned with how to engage with these conventions and conditions so as to create as much personal, familial, social, economic and political health as possible.