[shunyadragon]

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (Sentinel,)
One of the central concepts of Buddhism, especially the Zen variety, and Taoism, and arguably the most difficult concept to put into practice is the concept of "Being".  In essence you should live fully in the moment, not attempting to live with too much emphasis on what might be in the future nor belaboring what has happened in the past.  Being fully engaged in the Now, which of course changes minute by minute is quite difficult.  It leads away from daydreaming, while allowing planning, and away from beating yourself up for past errors, which leads to self-pity.

The concept of God or gods is an attempt to understand and label something beyond our understanding.  As the Tao Te Ching points out, the Tao which can be named is not the Tao.  Which just means that the word itself is not the thing you are attempting to describe just a useful tool for communicating with others.  Most pluralities of "gods" are attempts to label certain characteristics of the overlying unknown "force" which appears to rule life.  As has been stated before, acknowledging the existence of these is not the same as worshiping them.  I acknowledge the existence of the initiator of this thread but certainly don't worship him. <hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>

The view that a God or Gods in the original Buddhism was or is not an attempt to understand or label anything as a rationalization. It was considered simply as a part of the nature of the spititual realms and belief that is not all that well understood. Buddhism acknowledged the existence of spiritual realms, beings, lesser divinities and the undifined source without an attempt to understand anything. The seeing of existence in the now has always been an essential part of ending suffering and detaching ones self from the burden of attempts to understand that which we cannot know.