If any religion in the world attracted my attention as much as Christianity, Buddhism would be it.  In fact, I can honestly state, had I never read the King James Bible and learned for myself who Christ was, what he said, I’d be Buddhist today.

 

Contrary to popular belief, Buddhism is not atheistic, or even agnostic.  Siddartha Gautama, the sage credited with founding Buddhism in 500 BC, merely retired “proper nouns” for the Creator.  In Siddartha’s day, in Bharat, the nation we call India today, religious communities fell into fierce conflict over the character of the Creator, indeed, even the very identity of the Creator.

 

In Siddartha’s day, every denomination of Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) adored a favored Deva, and because the doctrine of Duality taught the Creator lived within us all, revered Devas were revered as direct representatives of the Creator when they were not regarded as direct incarnations of the Creator.

 

Enter stage right, Controversy.

 

Controversy arrives the moment one sect’s veneration of a favored Deva obscures or appears to demote another sect’s veneration of another.

 

Siddartha offered a Middle Way we call Buddhism today, a way by which believers may learn, first about themselves, then the Divine Benevolence within us all, by first letting go of all the “proper nouns”.  It was necessary for many but not for all.  Religious doctrines had become too particular, and many became dogmatic, and fratricidal conflict became too frequent.

 

Siddartha realized believers were all just arguing over the names of God, so he abandoned all proper nouns and chose epithets which could not offend any tradition or sect.  To this day, when Buddhist refer to The Immortal Truth, they are referring to the Creator.

 

One might conclude that obscuring the proper, correct name of the Creator would be sacrilegious, but one would find little company among the major religions of the world.  At around the same historical threshold, in nearly every part of the world, proper nouns for the Creator were abandoned in favor of generic terminology or epithets of character.  The same is true of Buddhism.  

 

Buddhism does not deny the existence of a Creator, just identifies the Creator within boundaries which were least offensive.  Where Siddartha and his followers referred to the Creator as The Immortal Truth, Jews refer to the Creator as Elah.  Where Confucians refer to the Creator as Tian, Christians refer to the Creator as Father God.  Where Muslims refer to the Creator as Allah, Sikhs refer to the Creator as “The Teacher”.

 

Why?

 

Because believers everywhere, burdened by doubt they cannot express in fear of reprisals, reflexively damn anything that conflicts with doctrinal precepts they are expected to uphold.  This is a dangerous reflex in us all.  

 

My discovery will reveal the “proper nouns” of the archaic were images, and nearly every composition of the archaic includes the proper noun for the Creator.  For this reason, zealots destroy ancient artefacts at their peril.  

 

What Siddartha Gautama taught us all in his example, in his experience walking the Middle Way toward enlightenment, is that we are all too willing to conflict with other believers where the beliefs professed by others clash with our own.

 

The truth resides within us all.  We just have a lot of house cleaning to do to find it.  Discarding “proper nouns” for the Creator and sanctifying the Immortal Truth above and beyond all human conflict is the best place to start.

 

Just don’t allow anyone to convince you Siddartha Gautama did not believe in a Creator.  If Siddartha did not, with whom was Siddartha trying to unite his eternal soul?

 

In the years to come, in my documented research, expect me to return to Siddartha Gautama again and again.  In the Iconographic Record we will all find the Immortal Truth sitting in the Lotus Position just as Siddartha promised.

 

It is there, in the Lotus Position, where we will all find enlightenment.  Perhaps you do not believe that now, but soon you will understand.  For the Lotus Position was a meditative posture which relaxed the body, cleared the mind and made a believer receptive to Enlightenment from The Teacher.

 

What Siddartha Gautama confirms for believers of every religious tradition, is that the exercise of faith, while possible in community, is exclusively an individual effort.  Religions are founded for communities of believers, but the exercise of faith will forever remain an individual effort.

 

Siddartha Gautama offered a Middle Way for believers to take in their prayer life.

 

Because Buddhism dissociates itself from theology and focuses exclusively on an individual’s prayer life, the rites practiced by Buddhists in opening the mind for prayer are applicable to any religious tradition.

 

I’d go into greater detail here but won’t need to.  My published research will necessarily return again and again to the Lotus Position.  I can’t wait to show you the Lotus Position in the Great Lakes region of North America, where our founding fathers called the Creator the Great Father.

 

Enough for now.

 

Namaste,

 

An Unknown Soldier