MrG said: God does not have to destroy the earth in order to eliminate the frightful conditions that are so prevalent on it.
About the world, it is important to understand where it arises & by what it is created. Xuddha taught:
Friend, it is in this fathom-long body with its perceptions and thoughts that there is the world, the origin of the world, the end of the world and the path leading to the end of the world.
By walking one can never reach The end and limit of the world, Yet there is no release from suffering Without reaching the world’s end.
Hence the wise one who knows the world, The one who has lived the holy life, Will reach the end of the world, Knowing the world’s end, at peace. He no more longs for this world Nor for any other.
http://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh155-u.html#S50
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It is also important to understand what is truly frightful. Here, a Xuddhist commentator:
If we open any recent book on the origins of religion, we find that there is one point on which all authors are in agreement. They all agree in saying that religion arose in the world out of fear. Primitive forest-dwelling man feared thunder and lightning, darkness and storms, and various things about him that he was unable to understand or control. His method of avoiding the danger he saw in these phenomena was to demonstrate either humility and submission or homage and reverence, depending on which he felt was most appropriate. Later, as man's knowledge and understanding developed, this fear of the forces of nature changed into a fear of phenomena more difficult to apprehend. Religions based on deference to objects of fear such as natural phenomena, spirits and celestial beings, came to be looked down upon as unreasonable and ridiculous. And then man's fear became still more refined into a fear of suffering, suffering of the sort that cannot be alleviated by any material means. He came to fear the suffering inherent in birth, ageing, pain and death, the disappointment and hopelessness which arise out of desire, anger and stupidity, which no amount of power or wealth can relieve. Long ago in India, a country well provided with thinkers and investigators, intelligent people dispensed with all paying of homage to supernatural beings and started seeking instead the means of conquering birth, ageing, pain and death, the means of eliminating greed, hatred and delusion. Out of this search arose Buddhism, a higher religion based on insight, a means of conquering birth, ageing, pain and death, a method for destroying the mental defilements. Buddhism has its origins in fear of this last kind, just as do all religions based on intelligence The Buddha discovered how to conquer absolutely what man fears: he discovered a practical method, now called Buddhism for eliminating suffering.
"Buddhism" means "the Teaching of the Enlightened One." A Buddha is an enlightened individual, one who knows the truth about all things, one who knows just what is what, and so is capable of behaving appropriately with respect to all things. Buddhism is a religion based on intelligence, science and knowledge, whose purpose is the destruction of suffering and the source of suffering. All paying of homage to sacred objects by means of performing rites and rituals, making offerings or praying is not Buddhism. The Buddha rejected all this as foolish, ridiculous and unsound. He also rejected the celestial beings, then considered by certain groups to be the creator of things, and the deities supposed to dwell, one in each star in the sky.
http://www.buddhanet.net/budasa4.htm
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the commentator continues, elsewhere:
STRANGE & DANGEROUS TIMES
Tranquility-insight that is appropriate to the nuclear age is essential because we are beginning to realize that the nuclear era is sliding forward more and more powerfully, and increasingly encroaching upon us.
The nuclear age form of Dhamma [Way] prepares all people to face the events of our nuclear era: events of war and events of peace. It also prepares us for the general events in the daily lives of human beings. In the case of war, if nuclear war occurs, what sort of Dhamma will enable the mind to face such horrible dangers and punishment?
There are tragedies, disasters, and crises-the opposites of peace. They have the characteristic of another word from Dhamma language - amataputtikabhaya, "danger that makes one parentless." The danger we're discussing here is so great that not even our parents can rescue us. It's so vast that we can't help or parents either. No one can be of help to anyone else.
In this nuclear age, such dangers can come at any time. Although we may have parents and children, it's as if we had no one. Then who will help us? What will help? I think that Dhamma will help us, which means the Buddha will help us.
Therefore, we must develop and store Dhamma [tranquillity & wisdom/insight] that will help us in circumstances so dangerous that thousands of mothers or children would be of no help. To prepare yourself so that you won't cry is enough. Then you'll remain unperturbed during the enormous changes of the nuclear age.
Keys to Natural Truth
in summary, the important matter to comprehend is frightful conditions exist in our mind & no where else
MrG began by stating it is not the Earth but the Human World that is creating suffering
Buddha taught it is not the Human World that is creating suffering but the Individual Mind that is creating suffering
Xod created Man in his image (i.e., Man created Xod in his image) and it is the mind of man that creates the world via its perceptions & thoughts
