Finding our way to The Way one situation at a time. I don't know how great it will be, but I expect it will be interesting, and I look forward to it going on past all reason because wonder is just that way. Are you coming or not?
Lows Lake Bog River Flow Mirror –Adirondack Park, Tupper Lake, New York, 2014
Buddhists say they don't believe in God. But. They believe in karma. They believe in merit. They believe something/someone is keeping SCORE!!!
The Score Keeper is sacrosanct. Everybody believes in the Score Keeper!!! And lives to keep the Score Keeper happy in order to get what they want.
Buddhists have prayer beads (and flags). But no God. Well, who is keeping score? The Score Keeper is God by another name.
Everybody believes how they act impacts what happens. Impacting what happens is the baseline factor in all superstition, which is religion by another name. "Mojo" is another name for "God."
My name for "God" is "Intuition." I say if we live in right relationship with our Intuition everything will be as good as it can be.
I embrace emptiness, stillness and silence as one thing, and turn to it often-- several times a day-- as other people turn to prayer, endeavoring to align myself with my Intuition and live in accord with my Intuition's will for my life.
Lao Tzu thought of the Tao in the same way.
Everybody is trying/striving to get something from someone/something.
We are all trying/striving to get what we want. And think we need all the help we can get. Gaining merit is the game. Garnering the Payoff is hitting the Jackpot.
We are all in that line. Rubbing some Lodestone, carrying some Rabbit's Foot (If that is lucky, it certainly didn't do the rabbit any good!).
And we are kidding ourselves if we pretend we are not. By not living to get what we want we are laying the foundation for having what we want.
And believe someone/something ("The Universe") is keeping score.
I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing.
I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.
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I cannot say anything about Buddhism, but to me it appears obvious that the causes and effects work as anything else in nature. In a sense, laws of karma function just like laws of physics. So no ‘keeper’ of a score is required! ‘God’ is a mental concept, each has his/her own. From my limited understanding, I think Buddhists pray to Buddha/ specifically as a personification of the enlightened state, not as a mortal human (in capacity of ‘God’ ), even though Buddha himself said nothing about any ‘God’ in his whole teaching.
Personally, I hold dear what Advaita Vedanta (Hinduism) proposes- The “I am” in me is God, I ‘am’ that, so…I am ‘God’, which is likely considered blasphemous by many religions! But this ‘I am’ does not refer to the worldly personal egoistic self, but to our ‘Real Self’, the Reality, the essence within each of us (which is same in all of us). Hence, One God, in all of us, by any name.
My favourite name for ‘God’ is Awareness!
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 
Such an astonishing picture!
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I cannot say anything about Buddhism, but to me it appears obvious that the causes and effects work as anything else in nature. In a sense, laws of karma function just like laws of physics. So no ‘keeper’ of a score is required! ‘God’ is a mental concept, each has his/her own. From my limited understanding, I think Buddhists pray to Buddha/ specifically as a personification of the enlightened state, not as a mortal human (in capacity of ‘God’ ), even though Buddha himself said nothing about any ‘God’ in his whole teaching.
Personally, I hold dear what Advaita Vedanta (Hinduism) proposes- The “I am” in me is God, I ‘am’ that, so…I am ‘God’, which is likely considered blasphemous by many religions! But this ‘I am’ does not refer to the worldly personal egoistic self, but to our ‘Real Self’, the Reality, the essence within each of us (which is same in all of us). Hence, One God, in all of us, by any name.
My favourite name for ‘God’ is Awareness!
LikeLiked by 1 person