It's Turtles All the Way Down is the Correct Answer!

The last utterance of this episode is a citation to:

https://thebottomturtlepodcast.buzzsprout.com/1454935/14079529-the-ultimate-abstraction

An ongoing project of this podcast is to reconcile the relationship between Buddhism and Christianity to say they are the same.  But, as stated in the episode The Ultimate Abstraction, Buddhism and Christianity appear to be opposites. This is because the goal of Buddhism is obliterate relationships to reach Nirvana, while Christianity's goal is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. So how could they be the same?  To answer that, we want to focus on the symmetries between them.

Stating explicitly what was implied in the recording, Samsara in Buddhism is The World of Sin caused by the fall in Christianity. That is, it is the world of suffering in which sentient beings or minds exist. As such, the theses of both religions is there is a world of suffering and we have the answer to this suffering.  In Buddhism, the source of suffering is explained in the second noble truth which is the existence of a craving or a desire.  This craving is due to the existence of a self that wants reality to be one way instead of how it is. In Christianity however, the world of sin is due to the separation between Man and God caused by the original sin. But, if you are familiar with Christianity, you know that this sin is due to wanting to do things your way as opposed to doing things God's way.  That is, the cause of suffering in Christianity is also due to a sense of self.  The conscious awareness that was gained from eating from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil created a sense of self independent of God like a teenager developing sense of self independent of their parents.  This means in both religions, the world of sin/Samsara is due to a sense of self and to escape suffering is to humble one's self to become one with the whole. 

This episode ends with a recitation of Dr. Ray's poem "It's Turtles All the Way Down is the Correct Answer".   So if you're interested, take seat, open you heart and mind, and listen sincerely and intently to a direct communication from my muse. 

The recordings of this podcast are not scripted.  Instead, it's a process where Dr. Ray tries to sincerely capture what is being communicated to him by his muse.  Because of this, sometimes ideas are missed.  So this space is being used to add an important symmetry that was missed during the recording. 

The Lotus and the Cross:
https://www.amazon.com/Lotus-Cross-Jesus-Buddha-Conversations/dp/1601423187

Dependent Origination:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prat%C4%ABtyasamutp%C4%81da

Samsara:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83s%C4%81ra

Four Noble Truths:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths

Link to Poem:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheBottomTurtle/comments/1au4mzp/poem_its_turtles_all_the_way_down_is_the_correct/?

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