Some Mormons were okay with this symbol until they realized it didn't illustrate the Young Women's Values |
Spirit World—Reports out of the Spirit World indicate that
more Buddhist have been sent to bring light and truth to groups of Mormons. The
reports say that while some Mormons are quick to respond to what the Buddhist
have to offer, others are quite resistant.
One report explains that several Buddhists had been sent to
work with Mormons who were grieving for the actions of their wayward, mortal
children. In the course of their conversations, Buddhists spoke about letting
go of the almost overwhelming anxiety about and attachment to those mortal
childrens’ actions. Buddhists introduced concepts like tonglen where Mormons learned to reduce selfish attachment while
actually increasing compassion and loving-kindness. Mormons who rejected these
Buddhist ideas about letting go of attachment wanted to be eternally sealed to
and thereby attached to all of the good people that made them feel good about themselves.
Those same Mormons indicated that they did not want to have to worry about “compassion
toward the bad people who wouldn’t be in their kingdom.” They also complained
that such “crazy talk” is something that they had “never found in any manual”
and that it “sounds like the sort of hippie crap that beard prohibitions are
meant to prevent!”
Other reports indicate many Buddhists working with Mormons
on meditation. Those Mormons soon discovered that, as they started to meditate,
it was difficult to find both attentiveness and stillness. Over time
attentiveness and stillness started to emerge for them, even in the midst of
internal or external chaos. Still, many Mormons rejected this spiritual
practice. Such Mormons said that they already knew how to pray, that they had a
list of items that they always discussed with God in their customary allotted
time (47 seconds), and that the Buddhists could not be praying in the correct
manner “since they didn’t ask for protection against any harm or accident that
might befall them” and since they were noncommittal about praying that foods like brownies “would nourish and strengthen them.” Those Mormons also complained that “sittin’ around
and not doin’ anything” was against both God’s mandate to be constantly and “anxiously
engaged in a good cause” and flew in the face of the “pioneer spirit of rollin’
up your sleeves and gettin’ to work!”
A reported final area of potential connection and conflict
was over the nature of evil. Many Buddhists talked about meditation as a way to
understand desires and drives. Such meditation could allow one to experience
discomfort, pain, and even temptation for what they are without feeling the
immediate need to rid oneself of them. Those who embraced such spiritual practices found that they allowed Mormons to resist what can seem like “evil” by
paradoxically not fighting it. Drives and hungers for food, affection, comfort,
security, pleasure, and even sex were compared to tides and were seen as
useful, vital aspects of the lived experience that one can attend to,
understand, and gracefully, patiently incorporate into life’s vast richness. Those
aspects can find their rightful place in one’s life, and one can find her or
his rightful place with them. Other Mormons rejected this idea, saying that
they had to “constantly keep the ‘stage of their mind’ filled with busy and
anxious goodness to prevent ambiguity, laziness, or evil from ‘taking over the
play’.”
While some Mormons found insight and joy in what the Buddhists taught, when others found out that those teachings where part of the Dhammapada and other Buddhist scriptures, they rejected the message, saying, “a Book of Mormon, a Book of Mormon, we have a Book of Mormon, we need no more…books…at all!”
Thank you to special investigative reporter Kevin Winters for research on this story.
While some Mormons found insight and joy in what the Buddhists taught, when others found out that those teachings where part of the Dhammapada and other Buddhist scriptures, they rejected the message, saying, “a Book of Mormon, a Book of Mormon, we have a Book of Mormon, we need no more…books…at all!”
Thank you to special investigative reporter Kevin Winters for research on this story.
I love Buddhist teachings. I think Mormons would not resort to so many addictions, if they actually practiced befriending their shadows.
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