Dear Group,

Words are what we make of it, although how we are influence by dominant
forces do colour our response.
There is also a tendency amongst world religions to adopt, adapt and even
absorb attractive elements of other religions.

In our times, there is a trend for Catholics (esp priests) to learn Buddhist
meditation in an effort to regain their lost contemplative tradition. This
is interesting because we are actually helping them to regain lost
spirituality.

Sukhi

Piya

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ong Yong Peng" <ypong001@...>
To: <Pali@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 2:04 PM
Subject: [Pali] Re: Interested in your Pali Group


> Dear Piya, Danya and friends,
>
> I am afraid that the word grace implies (in a theistic sense) that we
> are in the mercy of a supreme, almight, all-powerful being. This
> concept does not exist in Buddhism. The concept of grace and seeking
> it, however, exists in all other religions that believe in one, two
> or many divine beings.
>
> Bringing up the word grace brings up the concept of sin too. I would
> say both are irrelevant in the Buddhist context. Angulimala was a man
> of good nature and was the most outstanding student of his teacher
> before turning into a bandit. Circumstances brought him into a life
> of wickedness, the compassion of Buddha brought him back to the right
> path and Buddha's wisdom subdued his unfounded and ignorant excuses
> for wrong-doing.
>
> metta,
> Yong Peng
>
> --- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Piya Tan wrote:
> > It helps if you have a working definition of "grace".
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > > Hi! My name is Danya Furda and I live in Columbus, Ohio.
> Currently I am working on my Ph.D. thesis (through McMaster
> University, Hamilton, Canada) and hope to be finished by the end of
> next year. My thesis is about Kamma and Grace in the story of
> Angulimala. One of the main parts of my project has been to
> translate all but one version of the story of Angulimala from the
> Chinese Buddhist canon. Now I am working on my chapter regarding
> kamma and grace within the Pali version (MN 86) and my seven Chinese
> ones. I would really appreciate it if you could suggest articles or
> books that you found particularly helpful in understanding how kamma
> operates within Theravada Buddhism. Of course if any of you know
> articles/books that might mention grace as a concept within Theravada
> Buddhism, please pass that on as well. So far, I have only found
> Divine Revelation in Pali Buddhism by Peter Masefield to be useful in
> this regard.
>
>
>
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