The Mormon Buddhist

The CTR shield is a symbol for most Mormons growing up. I definitely agree with it's message to "Choose The Right". The 8-fold Path suggests what we should choose the right in. Many Mormons jokingly take it in a more literal sense when they need to randomly choose something, and pick whichever one is at the most right. I thought it would be fun to change it up a bit and make a "CTM" shield, with CTM standing for "Choose The Middle". Buddha's life is a good example of avoiding extremes. he was born in a life of extreme luxury, and then lived a life of extreme asceticism. He eventually came to realize that enlightenment is found in the middle between these 2 great extremes. He would go on to often call his teachings "The Middle Way".

Stephen Batchelor's "Buddhism Without Beliefs" was like trying to take a drink from a fire hose for me. There were SO many concepts that were being given left and right in such eloquent ways I could barely keep up, let alone think of something to write. I wish we had spent more time reading this book so we could examine what we were learning more thoroughly. I'll try my best to explain what I've gleaned though! The concept of thinking of the 4 Noble Truths as a task list rather than a belief is something that has always come natural to me. I frequently refer to my flowchart that I made, and think about how it applies to my situation. How  am I suffering? What  am I craving? By simply asking these question I've already declawed the suffering I have. Its not a formless monster; it has boundaries and limitations and it is defined and recognized. By doing this, you start to let go of the problem. It almost certainly wasn't as big of a deal as you believed it

In Buddhism there is a concept known as "buddhadhātu" in Sanskrit, which translates to "Buddha-Nature". This is the belief that all humans have the ability to recognize right from wrong. This is almost a universal believe among religions. The Muslims call it "Taqwa", the Chinese call it "Ren", the Quakers call it "Inner Light", the Freemasons represent it with the square and compass, Mormons call it "The Light of Christ", in everyday language we would simply call it "conscience". Some say that we were created by a god with this sense and some say we evolved it for better survival. Regardless of how we got it, we have it now, and that's what matters. Let's focus on this concept in the Buddhist context for now. Buddhists believe that we inherently have the ability to realize their enlightenment. There are many that believe we are naturally enlightened, and over time we lose sight of that. By following our Bud