What Religion Does for Us
All living beings need a meaningful explanation to feel safe and it has become the duty of religion to describe in words what is wordless. Because we innately crave a complete concept, the purpose of this important inquiry is to explain our enduring inner being and its place in a greater context. Let's take a deck of cards, marked with meanings instead of numbers and symbols, and mentally reshuffle them from a cohesive explanation of Christan soul to the Buddhist position of the subtle transmigrating inner mind. Some meanings will remain together, while some meaning cards will move to other decks of different general concepts. In the Tantric Buddhist explanation, individual and group karma replaces God as creator. The personal relationship with deity, not as a creator, but as a profound awakened living being who wishes us to be free of suffering, stabilizes our emotional and inner logical needs. The concept of transformation is the same, but Buddhism sees the enduring inner individ...