Hi Elle,
I am in a similar boat…sort of.

I am a child of God and worship Him. I do not attend church because I am fed up with fake people shoving rules and religion down my throat when I wholeheartedly believe Jesus wants us to love Him and love each other. I don’t believe they are showing love in any way shape or form (they only seem to “love” and accept me when I do exactly what they believe I should do). Anyways…I have found Buddhist teachings to resonate VERY well with my heart. I find a lot of parallels between Buddhist principals and what I believe to be the heart of Christianity. It’s all about LOVE.

I did my first guided meditation this week and left feeling very confused. Is this against what I believe about God? How do I co-exist in both Buddhist teachings and teachings of Christ?

Not quite the same question you asked but you’re not completely alone in that feeling!

“Don’t use Buddhism to become a Buddhist. Use Buddhism to become better at whatever else in your life you are doing already.” – Dalai Lama

If you believe in God, then believe in God. I don’t think there’s anything in the Dharma that says you can’t or shouldn’t.

Sit, meditate, become familiar with how you mind works, and let go one breath at a time. 🙂

John, that quote really helped me as well!

Elle, I hope you have a great day as well! If you ever want to talk more about this just let me know! 🙂

I meant 2 say Jesus said He will never leave us or forsake us!<3

I want to share my story about releasing traditional beliefs about God. I became a quote “Christian” at age 16 and held traditional beliefs about God before that as well. At age 18, I married a man who became a Baptist preacher and we were married for almost 23 years. I believed people were going to hell if they didn’t accept Jesus Christ as their savior and I believed God was an entity that I had to supplicate for things and my status in eternity was dependent upon how good of a Christian life that I lived. Church services were about preaching us in to feeling guilty and unworthy. We judged ourselves and everyone else.
About five years ago, I discovered “New Thought” and Buddhist beliefs, which felt very good. I began to embrace my own power as a creator and see that we are all one, as God. Judgement was replaced by love and understanding for myself and others and the separation that I felt from others began to dissolve. But, letting go of the belief in hell was the hardest thing to release. It meant that I had been wrong for all those years. Later, I realized there is no right and wrong or good and evil. After about a year of maintaining my new beliefs, I was still holding on to the belief in hell and Jesus being a Savior for our sins.
Then, one day I had a break-through and I have never had a moment of doubt since then. I was out of work at the time and was going to food banks for free food. The food was usually distributed by churches. As I was waiting this particular day to receive my food donation, one of the church workers put on a demonstration for myself and another person who was waiting. She cut out figures of the the crosses from folded up paper, as she told the story of the crucifixion and how Jesus died for “our sins” and that if we didn’t accept his as our savior, we would go to hell. Then, she asked us if we went to hell, whose fault would it be. The woman with me said, “Our fault”. I had an amazing moment of clarity as I saw so clearly how the gospel message is one of fear. I could see that the woman sharing the message was sharing it because she was afraid we would go to hell and that if she didn’t tell us, it would be her “fault”.
I am so glad I am free from the fearful and guilt-based beliefs of traditional Christianity. I do believe Christ came to humanity for reasons other than Christianity proposes. I believe he came to teach us about the abundant life and that we are light and powerful creators. The Bible says, “Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God”. He was crucified because he said he was God. There it is, as crystal clear as it can be. We are One with God. We are all equal to God. All of us together make up God. And, we have the power to do miracles just like Christ did.
The Bible has some great truths in it that were written from inspired authors. And, some of it is written from the ego nature that is fearful. We get to choose love or a God who punishes people in a burning hell. My choice has brought me the fruits of the spirit that the bible talks about, “love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, allowing, faith, and self-control.

Elle,

I’m glad John’s words brought comfort, they are wise indeed! It often saddens me to see people afraid of God’s judgement, especially when they are looking to develop skillful wisdom. Consider that perhaps god doesn’t judge children at all… its more like our pain blinds us to beauty, but the beauty is always there. This picture we have of a little man on a throne with a hat and a magic wand deciding who gets joy and who gets damnation? Rediculous! I have children, and when they make mistakes I grieve along side their pain… there is no judgment for children learning how to find love and joy. Said differently, when we make unskillful choices, we feel pain as a way to help us to grow. Our wisdom, our connection to the divine, our concentration, our wings. It is old baggage from mideval europe and earlier that says “grace is in this book and not that book”, “grace is from the church” and so forth. You are seeking to become a better person, and there is no grace stronger than that, dear sister. I hope your days are full of love and light.

With warmth,
Matt

Hi Elle,

I was brought up very religiously and was always taught i would go to hell if i didn’t believe in Jesus. I used to love to play outside and I wasn’t allowed to do so on Sundays. I remember being 12, lying on my bed, hearing children play outside and thinking: what if I die now and nothing happens… what if there is no God who says: ‘well done, Karin, you haven’t played outside on Sundays, you’ll be going to heaven.’ So I started doubting when i was 12, but even when i was 21 i was too afraid to actually say i didn’t believe in God, just for the fear of hell.
My story is very much like Lori’s, our church wasn’t about love, it was about judgment. One day i had the guts to just say: ‘I don’t believe in God, or in hell’… and nothing happened. Sounds weird, but from that point on I felt free. I started reading about mindfulness, Buddhism, Hinduism, Yoga and found there was something for me in all those things. Even some things that Jesus has said are right for me, like this:’…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’ (John 10:10)

I believe in love. And I believe in being responsible for my own happiness. I also believe in not being afraid of tomorrow (also in the bible by the way: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:34) ).

I wish you lots of strength and love,
Karin