Tom Carr: Has anyone read Pope John Paul's comments on Buddhism in his book "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" ? I read a letter about this in the last issue of Tricycle, and then got the book from the library yesterday. The Pope is definitely not a big fan of Buddhism. Who has read this? What do you think?

jaxers: Buddhists do not hold that there is a God or god(s) that have an essential self-existence and created or maintain the world. In fact, the Buddha set himself up against this essentialist viewpoint by downplaying the importance of the god-worshippers of his time. Buddhist cosmology is full of creatures and beings who inhabit various worlds and realms: this is an outgrowth of ancient, pre-Buddhist Indian cosmologies. In addition, Buddhism kind of adopted the "gods" of the cultures to which it went and in its legends had them converted to protectors of the Buddhadharma. However, personally, i find it more helpful to recognize the different cosmologies sometimes as just the cultural baggage of the various Buddhist societies we inherit the teachings from, and sometimes as symbols that, as in any culture, tell a story to us at a deeper level. But, as Merrill put it, the meditational deities that one sees in Buddhist statuary and thangka painting are archetype-symbols that emanate from formless awareness and serve a purpose as the object of mediation. They don't have any "real" existence. And, as Buddhism establishes itself in the West, i hope we can be open to the transmission of our own, "homegrown" versions of these symbols. Thus, as far as i am concerned, thus, there are no gods in Buddhism in any real way, yet there are any number we decide to invent!