Satan - Through Buddhist Eyes

One thing I really love about studying other religions is that it gives me another viewpoint from which to see my own tradition. Since I truly believe that there is but *one* world that we are all struggling to describe our experience of, it makes sense that I would see other religions as different systems for viewing the same thing. So here’s my best attempt to show that Satan is (a) not a literal being, and (b) a very important device for learning about how our hearts and minds turn towards darkness. We’ll start with a quote written by Philip Kapleau, in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Zen Keys. “Sitting astride the senses is a shadowy, phantomlike figure with insatiable desires and a lust for dominance. His name? Ego, Ego the Magician, and the deadly tricks he carries up his sleeve are delusive thinking, greed, and anger. Where he came... [read full story]