There are still several more of those responses. I intended to stop posting them and my commentary once I felt I had exhausted the issues presented for myself, but hey, I like to process that shit. The issue is both very simple and very complicated. And I'm sure I'm not going to convince anyone of anything. I'm sure my commentary isn't even consistent.

I'm almost done with the Threefold Lotus Sutra for the second time. Never has there been a book that had me so captivated that I wouldn't recommend. I think I've heard it referred to it as the Buddhist analogy of the Qu'ran, the Bible, or the Torah. It's the final sermon before this Buddha's final extinction, but it's not that straightforward; I would go so far to say that it's not even in this dimension. Even though it's a book written for humans, it is a sermon at the highest level of Buddhism, the understanding of which humans can barely scratch. Trickle down theory maybe.

It's personal. What I get out of it may not be what anyone else gets out of it. And it's a bit confounding of a read. It's a bit confounding to read. My reading of it is informed by modern scientific cosmology and astrophysics. To understand the sheer size and esotericism involved, I'm thinking of galaxies, stars, and light years and a fourth spatial dimension, just as a tool, just to help bend my mind in a way more familiar. It's a brilliant work that any Buddhist or person with Buddhist leanings should at least run their eyes over.