Distinguish the limitation and Possibilities of Transcendence

The Limits and Distinguish of Human beings common to all Indian though:

 It is the spiritual that endures and ultimately real. In Hinduism, the human aspiration is move to
the divine. What we believe is how we live; if our believe are in error, then our lives will be
unhappy.
 There is a preoccupation with the inner life – the road to enlightenment that stretches not
outward but inward. To understand nature and the universe, we must turn within.
 There is an emphases on the nonmaterial oneness of creation. This means that there are no
polarities; a single spirit provides cosmic harmony.
 There is an acceptance of direct awareness as the only way to understand what is real. The
Indians find this direct perception though spiritual exercises, perhaps through the practice of
yoga. Reason is of some but in the final analysis, it is only through inner experience of oneness
in all creation.
 There is a healthy respect for tradition, but never a slavish commitment to it. The past can teach
but never rule.

One on the other hand, the great thinkers of medieval philosophy emphatically affirm the principle
of the conjunction of faith and reason, and embody it in their writings. However, their special quality
lies precisely on their rejecting any such “rationalistic” claim. According to St. Augustine, Si
comprehendis , not est Deus – “Whatever you understand cannot be God” simply because you
understand it. As St. Thomas would affirm in the Summa Thelogica, “ God is honored by silence – not
because we cannot say or understand anything about Him, but becausewe know that we are
incapable of comprehending Him.”

St. Augustine of Hippo believes that tsunami, for instance, and other calamities are part of
natural evil. As opposed to moral evil, which arises with virtual inevitability from the inherent
imperfection of the universe as a created and independent order, natural evil doesn’t come from
human but that is natural. The root cause of both natural and moral evil leads to metaphysical evil,
which according to Augustine, pertains to certain imperfection that are inevitable in a created and
independent universe and thus, inevitable imperfection are the source of many or all the other evils
that occur in it.

However, the Indian’s concept of Brahman has similarity with Ludwig Feuerbach, a German 19 th
century philosopher, who thinks that in the essence of Christianity, a person is God and God is in the
person. For Feuerbach (1980) there is no distinction between God and human beings.

Evil and Suffering

Suffering is close to the heart of biblical faith. In comparison with the Buddha, who saw life in
suffering and tied to control instead of cursing it, Job of the Old Testament, did not just complain.
He cursed the day he was born! In a phenomenological perspective, all of us will continue to assert
our will against other, adding to the overall suffering of human experience.
 In Christianity, suffering leads to the cross, the symbol of reality of God’s saving love for the
human beings. Suffering, in Buddhism, gives rise to complain for suffering humanity. Comparison is
the heart of religion, but composition can disappear from it. Religion, without compassions,
becomes law and burden imposed in its adherents. If there is no compassion, religion can start was
that destroys enemies. Jesus condemned religion without compassion and constructed, thus, the
parable of Good Samaritan.