I wrote this back in 2018.
A lot has changed since then.
The peace I was looking for in Buddhism, I found in Orthodoxy. So in order to not bring confusion to anyone, I deleted this old post in 2026. There are probably a lot of old posts I need to go through and clean up. But I’m lazy.
Forgive me.
Here’s a cool book I read once by Mother Teresa. It’s not Orthodox, but I think you’ll enjoy it
Yes! And the Bible sorta has its own 8 fold path. The fruit of the spirit is a list of states of being. And there’s the bits abt the renewal of the mind and speech coming from the abundance of the heart and the right hand not knowing what the left is doing (intention), and dead faith without works (action &effort) and so on.
Then again… there’s also the problem of motivation. The 8 fold path teaches that we recognize fear without judgement but do not allow it to inform our decisions.
The Bible presents a contradiction. Fear is cast out by perfect love, but is the beginning of wisdom? God is love, but must be feared.
I think fear is not the origin of, but at the heart of most suffering.
How do you reconcile fear in the Bible? Is it a tool or a weapon?
(Bc I’m too far from Sunday school)
I think the answer lies in the context of what was being taught in the respective passages. The best I can tell is that perfect love casts out fear…is in relation to the fear of death. I think the fear of God being the beginning of wisdom is referring to respecting the ultimate source of truth. So in that way, there’s no contradiction. But I’m no expert in such things. Thanks for the comment and the insight on the 8fold path and it’s connection to the fruits of the spirit.
Well, I think the Bible teaching the fear of God is also in relation to the fear of death, no? Because isn’t the general gist that if you don’t believe you go to hell? I mean, I can see the argument that God’s will is that none should perish, but then … those who don’t turn from their ways will, “be consigned to the firey lake of burning sulfur?”