49,000 correct paths of Tibetan Buddhism

Christians often see Tibetan Buddhism as well as other versions of Buddhism as a philosophy rather than a religion because semantically at least there is no God or Gods only Buddhas within Buddhism.

However, I consider this only semantical because we are dealing with a whole different cultural milieu here where words, concepts, ideas all evolved differently than in the western world for thousands of years with very little contact between the different Asian cultures from Western cultures.

So, my point of view is that a Buddha and a God are only different in minor ways but others might have a different point of view because a God is like a King often and a Buddha is always benevolent to all Beings and wants them all to be Free and to permanently end the suffering of all beings whether they are humans, ants, trees, plants, fish, insects or whatever. So, in this sense maybe Buddhas are different from Gods. But, even then many people would differ on this.

So, for most Christians Buddhism is not really a religion but rather a philosophy, and in being a philosophy is compatible with Christianity. So many Christians are Christians and Buddhists at the same time like myself.

So, I consider myself to be a Mystical Christian Tibetan Buddhist for example. And there is no conflict at all here for me.

By God's Grace.

So, since there are 49,000 paths of Tibetan Buddhism likely if you are a compassionate member of any religion on earth you are on one of these 49,000 correct paths. Even if you are in a cave and are practicing compassion towards yourself and all beings likely you are also in one of these 49,000paths to enlightenment.

By God's Grace.

49,000 Correct Paths

While I was growing up in my parent's church I was taught that only the people who believed as we did would go to heaven. Since my religion growing up was a mystical Christian religion of only about 10,000 to 30,000 people I thought to myself, "Only 10,000 to 30,000 people have the potential to go to heaven? And then I learned about the 144,000 from the Bible. I thought more about this. Over time I became ecumenical (in other words I started to realize that all good people go to heaven). This was also my experience as an intuitive and when God allowed me to look in on some heaven realms in order to teach me what heaven was while I was growing up. I realized then that there are thousands to millions of heaven realms around the earth tied to different people's and family's beliefs since man existed here on earth or came here from other planets and interbred (genetically engineered himself to survive here on earth.)

Since there are possibly millions of heavens tied to language, time, and location of where people grew up or customs or where they are from, I thought being ecumenical enough to visit some or all of these heavens might be sort of like being a world traveler here on earth now. So, creating oneself to be wise enough to possibly be welcome in all or most heavens might be a useful path.

Then when I became about 30 years old I studied with Tibetan Lamas and found they believe there are at least 49,000 correct paths to enlightenment and heaven and a perfect long lasting heaven like state where you continue to grow and to evolve as a being. I finally had found some people who had thought this whole thing through enough to make sense to me. So, for me, being ecumenical enough to embrace all beings in the universe under the mantle of God (Because God in the end has created all beings in time and space and beyond) is the true goal of a Son or Daughter of God here on earth. I also believe this is the first step to become an actual Citizen of Earth and Citizen of the Galaxy and Citizen of the Universe.

49,000 paths to Enlightenment?

Many people believe there is only one path and if you are not on their one path then they want to kill you or worse. It is better to avoid people like that.

Because actually there are 49,000 correct paths or more to enlightenment like I was told by Tibetan Lamas I studied with starting about 1980. I don't doubt the sincerity of anyone on any of the 49,000 paths to enlightenment. However, each person must find their own path. After all, God said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged" which is a way of saying, "Mind your own business!" and let people get on with their lives.

Every person has to find a path that works for them. If they don't they will die. It is very simple. So, you see people trying anything you can imagine trying to find a path that works for them. Some succeed and some die along the way.

To my way of thinking on some levels it is very simple. It is all in the end about self acceptance. You cannot accept the universe without accepting yourself first. If you accept yourself then you can accept the whole infinite universe. You cannot have one without the other. However, having accepted both yourself and the universe you then (if you maintain this) become enlightened. This is my experience of all this). You could call this one of the 49,000 paths but I see it as useful possibly to all 49,000 paths. This is my experience.

49,000 paths to enlightenment

By the time I had reached my early to mid 20s I knew there was not just one path to enlightenment or heaven. I realized by this time that there were at least 5 or 10 or more basic paths. So, when Tibetan Lamas told me that within Buddhism there were 49,000 correct paths to enlightenment I thought, "Wow! You guys have really done some research. I've just scratched the surface of what is actually possible!"

I had had the misfortune that many of you have also had worldwide where I was told within my parents religion that only the people within my specific religion (in which there were only about 10,000 worldwdide at that time) were the only ones going to heaven. As I was growing up it sort of made me nauseous to think about what was going to happen to the other billions of humans on earth?

When I parted ways with my parents Sect or Cult when I was 21 I had already realized that there was something really wrong. Though as an intuitive many of the things I was taught rang true for me and so I continued to believe in the things that actually worked, I started to look more at all religion in a completely pragmatic way. In other words, "What actually worked down through the generations of time and what didn't?" In other words what happened to me after growing up in this sect or cult was completely insane when I was asked to leave. So I knew something was screwy. So, as I approached not only my own religion but all religions on earth with the scientific method founded by Sir Francis Bacon I found through studying comparative religions that they all basically were cultural ways (in the area of the earth where they arose) to basically keep people alive with basic health codes. So, for example in the desert where pig meat won't keep long, Arabic Muslims and traditional Jewish people were forbidden to eat pork, simply because if you didn't kill the pork and eat it right then it would kill most of your tribe that  tried to eat it later. So, this kind of thing I found was what most religions were about. So, mostly it was about keeping the adherents of their religions alive in ancient times. In the end in regard to spiritual stuff there was very little real difference between all religions on earth. In fact, the differences were so slight that I found it sort of ridiculous that religions made such a big deal about all these little differences. I'm not alone having discovered this, by the way. There are millions who have seen this worldwide by studying comparative religion.

So then, I studied cultural anthropology because after comparative religion this made the best step after studying philosophy, comparative religion and then cultural anthropology. So this then led me to cultural relativism and religious relativism. But what I found interesting was that through all these studies I came to feel all beings on earth were my family. I may have Loyalties to a mystical Christian Culture and the secular Christian Culture of the U.S. and Europe but I found myself thinking of myself at core as a citizen of Earth and that my loyalty was to the souls of all mankind. And then I thought, "This is how Jesus and Buddha must have thought too!"

So, when Tibetan Lamas told me that there were 49,000 correct paths to enlightenment I thought to myself after having studied all that I had, "Yes. That's about right!"

49,000 paths to enlightenment

It is said that Gautama Buddha 2500 years ago spoke of there being 49,000 correct paths to enlightenment. So, there could be even more paths that have arisen since then. So, to me this means that he saw paths to enlightenment both inside and outside of every religion known then. Since many new religions have formed since that time it is logical that there are many more paths now. However, it also might be true that all new religions all fall in pure motivation of helping both oneself and all other beings within those original 49,000 correct paths to enlightenment as well.

Since the religion I was raised in as a child tended to be very exclusive and exclusionary I was very happy as a being to find a path that was capable of including literally all life in the universe and excluding none. So, for me knowing that there are 49,000 correct paths to enlightenment makes me very happy for all beings in the universe past, present and future including myself.