[Kanzeon]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

Kanzeon, you might be surprised. If you really look very closely at LOA teachings (say, the version taught by Abraham Hicks) and at Buddhist teachings and Christian teachings, you will find many parallels and similarities.

I was raised in the Catholic Church and took plenty of religions and philosophy classes at a Catholic University. Later, I took refuge in a Tibetan sangha.

They will not be identical. It is like how a chemistry textbook will discuss atoms and molecules, and how a physics textbook will discuss atoms and molecules. The discussion will not be identical. But there will be many parallels and similarities.

As to the nature of reality, Christianity and Buddhism are very different: Christianity is fundamentally dualistic, and based on notions of permanence, as was a good deal of Greek philosophy. Buddhism is based in nondualism and impermanence. The workings of the universe are very different under each model.

It is the notion that your mind creates your reality.

That would be idealism, not LOA.

Then there is the question of what are we supposed to do with this notion, how do we apply it, what are we to make of it?

That would be LOA - an approach of radical idealism and ultimately solipsism.

Typically someone in his congregation will have a problem; the person comes to Joseph for advice and help, in his capacity as pastor; Joseph then teaches them and advises them to pray; then some highly improbable, miraculous event occurs, and the prayer is answered, the problem is solved.

In traditional Christianity, prayer is answered at the discretion of God. In LOA, it is reversed, and God is your puppet. In traditional Christian thought, prayer for selfish motives and material things is disfavored - those are the sorts of prayers God will not answer.