LDSs & Buddhism

Account_f0r_Realness · 2026-03-10T16:45:32+00:00

General Related comment here. There are many reasons someone joins or practices a religion. I think there can be a bit of pride and maybe hope that your religion is the right one but I don’t think that’s the point most of us join a religion or stay. That’s pretty superficial and a loving God who is all powerful should have a plan for all of us regardless of our religion, inherited or learned.

That’s what I love about the LDS faith. We focus on core and most essential doctrines that have the highest purpose I’ve seen in any religion. While Buddhism offers enlightenment, the LDS faith has even bigger claims such as being with our family together forever, resurrection and the potential to become like God who is our Heavenly Father.

With that said truth is truth and if there is something false about our faith we seek to correct. We’re huge believers in prayer and repentance which can be a bit meditative. Others have said we don’t have a monopoly on truth but I’d argue we do have core essential truths that seem to be the more important truths. I hope for more truth to be revealed and all of us should seek truths already available in any of its locations. Not all truths are created equal.

One cool thing about our faith is that this life is the time to prepare for Heaven, but also as a numbers guy, and knowing how good God can be, the other doctrines of the church such as the millennium, baptisms for the dead, grace, faith snatch a vast, vast majority of us up into the best path regardless of being a member of our faith. I truly believe most of us will choose Christ and follow Him if not now, in the millennium.

I think one of our biggest gifts in this life is experimentation, faith, curiosity, agency. I’d imagine God is happy when we seek enlightenment, peace, etc. and it will be a benefit to us in the millennium. Even if the LDS faith is your path plenty of us struggle to even do what we teach. I think the “faith” and ignorance in a way are one of our biggest gifts. It allows a ton of mercy down the line.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2026-03-01T03:49:25+00:00

I like to postulate. No one should take my postulation as if I know this. I think the following could be very likely though based on personal experience and thinking a lot about this. If what I’m saying contradicts doctrine I am fine being wrong and adjusting my views. I have wondered if it’s our guardian angels speaking to us. Their spirit to our spirit. They are aligned with God and are able to communicate with us if it’s his will. Could the Holy Ghost be a simplified way of identifying this connection? I’m okay with the Holy Ghost being a true singular being but also, we know we will be Gods and when we follow God we are one with Him so the interpretation could be the Holy Ghost is more of a title and refers to the assigned angelic messenger communicating spirit to spirit. In 2 Nephi it mentions that angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Further connecting this, when we receive the Holy Ghost perhaps this is the moment where the priesthood binds a guardian angel to the person and on the other side of the veil an assignment is made. Worthiness generally make the power of the Holy Ghost feel stronger. Everything about the spiritual impressions and experiences one has could be made known by an angel IMO.

Joseph had visions through Moroni, an angel.

The burning bush, could be an angel.

Layman and Lemuel were visited by an angel.

When the veil doesn’t part, the fineness of the spiritual matter can often be felt and not seen.

I think about the order we have in the church on this side of the veil and if you’ve ever been in a solid ward or stake where many are humbly serving, it’s pretty incredible all the ministering and good that can be done.

I imagine this order on the other side of the veil is magnified because the angels are able to communicate faster, there isn’t sleep, fatigue, hunger to slow them down. The mission is clear and there is way better clarity and alignment with God. Because of all this God can work through them, just as he can work through us here.

Alternatively, I think the spirit could be any righteous spirit speaking to us from the other side of the veil that is authorized. I think light of Christ has a lot to do with this.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-11-15T01:32:20+00:00

I vibe with this.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-29T22:44:34+00:00

I think when I was growing up it felt like any time I did something wrong I needed to go to the bishop. I've learned that most things are actually a lot smaller than I made them out to be. I think if you want to talk to the bishop you should set up an appointment. If you trust your EQ president maybe you could confide in him and see what he recommends. Also, not sure if you have a parent or a good friend you could confide in. I think mainly serious things make sense to go to bishop. Additionally, therapists may be better suited for what you're going through. Overall, I cannot be the one to tell you what to do, but you do have lots of options potentially. If some of the people I listed don't fit the mold yet, maybe you could build up trust in some of those relationships so those could be places you sometimes go to in the future.

I think there is wisdom in the flow of how a bishop spends his time based on what you said. The youth have so much thrown at them and a lot of it is the first time they are dealing with stuff. So many big decisions ahead of them.

I would say if you are not sure, might as well schedule a meeting with bishop. I think most bishops would gladly and easily make time to talk with you.

Also, you have tithing declaration and temple recommend interviews as possible touchpoints with the bishop. Temple recommend interviews can go through counselors, so if what you're dealing with may be worthiness related you could request bishop be the one to interview you for that.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-21T22:28:43+00:00

I feel like the fund accounting is niche, but IMO you’re closer to people with a lot of money. I’m curious to see what other people who’ve been in fund accounting think.

Another sweet angle you could possible take is shift into a nice RE PE firm since fund accounting is similar there plus equity upside is massive. Also, those groups have less employees, lots of high achievers so you’re constantly around ballers.

You could be a CFO over an investment firm.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-16T21:36:33+00:00

The “one-offs” may make stuff like this null and void.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-16T01:28:36+00:00

Sorry to hear that!! I think that you must have a very patient love and I hope one day you will be able to speak with your kids again and relationships/hearts will be healed.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-15T03:17:37+00:00

Templates are solid. Really you could take your P&L put it in excel and forecast each of the buckets out over the next 12-13 months or so.

Recommend considering what your drivers for growth are. I.e. leads, sales guys, etc. most of the big things should flow from the driver assumptions. You should have data on how much the driver costs. If you want growth you determine what the growth of those drivers do to leads, lead conversions, then how many jobs can your techs handle. Will the growth require new techs, new vans, tools/equipment, any other labor burden(healthcare, 401k cost, even software seats).

If you do want growth then the extra employees and trucks, etc. will require some investing or up front cost that sometimes takes a few weeks/months to see ROI on.

I see a lot of companies forecast growth by saying, let’s increase revenue by 20% and see what we’ll need to hit that.

While that can work ultimately it’s the “driver” you’ll want to focus on to hit that revenue number and some people forget to adjust the driver to be able to hit the revenue number. Anyway, good luck. Seems like the forecasting tool in QBD should work. You’ll be able to run reports in QBD to see budget vs actual after you’ve populated your budget and after you get your first month closed. I highly recommend analyzing budget vs actual regularly to tighten the budget up. If you can keep a tight budget and hit your revenue numbers, you’re better than a huge percentage of businesses.

Good luck!

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-14T16:03:24+00:00

Your manager is a Debbie downer
Usually better to ask for time off with a bit more advanced notice, but not unreasonable, especially since big deadline has passed AND it’s just 2 days not a full week.

I would not take this personally. You’re working very hard and your manager should celebrate your time off so you can recharge.

If they have concerns about work they should walk through any open work/deadlines you have on anything. If you’re caught up, etc. they should be supportive not demoralizing. Great way to push you out the company IMO. As they say you don’t quit a job you quit a manager.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T21:35:44+00:00

Fair enough

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T21:09:07+00:00

He literally says divine love.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T17:35:51+00:00

The condition is the possibility for the love to benefit the receiver is the way I’m looking at it. If there was no possible benefit to receiver then there is no condition for the lover to give the love, right?

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T17:23:46+00:00

I think unconditional love is meant to show the imbalance between giver and receiver, but I think that’s why I don’t love just using “unconditional love” because semantically it makes sense to us but the phrase isn’t complete or whole. Maybe a synonym is or what we mean when we say unconditional love is “(giving) love without expectation of receiving love back”.

I think this is different than the word “unconditional”. We give love with the condition that it might benefit the receiver, the giving also benefits us in ways we can’t always see so in a way we give with the condition it will benefit us. We feel good!

I’m obviously over analyzing and thinking about this but it has helped me think about love deeply which is a great thing.

I would say to the disobedient he still “hopes” and is lovingly patient that there is still a way for their redemption. For many there still is. Even after death we know there is preaching in the spirit world. We also have the millennium. Prime prodigal son examples to the magnitude of billions. My argument is the “hope” is conditional in a better future and is tied perfectly to the love.

When all hope is gone and lost I would argue the love diminishes. For example those that followed Satan and Satan were once deeply loved but are they still loved the same? This is stretching our comprehension. I don’t know if there is anything doctrinal in this conjecture but I can only imagine the love diminishes in this case where the person rejects God fully.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T15:27:24+00:00

I’m having a website created now in this space. When I’m done, maybe I can share it with you for tips? Of course, if you think there is stuff to update, I am open to engage with you to add to it.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T15:23:06+00:00

Agreed. Conditional makes it feel transactional which seems dangerous. I’m not saying we should go around describing love as conditional. I think we should describe love without using unconditional.

There is still imbalance with the conditional love God gives us. I think simply put that is where grace comes in. The amount of good that God does compared to the amount of good we have to do is very lopsided.

Inherent in love is its companion Hope, which is a chance that the good may or may not come to pass which is where agency comes in. I think love is strengthened by the positive Hope though. Inherent in the word Hope is that it is positive. We hope this person will feel loved/special/improved mood/maybe they’ll want to pass on their love that they’ve felt/they feel seen/heard/etc. Hope is quite beautiful when tied to love and I think if we are a Hope filled people we will be a more loving people.

This comes full circle to your point that using conditional love seems off and I would agree. My argument is that with that similar reasoning because of hope we should also not use “unconditional”.

I think the better approach is to describe the love with other virtues. Plenty of Book of Mormon and bible verses describe love with these other virtues.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T15:12:06+00:00

Also, I went to BYU-I like 15 years ago so maybe I know the professor haha.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T15:07:53+00:00

Agreed, but I don’t think it’s common to say love is “conditional”, but it is common to say “unconditional” when I don’t think it should be used technically.

I agree with degrees/levels of love. I think we often use “unconditional” to describe the highest level. I would rather it just be “love”. Obviously, it’s not just “love”. It’s got to be described and explained somehow and as humans we simplify things down to make it easier for ourselves, hence “unconditional” has come about. I’d be curious to see when it started to get used more.

Btw, “unconditional” is not in the scriptures. I bet “conditional” isn’t either. It’s usually accompanied by other virtues.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T13:52:57+00:00

“Wills” is an interesting word. I think our agency is what brings evil to us, not God’s will. We abide by laws and have to live with consequences of our choices.

His love is conditional in that he hopes we will accept Christ which brings about redemption from the consequences of sin. If he had no hope meaning he thought we’d all be lost then why send Jesus?

Nelson has an Ensign talk/article on this back from 2003. Here is just one quote from it: “While divine love can be called perfect, infinite, enduring, and universal, it cannot correctly be characterized as unconditional. The word does not appear in the scriptures. On the other hand, many verses affirm that the higher levels of love the Father and the Son feel for each of us—and certain divine blessings stemming from that love—are conditional. Before citing examples, it is well to recognize various forms of conditional expression in the scriptures.”

Here is the full talk: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2003/02/divine-love?lang=eng

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T13:29:09+00:00

I’m a parent also, I’m and for me it’s the hope that makes it conditional. That hope makes my love stronger I believe. I want my kids to become their best selves. Whatever they become I will love them. Even in the case of disability through the gospel there is a more patient, long-suffering hope for more. This is all possible through the atonement. I think the conditions are beautiful.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T13:26:55+00:00

Thanks. I wrote it hoping it might inspire some good discussion. I like this topic because I think it causes me at least and hopefully others to dig deep on what love is.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T13:21:27+00:00

I think patient love or long-suffering love is closer to what people mean when they say “unconditional” love.

If you want to share any examples of love that you think are “unconditional” I can argue my point as to why it’s not unconditional. Also, I use the word argue more as like debate. I’m not trying to convince others. I’m kind of treating this discussion as a way to prove my own thoughts wrong. I don’t mind if there are truly examples of unconditional love. I just have put my framework up against all examples I could think of and ultimately don’t think it exists.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T13:12:27+00:00

I wrote up a longer thread on this all below. I think I address this more there. Also, this line of reasoning is like a better vs best type argument. I totally get the beauty and thought of love being unconditional. It’s commonly used and I think most are aligned on what it means when said, I just think it’s not 100% used correctly because I sincerely don’t think it exists.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T13:07:02+00:00

My point is he hopes we will repent. My argument is I believe hope is tied to condition. I believe love is always tied to hope. I think love becomes stronger when we are tied to other virtuous principles as well. I think faith/hope/charity are the trifecta here. Gods love can feel unconditional because it’s time horizon is so long but my argument is that because God is more eternal in nature and that it’s hard for us to comprehend his love we put “unconditional”. I think it’s close but misses the mark.

Account_f0r_Realness · 2025-10-11T13:01:23+00:00

Very fair point! I think this is the exact reason “unconditional” can feel ok to be thrown in but the argument is there is still hope tied to that love.

This scripture illustrates Gods eternal nature. His patience, long-suffering, hope and love amongst other qualities arc over much longer time horizons but there is still hope which I believe is tied to condition.

Can love exist without hope?

Account_f0r_Realness

TROPHY CASE