The mariner had no takers on the difference between God and non theists who believe in a totally predetermined universe designed to be what it is and nothing more. The non theist idea is that everything is created with a purpose that completes the grand plan of the universe. Those who believe this way are called teleologists. There are many groups who don’t know they are teleologists and have composed parallel atheistic arguments against the presence of a God.
What separates Christians from teleologists is free will. A second element of Christianity is that there is a responsive relationship between each of us and with a God that loves us. A third element is accountability to love God and love our neighbors. These responsibilities are the two Great Commandments.
A nice metaphor is a wooded Indian versus a real Indian. The wooden Indian is a part of the grand design, completed. A real Indian has a life to live, choices to be made, to love, and to relate to a God that responds to him.
If the Conundrum was too obscure, the mariner apologizes.
Ancient mariner
Don’t feel bad, ”Joshu’s Dog” has had 1300 years of ‘takers’ with little to show for it. A neutron star may have Buddha-nature, but without awakening to an awareness of that nature, it is only experiencing karmically conditioned consciousness … or whatever you want to call it.
This Bodhisattva does not know the extent to which a neutron star is enlightened (although it is probably safe to assume that most of them are just self-absorbed assholes) but the mu koan does reveal how treacherous it can be to assess one’e own spiritual trajectory, much less that of another – especially a categorically distinct entity like a dog, a society, a galaxy, or a God.
Then again, I’ve never really had the patience for Zen, so it is entirely possible I too am only experiencing karmically conditioned consciousness. As Levar Burton used to say, ”you don’t have to take MY word for it!”
I imagine that if a neutron star awakens, it really awakens! Only Ben would top the mariner’s obscurity with an even more obscure reference. Good ol’ Joshu. Was the monk wrong?