I practice buddhism/ does anyone else and do you understand it, Buddhism claims that a person called "the buddha" or the enlightened one, rediscovered a very ancient and long standing, in fact an ageless, wisdom, and that he did so in Bihar in India, around about 6oo or 400 BC the exact date is unknown his re formulation of the perennial wisdom was designed to counteract three evils, 1/ violence to avoid it in all it's forms 2/ the self or the fact that one holds on to oneself as an individual personality, 3/ death was an error which could be overcome by those who entered the doors of the deathless the gates of the undying, apart from providing antidotes to these three ills, buddha formulated no definite doctrines or creeds buddhism is also known as the path of enlightenment.
i'm rather interested in, and have studied, Buddhism. and i am intrigued by the life, or mythical life, of Siddhartha Gautama. there are many aspect of Buddhism that make me not totally agree that it's for me, such as the effort to sever all attachment or complete selflessness, but other aspects i do find quite appealing. but hey, there are no philosophies that are totally agreeable. and to be only partially so shows that a philosophy is worthwhile to a certain extent. so, to answer your question: no. i don't practice Buddhism. but i do quite respect it.
This is really a symptom of our time: I respect those points, I can't live with those. Fifty years ago, people in Europe were (mostly) Catholics. They did not question any point of belief. Now I think there are very few people agreeing with all points of a religion or their leaders. Sometimes it seems like a nice idea to be able to believe in every point of a religion. On Buddhism: I would have to agree that it has some interesting points and some not practical. Like kmguru pointed out once: what if all people were Buddhists? They would need a good gardener Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I sat with a zen group for a few years. If I were pressed to label myself spiritually id call me a buddhist. There has never been a buddhist religious war. If all people were buddhist the middle east would be alot different now. A lot of problems have been caused by the believers in the semite warrior god, whether they are muslim, christian of jewish. A cruel god begets a cruel man.
There would be no technological advancement, we would still be living in the middle ages. Why worry about all these illusions?
That statement doesnt reflect any knowledge of buddhism as its practiced or of buddhists. Ive done sitting meditation with groups whose members included nasa engineers, lawyers, artists, factory workers etc. I know there is a sterotype of buddhists as robe wearing, blissed out ascetics but it isnt true.
Isn't being ascetic a part of the religion? Why would a buddhist be interested in law or spaceships? Will that help him on his way to satori?
There are buddhist monks just as there are christian monks but ascetism isnt required or even recommended. The buddha is taken as an example and ascetism as a path to realization was one of the paths he rejected. Buddhism recommends a middle way of moderation rather than ascetism or hedonism. I suppose a buddhist would be interested in spaceships for the same reasons anyone else would. As far as the example I gave of the lawyer, he practiced divorce law and viewed his profession as part of his spiritual practice. One of his professional goals was to help reduce the trauma that children experience during their parents divorce. About satori, buddhist realization doesnt exclude anything, how could it be a realization of things as they really are if it did? Buddhist realization is about inclusion and truth not about exclusion and denial. I may not be the best source of information about buddhism, I wouldnt want to lead you astray Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! There are some great books available. "Entering the Stream" is good as well as "The Three Pillars of Zen". Also if you want to ask a practicing sensei (teacher) questions you can go here: http://www.cloudwater.org/askamonk.html Also some general questions and answers here: http://www.cloudwater.org/q&a.html and the tricycle site has a good basic primer that might answer questions you may have: http://www.tricycle.com/buddhistbasics/index.html
Damn, you are right. I remember that. He went to sit under a tree till his hair fell out of his head, right? Well, a buddhist will look through all illusion at once. That is the realisation. It would take too much time to study every field of science to realise none of it is interesting or real. Thanks for the links and the answers! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Reminds me of a story, a mahout is apparently an elephant trainer: A devotee heard his guru say, "God is in everything and everyone." As he walked away pondering this wisdom, an enraged elephant appeared on the road ahead. "Run! Run!" shouted the mahout. The man thought to himself, "I am God and the elephant is also God, why should I be afraid?" The charging elephant knocked the man in the ditch. Bruised and upset, the man set off to see his guru to complain. After hearing the story, the guru said, "You are right that both you and the elephant are God. But why did you not listen to the mahout, who is also God, and get out of the way?" Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! or even more pointedly: Clay is formed into a vessel. It is because of its emptiness that the vessel is useful. http://www.human.toyogakuen-u.ac.jp/~acmuller/contao/laotzu.htm
