Discovering Buddha

Recommend to me the good books on the history and teachings of Buddha for somebody who has absolutely no idea about him. What interested you and got you started in Buddhism? After learning about it, do you meditate or pray at home or some kind of local place for Buddhism?

 

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Here is my suggestion ...

BuddhaNet's Buddhist eBook Library

 

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http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/nshellct.htm

http://www.buddhismtoday.com/english/buddha/Teachings/basicteaching0.htm

http://www.religioustolerance.org/var_rel.htm

And, read the book, "The Teaching of Buddah".

Congratulations and enjoy!!

 

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if you want to learn meditation there are a lot of advice on the meditation guide also i will be posting a practical guide to buddhist meditation in a couple of days..

classical buddhism specifies five or six realms or destinations in which it is possible for rebirth to take place.
1 the heavens the realms of the devas or gods, plus some rarefied regions above them.
2 the realm of the asuras or titans, who like their greek counterparts are the bellicose old gods,
3 the realm of humans.
4the realm of animals.
5the realm of preta or hungry ghosts.
6 the realms of hell which buddhist writingsare numerous and exceedingly nasty.
so the whole system is fraught, for only two destinations are plesent, the rest are painful,

 

I thought this might be of interest ...

The Wheel of Life

The Wheel of Life illustrates in a popular way the essence of the Buddhist teachings, the Four Truths: the existence of earthly suffering, its origin and cause, the ending or prevention of misery and the practice path to liberation from suffering.

The Wheel of Life describes the cause of all evil and its effects, mirrored in earthly phenomena just as it is experienced by everyone from the cradle to the grave. Picture by picture it reminds us that everyone is always his or her own judge and responsible for their own fate, because, according to Karma, causes and their effects are the fruits of one's own deeds.

The circular composition of the Wheel of Life guides the viewer from picture to picture along the black path or the white path. It leads one through the twelve interwoven causes and their consequences to rebirth in one of the so-called Six Worlds. Projected on one plane, they fill the whole inner sphere the Wheel of Life. But the meaning of this painting is to show the way out of all these worlds of suffering into the sphere beyond.

Interactive Tour of the Wheel of Life

 

Darwin

You might also consider reading about Socrates and comparing the two. They had many similar ideas.

 

For me books about Buddhism meant absolutely nothing with all this stuff about eightfold paths and Buddha nature. Science and philosophy was the rational thing. No mumbo jumbo. However I discovered after a lot of work that science and philosophy lead you straight to the logical truth of Buddhist thinking and beliefs.

I say this just because if you are new to Buddhist ideas and also a scientific thinker, as your username suggests, then you might find the books very off-putting. I certainly did.

 

Seems that way to me also, Canute. What little I have read on Buddha seems to be pure philosophy on how to live/think in the here and now. No mention of heaven or hell or life after death. Looked to me that stuff was added by others at a later date. Do I need correction on this?

 

No. IMO, that is basically correct. Some, the Mahayana for example, take the view that Buddha exists in countless manifestations throughout time, so there is no "later". That way they get authentic status for their texts.

Buddha nature is most famously associated with Zen and is also emphasised by the Mahayana schools. The eightfold path is very basic buddhism accepted by all the schools from the Sarvastivadans to Lamaism.

 

OK, so far I read a few of the web sites and many of the books by HH Dalai Lama, T.N. Hanh, S. Suzuki, and various western buddhists and I guess that is the limit. I can only go so far with reading materials on Buddhism, right? My next step is to what? Seek a teacher? But then who, when I find the various forms of Buddhism to my liking, what style of teaching do I pursue?

Another thing,
How is Buddhism "funded"? Where do they get the money for building monastaries or how do monastics sustain themselves without some kind of wealth? Here in the states, how are Buddhist temples supported? Hopefully not like Mormons and take 10% of your gross income.

 

Buddhism is just a practice. You do not have to be part of some organisation in order to practice it. However it helps to have guidance and suport sometimes and being part of a group or having a teacher helps with whatever you are learning.

The teachings of Buddhism can appear extensive and complicated, not to say wilfully opaque and incomprehensible. However (it seems to me) that for the most part they represent a host of different ways of explaining the same few things.

The main point is that the words in the books are supposed to help you in your inner exploration, not to make rules or to tell you answers. Their message is extremely simple. If you can still your mind you will get to know your own consciousness better and start to answer the questions for yourself. Once you start to do that then all the opaque words begin to make sense (and you start wondering why other people can't see the truth of them).

In the end it is about experiencing reality, and experiences cannot be communicated in writing.

I believe that the Buddhist view of existence is correct (and absolutely 'scientific'). However I agree that the central message appears to have become intellectually cluttered. After a few thousand years this is not surprising. However it is worth noting that Buddhism is concerned with the truth, not with faith, dogma, and ceremonial details. You are not expected to believe anything that you have not worked out for yourself, even if the Buddha said it. Paradoxically you are expected to work it all out by sitting and not thinking about it. Even more paradoxically this method works.

This is just my opinion. I'm sure that any real Buddhists here would be able to put it better. I only meant to say don't worry about the books, just start exploring what it is that appears when you are not being distracted by your thoughts. The books will then start making more sense.

 

Thank you for the verification.

 

I think this is very wrong, but I know what you mean. In fact Buddhism is more rational on its view of existence, life and death etc. than any other scientific, philosophical or religious views that I know of (I'll argue this one if you want), and says everything you could ever want about existence if you explore it all the way, and if you explore yourself all the way. It is not just another view, it is a way for you to form your own view. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly) however it seems that people who individually investigate existence via Buddhist practice always end up reaching the same basic conclusions. Thus there are no significant theological disputes or logical anomalies within Buddhism, and it represents not just a complete explanation of it all but also a way of understanding ones own existence (or non-existence). I have no axe to grind here, I am not a Buddhist but just believe that Buddhist views are correct.

 

No arguement here. It does seem to be the most rational and ... flexible ... worldview/paradigm/matrix.

However, an interesting rabbit trail to follow would be - how can one believe Buddhism to be true yet not be Buddhist? I find myself in a similar paradox and am interested in your definition and view.

 

With (arguably) the possible exception of Samsara.

 

I suppose what I meant was that Buddhist ideas on consciousness, cosmos and material universe seem to be coherent, complete and logically much more likely to be true than the worthy but inadequate and unsophisticated muddles that science calls psychology, quantum cosmology and so forth. However I'm not quite convinced that taking on board the implications of this necessarily means formally becoming a Buddhist in the sense of following the ceremonies and traditions and calling oneself a Buddhist. However it does seem to mean doing the practice and taking the same approach to life, and once one starts doing that perhaps one is a Buddhist. Perhaps I just don't want all the work and responsibility that comes from really accepting that ones ultimate fate is in ones own hands.

When you say that you believe Buddhism to be true do you mean in terms of lifestyle/practice/approach to life etc. or in terms of its explanations of existence?

 

l/p/a I'm thinking (w/o the cerimonial dross). I'm not that familiar with it's veiw of existance. But if it's like most - it really doesn't matter. It's kinda like - monads vs. atoms or whether or not aliens are visiting earth - either way, it doesn't really change my everyday life.

 

I can only say that I feel you very seriously underestimate it. Don't do that too quickly. It's not some form of mysticism or endlessly inconclusive metaphysics. Of course it may be wrong but that's a different matter, one to decide for yourself.

 

Hi all, I've been born to and brought up in a buddhist family. My parents were buddhist, their parents, and so on. Coming from this background, I've experienced many aspects of the religion, or as I've come to understand it, philosophy.

Since i was a little kid, I'd often go to the temple with my family, and we would chant. I never understood what I was saying (the chants are in an acient Indian language (I think) called pali), and I don't beleive many of the adults understood it either), but we would chant them anyway.

After a few year of going to sunday school, they teach you what the different chants are all about, but I still don't understand the language.

There are few rituals that are done, but to me it all just seems pointless. It's as if people do them because that's just how it was done when they were kids.

I wouldn't have a problem if the rituals were meaningful, but I think they have just lost that. Rather than feeling invigorated and spiritually cleansed (or whatever) after a ceremony, more often I feel tired and sore (coz we have to sit on the ground).

I feel that a lot of buddhism has gone astray. The majority of its deciples don't even know what it means to be buddhist. They think that by going to the temple and chanting and taking part in rituals makes them buddhist. I don't even know if the Buddha ever even told people to have ceremonies! I think you'll find better buddhists working for charities than you'll find in a temple.

I think that what I've been trying to say is that its not doing things that may be considered icon events for a Buddhist that makes you one. It's the way you live your life, the way u treat other being, the way you think. That's what make you a Buddhist.

 

Sounds a lot like modern Christianity to me.

This is all my impression but, it seems that over time, most if not all religions have this original, simple, true core that was preached by the "founder". Jesus, Buddha (probably Mohammed - I doubt if suicide bombers were part of his ideal). Over the years it becomes analyzed and interpreted to death. All kinds of additional "religion" added to it. You start seeing it with Moses in the old testament and Paul’s writings again in the new testament. And it's not even their doing, really. It's questions from the ignorant sheep that don't understand or even want to understand the "truth". They just want to know how many Hail Mary's they have to do to feel ok with themselves. I can see the frustration with the masses in their writings. Eventually, you have this bloated mind game of do's, don'ts and ceremony.

Whew ... ah, sorry about the outburst.

Something that borrowed from science - Occams Razor - a belief, yes belief, that truth is not complex, but simple and beautifully efficient. (I'm looking for a better word here).

Isn't that what Buddha discovered, in a sense? Forced submission and denial of self (ex. starving yourself for Lent, Yom Kippur, or nirvana) leads no where. It's seeking an extreme. It's ornamentation (what does swinging an incense bucket really accomplish?). It hides the truth.