No, actually, I've never read anything by him. I'm pretty much independent in my beliefs. That's not to say that others haven't already made these same beliefs known, I just don't follow anyone else that I know of.
Buddha actually believed in god...except god was "nothingness". Buddha was hindu, and his teachings weren't originally meant to be a new religion. Buddhism and Hinduism are very similar, and they also have their differences. Hinduism teaches the impersonal god (Brahman) to be un-material, non-physical , nothing and everything. People created different versions of Buddhism over time, and the philosophy changed. Buddha believed in god and there are many scriptures which have quotations of him talking about god. Here's an article that talks about this http://reluctant-messenger.com/God_buddha.htm
Not very impressed by that article. It certainly doesn't make an argument for Buddha asserting the existence of God, it just interprets his words in a particular way. Looking at it another way, the author seems to be redefining the term 'God' to make it fit his thesis. Still, I'm a bit confused about why Gods turn up in some forms of Buddhism. Can anyone here explain that?
Buddhism is originaly a branch of Hinduism. But more technicaly, The wheel of Samsara incorporates 6 realms, where the beings essence is incarnated according to what karma they have accumulated. The first three are unfortunate births with no direct chance of self realization: The realm of hell beings, the realm of hungry ghosts, the realm of animals. The next three are fortunate births, realm of humans, demi-gods, and gods. However these gods have limited power in our world, they are not omnipotent or omniscient and they are mortal, they have life spans comprizing of many thousands and hundreds of thousands of years. Indira is mentioned as the head God, it's no coincidence that Hinduisms head god is Indira, and infact ALL of the gods mentioned in hinduism occur in buddhism. I hope that explains it. Personaly, I believe Buddhas original message has been distorted and missinterpreted over the years, it's the same with Jesus. The 'emptyness' described in Buddhism I find correlates very well with the view of a universal singularity from which all countless creation and phenomenon manifest- Atman, The creator, The great intelect, The source, God. And we are this great singularity experienceing itself, we have the capability to experience complete merger (of our astral essence) with the ONE, a process described as Nirbana, enlightenment. But you will probably call this a personal opinion, and you may very well do so.
Exsto Thanks. I'm not convinced that your description isn't of a very popularised form of Buddhism. (Gods for easy understanding etc). I must practice harder and find out. I slightly disagree about emptiness being 'One', 'God' etc. since I suspect it is one step beyond such concepts. Still, the word are slippery.
Spookz Thanks for the link. Theravada (and Advaita) seem the 'cleanest' teachings to me, and neither make mention of Gods.
I'm with you Canute, I'm not one for Gods either. But I think the idea (or perhaps the semantics) of the word GOD has been degraded by our western perspective. When we hear 'God' we tend to picture a controler or judge, a person, however in the east they have a much more abstract perspective of the concept. Perhaps 'God' is too missleading a word to use, the concept being waaaay beyond words, a word that is utterly ambigous would suit the position better (maybe TAO Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!). We controll our own lives, we are the ones who judge ourselves. Everything that we are and that happens to us was decided by ourselves at some point. The 'Singularity' I refer to just IS.
Explanation: I was reading the thread and didn't realize there were two more pages. This is in reference to Letitbe2's questions on page 1 of the thread. The "sayings of Shakiamoni Buddha" that you have are most likely koans. They are sayings that are to help you become more introspective. But as has been said before Buddhist don't pray. There is chanting and mantras but praying per se would be to a God to which Buddhism does not agree. Part of the Mahayana Buddhism is to have compassion on all sentient beings. That compassion can translate into well wishing, but in reality the suffering that we go through is the payment for the past Karma that we have acquired. My suggestion to you would be to get some introductory books about buddhism. Reading about Buddhism won't neccessarily take you to enlightenment, but it can put you on the path to enlightenment. There are many paths within buddhism so try to focus your attention to one then if you are interested investigate others. Zen is quite popular in the west. But there are also Tibetan, Mahayana, Theraveda, Sri Lankan, and other branches.
Buddhists don't pray, they simply meditate in an effort to achieve enlightenment and forge a stronger relationship with the Buddha. But they don't pray.
On Buddhist Prayer Greetings all - I realize this thread is quite old, but if anyone is still viewing it or receiving replies on this subject, I thought I'd add what I can. On the website A Buddhist Library dot com (no caps or spaces) on Jason's page (my page) you can find An Anthology of Buddhist Prayer, almost 400 pages, with many examples of prayer in the different Buddhist Traditions. There are also essays introducing Buddhism, Buddhist Prayer and a few thoughts on what is distinct about Buddhism in the West. These are articles form the introduction to the Anthology, and are also separate articles on Jason's page - listed as numbers 1, 2 and 3. Feel free to contact me if you have comments or questions. My best wishes to you all. Jason.
