Comparing and contrasting Catholicism and Tibetan Buddhism.

[KEVIN_WILCOX]

I have noticed that Christians often try to attribute a purpose to existence. That is not the Buddhist way. I may set my own purpose but there is no overall purpose external to myself.

rossum

In Buddhism this is entirely depedent upon which Path one follows: Hinayana, Mahayana or Vajrayana.

 

[KEVIN_WILCOX]

Would you say Buddhism is an existential philosophy?

To be personified imputes history. With God there is no history. There are Persons but no personification.

 

[rossum]

Would you say Buddhism is an existential philosophy?

There are a few similarities, but in general it is not. There are too many external constraints on us – we are only free within limits.

You may be able to make the argument that purpose is created by the mind, but if there is any reason to seek enlightenment, which is purposeful behavior, then there must be factors external to the individual’s own experience that are fixed, and drive the need to create the purpose of seeking enlightenment.

Well done, you have discovered the First Noble Truth of Buddhism. The external factor you mention is suffering; the unsatisfactoriness of life and the fact that there is no permanent happiness available for any living thing.

If that is the case, then why does Buddhism even address life after death and spiritual laws that affect each person equally? Is the answer because the afterlife is seen as being as mechanistic as the present life, and is simply a place where everything works the way it does here but is invisible to us? But even in that afterlife, there is no guardian? No shepherd? No ultimate parent?

Buddhism believes in reincarnation. The afterlife bears a great deal of similarity to this life – we could be back here on Earth the next time round. Even the heavens and the hells are all temporary. If Buddhism failed to deal with our future lives then it would not deliver a complete solution.

rossum

 

[Ahimsa]

If, as you suggest, all is one, then in Ghutama becoming Enlightened all would be Enlightened - Dhuka, dhuka, dhuka. Clearly not the case.

In Tibetan Buddhism when students compete for the geshe title, even if they can intellectually argue every point to a winning conclusion. If a student cannot assimilate it into everyday life, they will not gain the geshe degree.

I think you’re confusing me with a New Ager. I never said “all is one”.

 

[KEVIN_WILCOX]

In Buddhism, nothing is “your own”, not even Buddha-Nature.

Guess I should have asked for your meaning.
Taken at face-value “nothing is your own” abdicates self-responsibility and expresses an extremist view.
The Tibetan Buddhist Madyamaka school of the middleway teachings (the ‘philosophy’ of the Prajnaparamita sutra) speak of the ‘selfless self.’