I find Buddhism disheartening?

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Curious11 said:
Am I missing something here? Am I getting the wrong picture?
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I was hoping someone might add some light on this to know whether I’m getting the wrong impression of Buddhism.

I’m sorry if it came out looking like disparagement or judgement. I was asking an intellectually honest question.
Tis_Bearself said:
it seems to me to be a faith where people have no real relationship with God and everything has to be done through a priest and everybody prays to statues of Mary
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I’m a non-catholic, and I used to have those questions. You have to understand it’s not immediately obvious to see where the church gets its traditions and organizational model (priests, monks…) when reading the Bible (I had no idea about Sacred Tradition before). So it’s very natural to ask questions to see if your first impression is wrong.
Tis_Bearself said:
would kindly suggest maybe learning more about it from actual practicing Buddhist
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I was hoping there might be some in this forum 😀
 
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The point of Buddhism is to be empty. It’s almost the opposite of the fulfillment of Catholicism.

That said, many Buddhists emphasize works, there are thousands of “deities” (they just don’t view them as helpful) that can be believed in, and it started not as a common religion but as teaching to monks, I believe. Finding your wife and kids to find enlightenment may be a sucky sounding thing to us, but some may think it is right.

Really there’s a lot of variance avaliable in the thing.

As a Catholic I find it almost selfish or egotistical, but no doubt the practitioners do not see it as such (probably).
 
BlackFriar said:
Politely disagreeing with your grossly mistaken representation of Vatican views on the matter is not being “hostile”. This is a forum not a “we all agree with each other” knitting club afterall.
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Your use of hyperbole and sarcasm is rude and disrespectful. If all posters on CAF, post like this, then I don’t belong here.
 
I will not take any of your posts seriously unless you adopt a more civil tone.
 
Kei said:
The point of Buddhism is to be empty. It’s almost the opposite of the fulfillment of Catholicism.
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Some Buddhist teachers emphasise this. Not all. I agree it is a concern. That is not to say that Centering prayer Groups or Christian Prayer Groups do this. They make sure their practice is Christo-centric.
 
Curious11 said:
I get the impression that’s it’s too introspective to the point that it focuses on the self, or rather detachment from it, to the detriment of love of neighbor.
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“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?" - Luke 14:26-28

The basis of Christian charity is first to abandon the self and be transformed into the image of Christ. It is then that God can work through us to do charitable acts.
 
"Christianity and Buddhism are fundamentally incompatible "- Jimmy Akin.

 
Look I may be very wrong or out of line here. But I get the impression that Buddhism emphasizes introspection and doesn’t attach as much importance to loving your neighbor like Christianity. I agree there’s introspection and meditation in Christianity, but it seems to me that they are treated as means to the ultimate end: love God so that love for anything else looks like hate in comparison, and love your neighbor like yourself, while Buddhism seems more like, meditate and achieve enlightenment and then you’re good to go.

Am I dead wrong?
 
(from wiki)
A number of scholars have stated that suggestions of an influence from Buddhism on Christianity, particularly Jesus’s alleged travels to Buddhist India, are fanciful and without any historical basis:
Robert Van Voorst states that modern Christian scholarship has “almost unanimously agreed” that claims of the travels of Jesus to Tibet, Kashmir or India contain “nothing of value”.[6]
Marcus Borg states “Scholars have pointed out that Buddhist teachers lived in Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast, by the first century. Some have posited that Jesus might have traveled there, or that Buddhist teachings may have reached cities of the Jewish homeland, including Sepphoris, a major city in Galilee only four miles from Nazareth. Popular speculation speaks of Jesus having traveled to India during “the missing years”, the decades before he emerged on the stage of history. There, it is suggested, he came in to contact with Buddhist teachings. But both explanations are unlikely and unnecessary. The similarities are not of the kind that suggest cultural borrowing”.[45]
Leslie Houlden states that although modern parallels between the teachings of Jesus and Buddha have been drawn, these comparisons emerged after missionary contacts in the 19th century and there is no historically reliable evidence of contacts between Buddhism and Jesus.[7]
Paula Fredriksen states that no serious scholarly work places Jesus outside the backdrop of 1st century Palestinian Judaism.[17]
Eddy and Boyd state that there is no evidence of a historical influence by outside sources on the authors of the New Testament, and most scholars agree that any such historical influence on Christianity is entirely implausible given that first century monotheistic Galilean Jews would not have been open to what they would have seen as pagan stories.[9][18]
 
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The kingdom of heaven is within you. I think you both underestimate the esoteric side of Christianity as well as the moral teachings of Buddhism. But I would agree in sentiment that Christianity has its priorities correct.
 
G K Chesterton had little or no time for Buddhism. This video I think shows the danger of taking Buddhism tenets seriously. We can slide into relativism and vague boundaries. Christianity is more about defining clear boundaries and separateness rather than oneness.

 
whyeyeman said:
The kingdom of heaven is within you.
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I got in trouble for saying that once on a Christian forum. (actually I used “Kingdom of God”) Many say that it is not scriptural and inaccurate. But if the Holy Spirit is in us, then surely you and I are right.
 
Curious11 said:
But I get the impression that Buddhism emphasizes introspection and doesn’t attach as much importance to loving your neighbor like Christianity.
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There is the concept of “compassion” for others who are deluded because they are slaves to their “monkey mind”. A practising Buddhist can suggest meditation as the cure.
 
Curious11 said:
Look I may be very wrong or out of line here. But I get the impression that Buddhism emphasizes introspection and doesn’t attach as much importance to loving your neighbor like Christianity. I agree there’s introspection and meditation in Christianity, but it seems to me that they are treated as means to the ultimate end: love God so that love for anything else looks like hate in comparison, and love your neighbor like yourself, while Buddhism seems more like, meditate and achieve enlightenment and then you’re good to go.

Am I dead wrong?
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If the neighbor asks for help, the buddhist would give them aid. Instead of “loving” your neighbor, their teaching on the golden rule is not to harm your neighbor
Buddhism: 560 BC, From the Udanavarga 5:18- “Hurt not others with that which pains yourself.”
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Buddhism reduces attachment to worldly things, which in result reduces or prevents many of the sins Christians struggle against daily.
 
Curious11 said:
Let’s forget for a minute about the fact that it’s not the true Faith or Religion. Also bear in mind the (pretty obvious) fact that I know close to nothing about Buddhism

I find Buddhism very disheartening.

First of all, I get the impression that’s it’s too introspective to the point that it focuses on the self, or rather detachment from it, to the detriment of love of neighbor. Case in point is the fact Buddha himself refused to teach at the beginiing and had to be convinced to do so. If you have the truth and it’s supposedly about love, why would you be reluctant to share it, it seems like it’s a very selfish thing to do and totally contrary to what Jesus did.

Secondly, I get the impression that, while Christianity has pioneered the invention of hospitals, charities and universities for love of neighbor, Buddhists seem to focus on their own enlightenment and meditate only, and do not seem to make such a great effort for the community?

And third, I cannot understand how it can deal with lack of deities? I find this pretty discomforting, it seems to teach that you’re on your own in this search of enlightenment, there is no grace, there is no lifeboat.

Am I missing something here? Am I getting the wrong picture? Does anybody feel this way too?
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I’ve only just noticed this thread, my thanks to @Vonsalza for the flag.

Is Buddhism introspective? Yes. The prime task of any Buddhist is to work towards enlightenment. However, that includes external actions as well as internal meditation. The first of the Six Perfections is dana, Charity. By treating others well, we reduce our own ego by giving more priority to others’ needs. “Love others as you love yourself.” – Bhadramayakara vyakarana sutra, 91.

Hospitals existed long before Christianity, including in Greece, Egypt, China, Persia and India. Major religions seem to include hospitals as part of their work.

Some Christian monastic orders are closed and cut themselves off from the community around them; other orders do not and involve themselves with the community. Buddhist monks are the same, some live cloistered lives, while others work in the community. I suspect the same is true of the Hindu monks and similar organisations in other religions.

Lack of deities? Erm… you need to look at the first chapter of the Lotus Sutra. There are plenty of gods, who you can pray to if you want to win the lottery or something material. A god cannot give you enlightenment and so is less important. Buddhism has gods, but they are generally ignored.

The Dhammapada summarises Buddhism as:
To avoid evil;
to cultivate good;
to meditate.
This is the word of the Buddhas.
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Christianity has the first two, it can be lacking in the third. For Christians who want to try meditation I usually suggest either counting breaths or Saying the Jesus Prayer. Spend no more than fifteen minutes twice a day on either. Only do more after you have got some training.

rossum
 
Hi there! Mind if I add something here?

What I find confusing about Buddhism is we learned from Buddha that “Our perception of the world is an illusion”.

But the people Buddha taught this to saw him with their own eyes (visual perception), heard his voice with their ears teaching the Dharma (sound perception), Felt him (touch perception), and used these senses and their “unenlightened” reasoning to come to these truths…so is it really an illusion at all? If the teaching was consistent, than wouldn’t that mean these people “hallucinated” (for lack of a better term) Buddha as well? Seems like a contradiction.
 
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