If your religion is consistent with the four noble truths, then your religion might be considered small ‘b’ buddhist (rather than big ‘B’ Buddhist, or officially Buddhist). Whether small ‘b’, big ‘B’ – both lead to the big ‘E’ Enlightenment.
That’s good to know.Also it is not the belief of Christians, or at least myself if no one else is on this wagon, that you must be a Christian to have salvation.
That’s about right. Though I have to admit that Buddhist texts do warn people not to fall in the “really bad” hells. Even though the hells are not literally eternal, you could find yourself spending eons and eons of time in them.
Whats a really bad hell?
Sorry to say, but Bubbhism has reached a peaceful state of practice, only in which Christians san only hope to reach. Buddhism isn’t stainless, but it is by far more peaceful in the past than Christianity.
Japan also widely practices Shintoism, which reall isn’t important, but Just because a country is primarily of a faith, you can’t say that someone suffered more from that religion because of the actions of that country. Plus you apparently aren’t aware of the imperialist actions of the Christian world that affected China. They suffered loss of culture, forced servitude, and large deaths from putting down revolts of Chinese who didn’t want to be under Euopean and American dominance. I think you were reffering to WWII with the Japan comment, but that was an isolated time. Christianity have been very active in imperial conquest and expansion.
Technically, a hell does only last for one lifetime – but not necessarily an earthly-human lifetime of 100 years or so. A hellish lifetime might be 1,000 human lifetimes; how long you stay, depends upon the intensity of your negative mindset and actions. A person headed for a hell, would take birth into that hell, live out his lifetime in that hell, and then “die” from that hell and be born someplace else (hopefully, a more pleasant place). According to Buddhist texts, we’ve all spent some time in hell in the past.
If you review the original post, the point of the question focused on the general religious affiliation of the country in question, and not whether a specific religion directed the violence. Secondly, although shintoism is native to Japan, Buddhism is widespread in Japan and has been for at least the past couple centuries, particularly Zen, or some combination of Shintoism and Buddhism. Lastly, to suggest that the Chinese lost their culture to the Europeans is preposterous. Certainly, western influence has caused a measure of revolt among the Chinese, but the Chinese have hardly lost their identity. Even in the face of communism, Chinese culture has still survived.
Vive la Chine!
In Buddhism everyone gets ot nirvana eventually. There is no eternal hell nor any eternal heaven though there are many non-eternal versions of both. Even in the hells there is hope of nirvana.
You could. However if a religion followed the Four Noble Truths and led to enlightenment then it would effectively be Buddhism. Shakyamuni Buddha is just the latest in a long line of fully enlightened Buddhas who all rediscovered the Path to enlightenment and preached about it. Eventually the Buddhist religion as we have it will die out and will later be re-established by the next fully enlightened Buddha, Maitreya. Even during periods when there is no Buddhist religion it is possible for exceptional individuals to enlighten themselves, they are called Pacceka Buddahs, “Private Buddhas”. From a Buddhist perspective such people are Buddhists since they follow the same Path. The Buddha did not make the Path, it is built into the universe so it is in principle open to anyone to discover it for themselves. Previous Buddhas rediscovered it before Shakyamuni Buddha and other Buddhas will rediscover it in future.
Study Asian history. Seriously. No need for dirt, just read the history books. War upon attrocity upon war. Not worse than Western history, just standard human behavior with lots of religious justification. Buddhism was traditionally a proselytizing faith as well, so add in all the standard fun that goes along with that sort of thing: forced conversions, death-penalties for non-believers, armed suppression of local religions, you name it. Again, standard human stuff.
To associate a religion with the behavior of a nation is rediculous. If France and Britain faught again would it be a war of Christian beleifs, Christians killing Christians for Christian beleifs and teachings? Nein! It is just war and not of religious affiliation.
Dear BryPGuy89:
They do. The Muslims once conquered India and had influence in areas as far east as China (and I think they still do).
And Pakistan was created because Muslims and Hindus could not live peacably with one another.