Space Ghost, you’ve found the one extreme for me.
It is my understanding that Buddhists do not worship Buddha as a deity. When they bow, it is out of respect for Buddha. Had Buddhism developed in the West, they likely would salute Buddha instead of bowing.
To answer your question, if you respect Buddha, bow. If not, don’t.
I never thought about that before, but neither really seems to have much use for structure.
He had cows but I do not know if they were the milking kind. He could have almost been considered a Puritan. To him working on the Sabbath was a sin. He understood why people did it he just did not like it. From what I understand he did not consider Sunday into effect until the sun rose, so he would go out on the farm until sun up on Sunday.
being a republican mick, i’d never suggest bowing in front of that woman.
Whoa, looks like we have anti-Brit in the house. Sounds distinctively… Irish. Am I correct?
Me? IRISH? Nononononono. I’m, uh, Lithuanian. Every March 17th we get together and dye the river in our city emerald brown in honor of our patron saint, St. Patr… uh… Casimir. Then we drink lots of Lithuanian beverages such as beer, and we wear silly green hats in honor of the Battle of Fluxno, where we beat back the Tartar invaders in 1223.
If you bow to Buddah, would they bow to any of your saints, or make the sign of the cross when passing by a Catholic Church? Your first instinct is usually right. :yup: You are being tested. Many people are afraid of what others might think of them if they do not do what is code. :getholy:
I think Shibboleth summed it up pretty well. And I think several others here have expounded very welll on this point. Thais bow to each other all the time as a sign of respect. Bowing to a statue of the Buddha should be taken as such as well. And as you said, the Buddha was a great man, a philosopher. So, you are not revering or worshiping him any more than any other living person you pay respect to.I am ambivalent about whether i should do the same when i make my trip and visit a temple.I do not regard Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, as any kind of religious figure per se. I see him as a philosopher, on par with Plato and Aristotle, not with Jesus. Most Buddhists i’ve met would probably agree with that
If you’re sitting on the floor don’t point your feet at anyone.
) and much of their culture has been ingrained in me. There are things I do that are Japanese in flair - like never counting change handed to me - and I did not know that it was considered a taboo thing (by Japanese standards) to do until I was an adult and read about it by a foreign writer writing about Japan.
I bow, kneel and prostrate myself in front of statues and icons of Our Savior and Mary all the time. And I am not worshiping the statues at all. I am bowing to the divine nature of those who these objects represent.
