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paarsurrey
Guest
Hi
True Buddhists should follow what he did and what he said, so knowing about Buddha is knowing the true Buddhism.
Now I think you would agree that it is right in the center of the topic.
Thanks
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True Buddhists should follow what he did and what he said, so knowing about Buddha is knowing the true Buddhism.
Now I think you would agree that it is right in the center of the topic.
Thanks
T
thistle
Guest
Okay. The thread is “What is Buddhism?”. The answer is “another false religion”!!
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rossum
Guest
R
rossum
Guest
Try Buddhism in a Nutshell for an overview of the basics. For one of the fruits of Buddhism see Buddhists ‘really are happier’. The Buddha described his teachings as “come and see”. Try it and see if it works for you. Buddhism is a path to be followed, not a set of dogmas to be believed.
Do good, cease to do evil, meditate.
Do good: “Love others as you love yourself” is perfectly good Buddhism, indeed that very sentence is found in the Bhadramayakaravyakarana sutra.
cease to do evil: follow the Ten Commandments, though ideally you should extend “You shall not kill” to include all living things, not just humans.
meditate: the closest I have found in the Christian tradition is Saying the Jesus Prayer. If you do try this then please be aware of Bishop Ware’s warning: “But those who have no personal contact with starets [a teacher] may still practice the Prayer without any fear, so long as they do so only for limited periods - initially, for no more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time - and so long as they make no attempt to interfere with the body’s natural rhythms.”
rossum
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paarsurrey
Guest
Hi
A valid question from rossum.
I think all revealed religions were founded by GodAllahYHWH including Jesus’Religion.
Love to followers of all revealed religions, and happy new year!
Thanks
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de_profundis
Guest
I don’t know a lot about Bhuddism but the following is what I’ve learnt.
One fundamental difference between Christianity and Bhuddism (apart from the obvious), is that Bhuddism is very much an individual path to enlightenment achieved through oneself. In light of Christian teaching this would be seen as a proud path to take in that enlightenment in Bhuddism (comparable to salvation I guess) is all down to your own strength and willpower - but I guess you have to look at it objectively. Christianity on the other hand calls on followers to be in communion with one another through the body of Christ, and has love, charity and forgiveness as its staple virtues - all things that require interactions with other people not just solitary meditation.
One fundamental difference between Christianity and Bhuddism (apart from the obvious), is that Bhuddism is very much an individual path to enlightenment achieved through oneself. In light of Christian teaching this would be seen as a proud path to take in that enlightenment in Bhuddism (comparable to salvation I guess) is all down to your own strength and willpower - but I guess you have to look at it objectively. Christianity on the other hand calls on followers to be in communion with one another through the body of Christ, and has love, charity and forgiveness as its staple virtues - all things that require interactions with other people not just solitary meditation.
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de_profundis
Guest
Yes. Christians in that sense are essentially descendent of Jews, believing that Jesus is the completion of the history of salvation of the Jewish people - only that the Jews that are around today are descended from those who didn’t recognise him as Messiah at the time (most of Israel!)
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thistle
Guest
Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaisim.
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rossum
Guest
That does not answer my question. I asked if Judaism was founded by God or by man. Your earlier post said that all non-Christian religions were “founded by man”. I was questioning that statement.
rossum
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Sagefrakrobatik
Guest
How about that all religions are false. Do you have a time machine? did you go back in time and interogate Buddha Krishna Zarathusa Guru Nanak Rabbi Akiva, Guru Gobind, Ram, Arjuna, Lao Tzu and Sai Baba until they confessed they were wrong.
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paarsurrey
Guest
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notself
Guest
You are mistaken.
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scapularkid8
Guest
Please correct me then.
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notself
Guest
Although there is variation in approach between different traditions of Buddhism, all forms of Buddhism follow the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. Those who do not believe in these two things (or 12 but whose counting
) are either very new to Buddhism or are not really Buddhists but just like to hang around Buddhism.
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BlaineTog
Guest
Specifically, the Four Noble Truths:
With respect to Christianity, it has wildly disparate philosophy, but extremely similar practice. Both encourage good works, good intentions, etc, but the Buddhist universe is one defined by pain whereas the Christian universe is defined with joy. Both teach self-forgetfullness, a reduction in the ego, aid for the other. But Buddhist “heaven” is Nonexistence; a common image is of a candle being snuffed out. Christianity, on the other hand, is the exact opposite: God is portrayed as the Sun, as bringing light where there is darkness, and in heaven, all are made luminous.
- Life is suffering.
- Suffering is a result of desire.
- The key to cease suffering is to cease desiring.
- The key to cease desire is the Noble Eightfold Path.
With respect to Christianity, it has wildly disparate philosophy, but extremely similar practice. Both encourage good works, good intentions, etc, but the Buddhist universe is one defined by pain whereas the Christian universe is defined with joy. Both teach self-forgetfullness, a reduction in the ego, aid for the other. But Buddhist “heaven” is Nonexistence; a common image is of a candle being snuffed out. Christianity, on the other hand, is the exact opposite: God is portrayed as the Sun, as bringing light where there is darkness, and in heaven, all are made luminous.
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notself
Guest
The actual word is not suffering, although this is how it is most commonly translated.
The Pali word Dukkha is one of those words that does not have a clear translation. I think of Dukkha as anxiety. There is the kind of anxiety that comes when things are going badly and you don’t know how they will end. It is the kind of anxiety that comes when things are going well and you want them to last forever. It is the kind of anxiety that happens when you want things to be different than they are. It is the kind of anxiety that happens when you want things to stay the same forever.
By learning to observe the workings of one’s mind, one can lessen this anxiety. Equanimity will arise when one is no longer thrown from side to side by the wish that things be different or by the wish that things will stay the same.
Many people think that Buddhists define the world a being full of pain. Pain is something that cannot be avoided, but suffering/anxiety can be eliminated. Buddhism is about the elimination of suffering and with the elimination of suffering comes peace and joy.
Christians seem to relish both pain and suffering, seeking it out and offering it up. Sometimes the very thing one accuses others of is in reality what preoccupies oneself.
As for Nirvana (Nibbana in Pali), it is the unconditioned. It is beyond words such as existence or non-existence. It is release, unbinding, luminous, freedom.
The Pali word Dukkha is one of those words that does not have a clear translation. I think of Dukkha as anxiety. There is the kind of anxiety that comes when things are going badly and you don’t know how they will end. It is the kind of anxiety that comes when things are going well and you want them to last forever. It is the kind of anxiety that happens when you want things to be different than they are. It is the kind of anxiety that happens when you want things to stay the same forever.
By learning to observe the workings of one’s mind, one can lessen this anxiety. Equanimity will arise when one is no longer thrown from side to side by the wish that things be different or by the wish that things will stay the same.
Many people think that Buddhists define the world a being full of pain. Pain is something that cannot be avoided, but suffering/anxiety can be eliminated. Buddhism is about the elimination of suffering and with the elimination of suffering comes peace and joy.
Christians seem to relish both pain and suffering, seeking it out and offering it up. Sometimes the very thing one accuses others of is in reality what preoccupies oneself.
As for Nirvana (Nibbana in Pali), it is the unconditioned. It is beyond words such as existence or non-existence. It is release, unbinding, luminous, freedom.
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rossum
Guest
Agreed. Though I would say that Buddhism puts more emphasis on meditation than Christianity does.
Buddhism does not define a universe, it defines a path. The path that leads away from suffering towards happiness.
Agreed.
Buddhism has heavens and hells just like Christianity, though they are not the final goal - all of them are temporary. Nirvana is not nonexistence. The Buddha attained nirvana when he became enlightened at age 35. He carried on living in the world until he died at age 80. That is very far from “nonexistence”.
- Samsara does not have the slightest distinction from Nirvana.
Nirvana does not have the slightest distinction from Samsara. - Whatever is the end of Nirvana, that is the end of Samsara.
There is not even a very subtle slight distinction between the two.
Heaven is attainable only after death. Nirvana is possible while still alive. “… there is still birth, old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief and despair, of which I declare the extinction in the present life.”
All descriptions of nirvana are ipso facto false, though the best is probably Vimalakirti’s:Then the Bodhisattva Manjushri said to Vimalakirti, “We have all given our teachings, noble sir. Now, may you elucidate the teaching of the the entrance into the principle of nonduality.”
Thereupon Vimalakirti kept his silence, saying nothing at all.
The Bodhisattva Manjushri applauded Vimalakirti: “Excellent! Excellent, noble sir! This is indeed the entrance into the nonduality of the bodhisattvas.”
Vimalakirtinirdesa sutra Ch 9
On a more down to earth level, Kensho Schmensho! is also useful: See, the only thing you understand when you solve your philosophical problems is that this is just this. That life is what it is, that you are what you are, that the universe is what it is. Get me? You can’t even explain what the universe is. It just is what it is. That’s it. Anyone who claims there’s anything beyond that is a lying sack of excrement.
It’s not that people who reach this understanding are special in any way. In fact, since it’s only the understanding that things are exactly what they are, the real wonder is not that some rare few get it. The real wonder is how so many people can possibly miss something so exceedingly obvious.
And the Sun will burn out in a few billion years and so will no longer provide any light.
rossum
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BlaineTog
Guest
Oh yeah, definitely.
You’re right, I probably should have said “human condition” or something like that.
From what I understand, heavens and hells in Buddhism are useful myths that aid in reaching nirvana without necessarily being how things are. And the literal nonexistence part comes with death to the enlightened Buddhist. I’m not an expert on this, though, it was just one section of one class I took that fascinated me.
Indeed. “That which is a rising thing is also a falling thing,” and all that. That’s why the sun , like everything else, is an insufficient metaphor for God, because God is neither rising nor falling.
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rossum
Guest
Different Buddhists have different ideas about the heavens and the hells.
The Buddhist attitude to existence is probably not what you think it is. Even while we are alive it is difficult to pin down what it means to exist. If I exist now, then what happens one second later when I have changed into a different person? The old me and the new me are different. Do they have two separate existences, do they share the same existence, is it some combination of the two or is there no ultimately real existence at all?
We cannot determine existence or non-existence while we are still alive; why should we expect to be able to determine it after we are dead?
One of the differences between Buddhism and other religions is that most other religions see the world as fundamentally unchanging with a veneer of apparent change overlaid. Buddhism is the opposite. The change is fundamental, any apparent stasis is just an appearance and not real.
An unchanging God is not possible, given that the world obviously changes: On the first day the unchanging God said “Let there be light”, and on the second day the unchanging God said “Let there be light”, and on the third day the unchanging God said “Let there be light”, and on the fourth day … I am sure you get the picture.
Anything that changes cannot be eternal. An eternal entity is the same at all times. A changing entity is different at different times. What is different cannot be the same and vice versa.
rossum
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BlaineTog
Guest
But God is not the world, not in Christianity. He is outside of time; applying time to him is an anthropomorphization, a necessary one since human consciousness has to apply time to everything. God is the “unmoved mover,” the thing which causes change without itself changing.
And even so, the statement “everything that is a rising thing is also a falling thing” isn’t necessarily true. It’s empirical, sure, but just because you have X examples of it doesn’t make it correct for all examples.
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