Quote:
Originally Posted by kiLLeRrrr
sage, you are an interesting human being.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kiLLeRrrr
and when i get a computer with sound, i'm going to watch those videos you just blogged.
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You can also use headphone jacks, jack.
Leonard Cohen does the narration, and he has a really good voice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by scottishbastard
Straight buddhism COULD be called a religion, but they dont really seem to speak much of a god...They sort of treat the buddha himself as god. Zen buddhism (what Im far more aquainted with) is more focused on the teachings of nirvana, which I wouldnt call a religion at all..
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This is the sound of talking about Buddhism and what it is at it's best I think.
"................... .................."
umm hmm.
Words are conceptual truths, but not ultimate ones.
A creator is important per say, yet its not denied either, and Buddha didn't talk much about it as it wasn't central to his ideas of what liberation entailed.
Zen still comes from the same philosophical schools as Mahayana, as it is part of it, which came from India and spread across Asia to the Japan. They speak of the same Nirvana as the Therevadin school, which is the oldest surviving school of Buddhism, which was expounded on by Buddha.
Zen/Chan Buddhism litterally means 'Meditation Buddhism', so while their means of attainment are different, they still come from the same Great Teacher.
Buddha isn't a god, more than I could debate our own godliness. Gods are a realm in the 6 states and are also impermanent as is all compound matter. Along with Anti-God, humans, hell beings, hugry ghosts, and animals. Buddhas are beyond these realms of cyclic existence.
In the Sutras, the gods actually implored of him to teach what he learned for the sake of 'gods and man'
Like I said, I think it's neither religion or philosophy and it's both of them as well. By definition I think it fits either but not at the same time, but some times it does.
It's up to each of us to determine. And I don't know that the western model helps settle it. Buddha's told last words are that we must each work out of own salvation. These sound pretty good to me.
Sage