deadhead94

What exactly is it? Is it a religion or a set of philosophies? Does it have "gods" and rules like other religions or is it simply a philosophy of how to gain ineer peace?


This all interests me but I'm kind of turned away by the religions....Any answers would be nice

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Pitfall

haven't you heard about internet search engines??

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Of contradictions infinite the slave. --Wordsworth.

Ego Tripping

We know you have, Cut + Paste boy.

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Pitfall

You go chew poo. Just because I cut and paste doesn’t mean I search for all of those articles. Actually, I don’t think I’ve SEARCHED for any of them.

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Of contradictions infinite the slave. --Wordsworth.

Canuck Wisdom

I'm not the person to answer your questions. But I think your on to it. Its not a religion so much as just a lifestyle thing or philosophies whatever.

It doesn't deal with a God, or saints or any such thing.

In those terms, I personally feel it deals very deeply with God, but thats just me and my way of seeing things.

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funky_unkle

*cue long ass post from boddhisatva

:P

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beertastegood

well it depends on what buddhist sect your looking at, some of them are highly religious, with congregational worship and the such. they have buddhas they worship, like maitryea the buddha of the future.

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Koery

I know it involves meditation. Like budhist monks.. they live in the mountains.. and consider themselves ones with nature. Like you truly find your true self. usually very little violence or harm to living animals/plants.
This illustrates the possible furtures of world climates:

Attached Images

 

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ZenSkin

Read about it.

Thich Nhat Hanh
The Dalai Lama or Pema Chodron or Prof. Robert Thurman
D.T. Suzuki
Alan Watts


etc.

There are a LOT of schools of Buddhism and they all have some essential things in common but differences in practice.

One thing they all have in common is a basic idea of renunciation ... that is -- renouncing (litterally or metaphorically) the material world. Sex, money, drinking, drugs, being a greedy or angry person ... don't fly in Buddhist practice. Stealing, killing, lying, sexual misconduct and use of intoxicants is very frowned on. Basically, nothing in extremes -- which is why westerners are always asking about Buddhism and get this watered down version ... everyone wants to be all cool and Eastern but doesn't want to give up the nice car and house and the shitty job and beer and cable TV and yadda yadda.

NO matter how it is expressed, Buddhism is about taking responsibilty for your actions. Recognizing that the world is essentially indifferent and you can't control it but you can learn to not add to the basic problems and that learning process usually takes a long time because you have to give up a lot of ideas that tether you to samsara (cyclic existence, unsatisfying existence). The most basic idea that has to be tossed is that there is any real or substantial "you". There is no impermenant soul or seat of the true self in Buddhism. We are all farts in the wind. Between birth and death, being tossed around by our attachments and wishes and desires and stubborness.

So .. it's not a religion for the light hearted.

When you are ready to go on a month long silent retreat to meditate and study and pray ... give me a shout. No drinking, no smoking, no jerking off, no talking, nothing cool about it -- it is boot camp for the mind. At the end you are either sick of Buddhism or you are starting to get a hint of curiosity -- then maybe you might want to devote a few years to the beginning practice. Three million recitations of a mantra. Three million prostrations. Three million circumambulations of a holy place. Living at or near a monestary and washing dishes and being ignored by the teacher who basically thinks you are just another lazy westerner since they almost all drop out.

Then, after the preliminaries you start your teaching. You can take ordination or not -- it is up to you. You might as well since you won't have a life outside your studies. So that means shaving your head and taking a series of oathes. No sex, no eating after noon, no talking back to a senior monk, the teacher's word is final and absolute, a lot of study, a lot of memorization, hours of devotional practice, hours of meditation, no video games or computers or television or distractions (well, once in a while for giggles).

Then, when you are old and grey you can say, "Oh! I get it! It's not about ME!"

THen maybe you are ready to die and reincanate as a better student and do it all over again.

After a few million lifetimes you can reach nirvana.

But, a true Buddhist will renounce nirvana and return to teach the world which is defiled and pained by ignorance, greed, avarice and all the base human emotions.

Or you can move to Boulder and get some guy in a robe to give you an Asian sounding name and declare you "enlightened" for a price.

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Captain Cannabis

here's a copy and paste, pitfall style

...except that i wrote it myself for a school project, lots of it is filler because i had to get to 1500 words, but there's some good information nonetheless

Buddhism is a religion based on the teachings of a Buddhist monk who lived in the 5th century BC, Prince Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha was a wealthy prince who lived a comfortable sheltered life in a palace. The king sheltered Siddhartha from the realities of the suffering of people within the kingdom so that he would be the next king rather than a religious man. One day Siddhartha was out in the city and he saw the suffering and sickness of the people in the kingdom. Upon seeing this he decided to leave his home and wander the countryside, casting away all his earthly possessions to live in the same way as the people so he could figure out the meaning of life. One day he decided to sit under a fig tree until he had an answer to the question of suffering. He sat under the tree for quite some time. Siddhartha found enlightenment on the full moon of May with the rising of the morning star; he had an answer to suffering. The tree Siddhartha sat under is known as the bodhi-tree, and from then on was known as Buddha. Buddha means “one who has woken up.” Buddha had achieved enlightenment at age 35 and then he taught the path to enlightenment in India for 10 years after that. When he turned 80 he told his cousin that he would be leaving them soon. He died later under a grove of salsa trees in Kushinagara, less than 100 miles from his hometown after eating some spoiled food and becoming ill. Buddha’s last words were “Impermanent are all created things; Strive on with awareness.”
Buddhists have no single authority, no unique creed and no single sacred book; the religion is more focused on individual enlightenment. The Buddhist canon of scripture is known as tipitaka, a sandskrit word meaning “three baskets.” Scriptures in Buddhism are divided into three main categories: Vinaya Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka and Abhidamma. Vinaya Pitaka contains disciplinary rules for Buddhist monks and nuns, as well as other texts that discuss how the rules were instituted and supporting material. Sutta Pitaka contains the discourse of Buddha, texts involving his teachings. Abhidamma literally means commentary, and contains philosophical writings on Buddha’s teachings and a detailed analysis of psychology as it relates to Buddhism.
Buddha believed that life is full of suffering, and people must act accordingly to escape that suffering. To accomplish this, Buddha teaches four truths to achieve that. The four noble truths are: the reality and universality of suffering, suffering has many causes: loss, sickness, pain, failure, the impermanence of pleasure. The cause of suffering is a desire to have and control things; this can take many forms; fear anger or jealousy. Suffering ceases with the final liberation of Nirvana, the mind experiences complete freedom and non-attachment. The fourth truth is that the eightfold path leads to the cessation of suffering. All people who follow the four truths will rid themselves of desire and hatred to achieve nirvana. Nirvana is the final transmigration of the soul that ends the karma cycle and stops reincarnation; it is a state of complete bliss and delight.
The Eightfold path mentioned in the fourth truth is a set of practical guidelines to ethical and mental development with the goal of freeing individuals from delusions and attachment. The eightfold path is: right views, right thoughts, right conduct, right speech, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation. Right can be understood to mean harmonious or appropriate depending on the adaptation of the texts. These vague guidelines can be interpreted in many ways, and it is interpreted differently in every school of Buddhism. Right view means to see the true nature of life, keep oneself free from delusions and prejudice. Right thoughts means focus ones mind on truth, positive attitudes and action, also to reject the hypocrisies of the world. Right conduct is to see that human actions are benevolent, pure and compassionate. Right speech means to speak courteously to all you talk too, refrain from pointless or harmful speech. Right livelihood is to earn a living in a way as to involve no evil consequences. Right effort is to constantly direct ones efforts towards overcoming ignorance and desires. Right mindfulness is to cherish good and pure thoughts. Right meditation is to concentrate on the oneness of all life while meditating to achieve nirvana and exist within all beings. To summarize, the eightfold path is being moral (through actions and words), focusing on being aware of our actions and developing compassion for others. Following this is what Buddha prescribed to help a person achieve enlightenment.
Buddhists assume certain precepts as aids on the path to nirvana. The five precepts of Buddhism are: to refrain from harming living creatures, to not steal, to refrain from sexual misconduct, incorrect speech, and abstain from intoxicants as they lead to a loss of mindfulness. In some sects of Buddhism monks take additional precepts, or strengthen the precepts already presented. An example of this is the third precept on sexual misconduct becoming a precept of celibacy, or the fourth precept being expanded to include idle speech or a vow of silence. Varying interpretations of Buddha’s word are likely due to the fact that until the 1st century BC, there were no written teachings of Buddha. The precepts act as another guiding moral code in the religion, people who assume stricter precepts are working off bad karma from past lives.
There are estimates of up to 500 million people adhering to Buddhism worldwide, most reside in Modern Asia. There are many different schools of Buddhism that exist throughout the world. Mahayana is the most common form of Buddhism in China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Mahayanan scriptures are preserved in Chinese, and it has coexisted with Taoism, Shinto and communism. Theravada is predominant in Southeast Asia including Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Vajrayana is predominant in Tibet, Mongolia and some of India. Vajrayana’s scriptures are preserved in Tibetan, and despite its similarity to Mahayana its specific orientation is Tantric Buddhism. There are many other schools of Buddhism that all hold different texts sacred. In the East Buddhism is a familiar part of the establishment, and it is catching on in other areas of the world. Estimates of 45,000 people in the United Kingdom adhere to the religion. In the past 30 years Buddhism has grown in popularity in the west, due in part to its non-dogmatic nature as well as the possibility for spiritual growth and guidance.
Although many Buddhists abstain from eating meat, it is not directly prohibited. Buddhists are not allowed to kill animals for meat, or to accept meat if they are aware the animal has been killed specifically for them; however they can eat commercialized meat. Many Buddhists believe eating animals is bad for your karma, and practice vegetarianism or become vegans. Mahayana Buddhists are restricted from eating garlic, onions, ginger, chives, shallot and leeks, or any other fragrant plant. The reason for the restrictions is that these strong flavoured vegetables excite the senses and are a burden to those wishing to control their desires. No universal rules exist for impermissible foods; some monks eat meat because one of the teachings of Buddha is to never refuse food offered as charity.
Buddhism shares many common beliefs with Hinduism about reincarnation. Samsara is the cycle of reincarnation in both Hinduism and Buddhism, which states that in each life a soul is punished or rewarded, based on its karma. A person’s Karma includes the moral burden of his actions from past lives and current one. Karma is not due to god’s judgment over a person’s behavior, rather a concept akin to Newton’s 3rd law of motion, which states “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Achieving Nirvana is the only way to escape the cycle of Samsara. Once one achieves nirvana he stops accumulating bad karma, and spends several lifetimes working off the bad karma already accumulated through all his past lives. Once a person has fully escaped the karmic cycle, he can achieve parinirvana and be free of the cycle of reincarnation. Buddha never specific in his teachings what parinirvana was, because it is beyond normal human comprehension.
Buddhism is a peaceful religion that focuses on self improvement to achieve spiritual enlightenment. Buddhism is a vast and complex religion that has history stretching back over 2,500 years. Buddhism is a welcoming religion to those who want to convert; it can coexist with other faiths. Self improvement as a means of spirituality is a noble goal without a downside. Most people live their lives oblivious to what is really going on, and as a consequence they suffer. Buddhism awakens people to the knowledge of the world as it truly is and so releases them from suffering. That is the basic philosophy of Buddhism. Although there are many different interpretations of Buddha’s teachings, they all carry the same fundamental values, to respect life and break free of the cycle of reincarnation.

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Pitfall

you all helped him out, i can't believe it. some things are best answered in here, but other things are totally best answered with net searches. the question was basic too. if he is so eager to find out if it is a religion or not, all it would have taken was one quick search.

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Of contradictions infinite the slave. --Wordsworth.

Captain Cannabis

some people are adverse to search engines because they don't answer questions

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fuck the monkeys

Canuck Wisdom

Its nice if people do their own research, but also, getting a real answer from a real person is something unique. And perhaps more to the heart/effective and perhaps a better perspective to have. Don't burn him, there could be any number of explanations..

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Pitfall

bullshit. you can ask search engines questions, and you can find stuff like people's replies in other forums. and some other forums would know more about things like buddhism than this one. if you do a search, you can find downloadable books, videos, audio and articles etc. i doubt anyone in here is a "buddhist", well, except for bodhivista or whatever.

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Of contradictions infinite the slave. --Wordsworth.

snapshot

I don't like bullshit filler that a highschool makes you put in there to meet a requirement and I don't think you do either. You should rewrite it the way you know it and not the way the school expects you to know it. Then you can teach what you know instead of regurgitating what some crap factory, part time prison wishes you would at least think about. I'm sure it would be a very good read.

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We are all atheists about most of the gods that society has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.
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snapshot

Yeah, your biggest concern when asking a question, as well as stating a question, on the internet is "what would get the most hits." You notice sobby emotional people use abstract shit and no kewords in their titles like "Two bird Stone" when they are writing about video cards or something. The real men know how to search for the question most likely to appear as well as many other similar questions that ask the same thing but may be worded differently. You have to know where to put your quotation marks otherwise you'll never get a good choice of sites from your search.

If I were to search for Mr. Wizard from the 80s early morning science show if I typed in "Mr. Wizard" as opposed to without the quotation marks I would get a lot more relevant hits. The same goes with phrases. If there is a phrase that involves your topic that you know would be commonly used to both ask and answer a question, put that phrase in quotation marks to get every site that contains those words but not in that order then the search engine will rid the websites that have the words but no phrase.


newberinos

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We are all atheists about most of the gods that society has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.
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Pitfall

i never use quotation marks. sometimes i use question marks, sometimes i don't. it depends what kind of question i'm asking it.

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Of contradictions infinite the slave. --Wordsworth.

Captain Cannabis

i have a completly different writing if i'm writing for an essay with a length requirement, and that is it right there

most essays and such don't have limits/minumums on how much you have to write, as long as you demonstrate your understanding of the topic

its rare i have to add so much filler, but i'll play their little games if i'm forced too

if you read it all it does have the answers to the questions he asked, if i rewrote it there would not be so many paragraphs, because entire paragraphs were added for length

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Captain Cannabis

if you add +keyword or -keyword it will also help narrow things down

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fuck the monkeys

DrugsBunny

man that fuckin SUCKS

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