toldailytopic: Buddhism.

[Nathon Detroit]

The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for November 18th, 2010 10:29 AM

toldailytopic: Buddhism.

Take the topic above and run with it! Slice it, dice it, give us your general thoughts about it. Everyday there will be a new TOL Topic of the Day.
If you want to make suggestions for the Topic of the Day send a Tweet to @toldailytopic or @theologyonline or send it to us via Facebook.

 

[zippy2006]

om :think:

Good points concerning suffering and attachment to worldly things, but taken too far in general. We should not be attached to the world but attachment to and love of God is a fine thing.

Buddhism tends to be one of those religions that changes drastically depending on who you talk to.

:e4e:

 

[Adam]

Every time I claim to know something about Buddhism, someone comes along and says, "No, that's not right."

So, I'm going to sit here and learn what it is the Buddhists believe.

 

[Granite]

Every time I claim to know something about Buddhism, someone comes along and says, "No, that's not right."

So, I'm going to sit here and learn what it is the Buddhists believe.

Funny, I could say the same thing about Christianity.

As for Buddhism, I too would like to hear from actual Buddhists themselves.

 

[Seydlitz77]

An interesting religion, I served in a Buddhist country (Cambodia) on my mission and had many interesting conversations with Buddhist Monks.

I have noted after coming home that while the core principles are the same I think each region adds it's own traditions and beliefs to the mix ( which is not incompatible with what the Buddha taught) so that each variant of Buddhism you encounter is slightly different.

 

[Selaphiel]

There is a reason it is hard to grasp what Buddhism is as a religion. It is split up into three main branches called Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. These three vary a lot in religious philosophy which is one reason that it is hard to grasp a singular concept called Buddhism. Secondly, Buddhism has a tendency to incorporate local folk religion wherever it spreads, so you basically get different local composites of a specific tradition of Buddhism + the local folk religion.

If you want to understand Buddhism you need to study Buddhist philosophy and try to understand the concepts taught by Siddharta Gautama himself. Which basically means you need to understand the four noble truths:

1) Life is suffering
2) Suffering is caused by attachment
3) The cessation of suffering is attainable
4) There is a path to the cessation of suffering.

The eightfold path:

Which is the right:

view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration.

And the five skandhas which are five phenomena that serves as objects of attachment and basics for our sense of self:

1) Form
2) Sensation
3) Perception
4) Mental formation
5) Consciousness

The insight being that there really is no such thing as an eternal substance, no such thing can exist. Which results in the idea of impermanence. Not even humans are an eternal substance, but rather an elusive changing constellation of physical forms, sensations and perceptions.
Even the gods change in Buddhism and also they are impermanent.

The three problem is ignorance, greed and desire. The ignorance of the true reality of no permanent substance leads to a greed and desire for clinging to these objects only to suffer when they inevitably change.

It is a complex philosophy and I can not claim to fully understand it. It is a foreign culture filled with concepts foreign to our western culture which means it requires some study to properly understand it. Buy a few good books on it and read some of the central scriptures (although they are not scripture in the sense that the Bible is scripture to Christians), it really is not harder than that.
I find Buddhism very fascinating and have an interest in it as a part of a general interest in religion and in east-Asian cultures.
Besides the basic components listed here and the understanding of those it really is not a religion of dogma like Christianity, it is more of an experiential religion and meditation and mindfulness are the true sources of learning.

 

[zippy2006]

There is a reason it is hard to grasp what Buddhism is as a religion. It is split up into three main branches called Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. These three vary a lot in religious philosophy which is one reason that it is hard to grasp a singular concept called Buddhism. Secondly, Buddhism has a tendency to incorporate local folk religion wherever it spreads, so you basically get different local composites of a specific tradition of Buddhism + the local folk religion.

If you want to understand Buddhism you need to study Buddhist philosophy and try to understand the concepts taught by Siddharta Gautama himself. Which basically means you need to understand the four noble truths:

1) Life is suffering
2) Suffering is caused by attachment
3) The cessation of suffering is attainable
4) There is a path to the cessation of suffering.

The eightfold path:

Which is the right:

view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration.

And the five skandhas which are five phenomena that serves as objects of attachment and basics for our sense of self:

1) Form
2) Sensation
3) Perception
4) Mental formation
5) Consciousness

The insight being that there really is no such thing as an eternal substance, no such thing can exist. Which results in the idea of impermanence. Not even humans are an eternal substance, but rather an elusive changing constellation of physical forms, sensations and perceptions.
Even the gods change in Buddhism and also they are impermanent.

The three problem is ignorance, greed and desire. The ignorance of the true reality of no permanent substance leads to a greed and desire for clinging to these objects only to suffer when they inevitably change.

It is a complex philosophy and I can not claim to fully understand it. It is a foreign culture filled with concepts foreign to our western culture which means it requires some study to properly understand it. Buy a few good books on it and read some of the central scriptures (although they are not scripture in the sense that the Bible is scripture to Christians), it really is not harder than that.
I find Buddhism very fascinating and have an interest in it as a part of a general interest in religion and in east-Asian cultures.
Besides the basic components listed here and the understanding of those it really is not a religion of dogma like Christianity, it is more of an experiential religion and meditation and mindfulness are the true sources of learning.

And yet the question of whether Buddhism believes in an eternal source is largely an open question. Buddhist concepts such as "Nothingness," "the deathless element," "Buddha nature," and "Nirvana" are all strangely similar to an eternal, lasting concept.

:e4e:

 

[horiturk]

the problem is people made buddhism a religion,as far as most are concerned buddhism died with buddha. he meant to guide people to their own awakening so they could become buddhas themselves. the trouble is they built a religion out of a philosophy and made him into a god. then when exported buddhism mixed with taoism,tribal religions etc. imho buddhisms lineage through buddhas son,rahul/saraha and through bodhidharma which found their full flowering in tantra and zen

 

[john w]

Buddha is dead. End of thread.

 

[quip]

And yet the question of whether Buddhism believes in an eternal source is largely an open question. Buddhist concepts such as "Nothingness," "the deathless element," "Buddha nature," and "Nirvana" are all strangely similar to an eternal, lasting concept.

:e4e:

To Buddhists all (conventional) phenomena is temporal thus a belief in eternity is in error. Such things (as noted above.) are viewed as timeless. A subtle yet important distinction.

 

[csuguy]

Buddhism is all about providing the proper way to kill yourself. Suicide won't work since you'll simply be reborn (not reincarnated mind). Only by ceasing to produce wholesome/unwholesome karma (doing things with good intentions/bad intentions) can one truly die and reach a state of no rebirth: nirvana. Why do this? Because, life is suffering (common paraphrase of the first noble truth).

 

[Nathon Detroit]

The Bhudda looks like a jolly fella, sorta like Santa Claus or something. He seems like a nice guy, maybe some one who could help you fix a leaky pipe.

 

[Paulos]

Every time I claim to know something about Buddhism, someone comes along and says, "No, that's not right."

Perhaps, but in all fairness, Christianity is the most fractured and sectarian of all belief systems--far more so than Buddhism. Just look at the so-called Christians on this forum, all of whom can't seem to agree on much of anything in terms of doctrine. No religion on earth is more divided and sectarian than Christianity. But, I digress.

 

[vegascowboy]

The Bhudda looks like a jolly fella, sorta like Santa Claus or something. He seems like a nice guy, maybe some one who could help you fix a leaky pipe.

:think: Hmmmm....

Do you think if we write letters to Buddha instead of Santa we would get more presents?

 

[csuguy]

The Bhudda looks like a jolly fella, sorta like Santa Claus or something. He seems like a nice guy, maybe some one who could help you fix a leaky pipe.

Actually that's not the Bhudda, but the supposed future Bhudda. Siddartha was actually quite skinny (he puts supermodels to shame skinny).

 

[zippy2006]

:think: Hmmmm....

Do you think if we write letters to Buddha instead of Santa we would get more presents?

We'd probably just get a rant about how presents are going to make us more attached the the world which will cause us even more suffering and :blabla:

 

[Nathon Detroit]

Actually that's not the Bhudda, but the supposed future Bhudda. Siddartha was actually quite skinny (he puts supermodels to shame skinny).

Well that's a rip-off. :madmad:

 

[agnostic_gnostic]

The laughing Budai is not the Buddha. Confusing the two is very common.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budai
The real Buddha was a man ( not a God) that realized that all is impermanent including the self. And that that realization causes suffering to cease. Even the fear of death vanishes because one realizes that there is nothing that dies, there are no enduring substances.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:350&biw=1024&bih=584

 

[csuguy]

Perhaps, but in all fairness, Christianity is the most fractured and sectarian of all belief systems--far more so than Buddhism. Just look at the so-called Christians on this forum, all of whom can't seem to agree on much of anything. No religion on earth is more divided and sectarian than Christianity. But, I digress.

Christianity is not as fractured in belief as Buddhism. All Christians recognize, more or less, a set range of theological authorities. Not all of these are recognized by all Christians (like the Pope) but the vast majority accept the same scriptures - even if they interpret them differently. All Christians recognize some degree of tradition (scripture is tradition) and Christians all share much of the same history.

Buddhists are much more diverse since they create scriptures as they go. The divide between Theravada Buddhists and Mahayana Buddhists comes from scriptures that were 'given' to them 300 years or so after the Buddha by these snake creatures or w/e that live underwater. And Tibetan Buddhists have their own little thing going on that isn't really based on either of these two.

Not to say that Buddhists don't have commonly recognized scriptures and such, but it seems that there is much more random and unshared material than common material.

 

[vegascowboy]

We'd probably just get a rant about how presents are going to make us more attached the the world which will cause us even more suffering and :blabla:

You may have stumbled on to something.

When all the Buddhalubbers are ready to give up their nice cars and flat screen televisions, they are welcome to send them my way. :car: