scigirl

Hello all,

Do any of you know much about Buddhism? My dad recently remarried, and his new wife is a Buddhist from Thailand. I've been reading up on it a little, and it sounds fascinating. Was anyone here raised a Buddhist, or had real-life experience with this faith?

Scigirl

Muad'Dib

I have several Buddhist friends and studied Buddhist philosophy under a professor who spent fifteen years in Zen temples in Japan.

If she's from Thailand, she'll most likely come from the Theravadin tradition.

Any specific questions?

scigirl

How many types of Buddhism are there, and how do they reconcile this fact? I remember reading that the Dalai Lama thought this diversity was a good thing.

I'll have to think of some specific questions. I guess I was just very enlightened reading about the current Dalai Lama, some of his beliefs, and some of the Buddhist beliefs in general. What do Buddhists think of Christians and the story of Jesus? Do they view their religious texts as infallible?

I'm sure I have a dozen more questions, but there's a start.

Scigirl

Sakpo

Buddhism came from India and spread east, ending in Japan. On the way each culture it entered took it and adapted it to suit their own purposes. For instance Chinese scholars edited Buddhist manuscripts to make sure men had a higher status than women.

Theravadin(Thai) Buddhists eat meat usually, but only if it was killed by someone else(a non Buddhist) to technically side step the fact that Buddhists shouldn't kill anything.
Their monks also eat meat, on the pretext that they must eat whatever is put in their bowls. A legend tells of one monk calmly eating the thumb of a leper that fell off into his bowl. In Thailand it is common to go and pray for winning lottery numbers at Buddhist shrines.

Basically they all reconcile themselves by not being zealots out there to "save" everybody else like Christians, although I did hear about one school of Buddhists from around Mt.Fuji who act like that(if she is from Thailand she won't be from that type).

In my personal experience Buddhists can have very succesful relationships with non Buddhists( I know several such happily married couples).

Muad'Dib

Four of the major schools of Buddhism are the Theravadin, Zen, Pure Land, and Tantric Buddhists. Which texts (if any) are important depend on the school. Often they will teach from ancient manuscripts known as Sutras, which are often attributed to Shakyamuni (the historical Buddha) or one of his disciples. Two of the most interesting are the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra.

Just about all the schools (with the possible exception of Nichiren Soshu) hold that the goal of Buddhist training and practice is enlightenment: realization of reality, as it were; a clear perception of everything.

The way Buddhist philosophy approaches this truth is quite different than any Western religion. For Westerners, we're concerned with knowing the truth, to the exclusion of others who claim to have truth. But Buddhists hold that our concepts can never completely grasp the truth. As such, they're not nearly as attached to their sacred writings as Christians, Jews, and Muslims are. They view the teachings as pointers suitable for a particular time and place, but not as important in themselves. Enlightenment is what is most important, and excessive devotion to any written work can only hinder that goal.

There's also the notion of selflessness. You may have heard that Buddhists often teach that we must become one with everything. This is not quite correct; rather, we must realize that we are, in fact, one with everything. There is no difference between you and anyone else; it is fallacious to make such distinctions.

Now, this doesn't mean that you and someone else are actually the same person; it means that your lives are so intertwined that it's not meaningful to draw a sharp distinction between the two of you. You are part of the same reality, not two different realities.

For these two reasons (the inexpressibility of truth and the notion that you are everyone) the different ways of teaching Buddhism really don't tend to bother Buddhists very much at all; in fact, as the Dalai Lama pointed out, diversity is a great asset because it shows that the Buddhist message is expressing itself in ways that communicate with different people in different cultures and circumstances.

For a Buddhist's interpretation of Christianity, I'd recommend Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh. It's a very interesting read!

Hope this helps; let me know if you'd like to know anything else.

Born Free

From the very little I actually know about buddhists I gather that they are a very gentle people am I right?? I also read that they can't drink or smoke and that mercy is not a big thing to them for whatever reason I can't remember. It is a very interesting religion to read about. I think I toyed with the idea a while ago but since I smoke like a lum and have the odd drink it was ruled out.

Abolish Work

I have been reading voraciously about buddhism for a few weeks now, and am currently seriously considering taking up Zen buddhism. I'm not sure how good my answers are, but here goes.

Yeah, they tend to be gentle people, and most of those I have met have been pretty pacifist type (I don't know if this applies to everyone). Also, the "engaged buddhists" (socialy and politicaly active ones) tend to be very big on peace and anti-war type of things. As for mercy, if I'm not totally mistaken compassion seems to be a pretty central tenet in all forms of buddhism.

Smoking and Drinking: These are rules in the 'precepts', and they are the biggest problems for me too. The precepts are a sort of moral code, and although I can't find them right now, they have what you would probably expect (do not kill, no stealing, do not misuse sex). One of the books I read mentioning them said it wasn't so much a strict moral code, but that these things hindered enlightenment, espcially in excess (Although in The Dharma Bums, Keroauc's character was a alcoholic and seemed to do alright). Another said it 'didn't mean you couldn't have a glass of wine with dinner'.

Waning Moon Conrad

I've only recently stopped smoking, I've been a Buddhist for almost ten years now. I enjoy a few drinks, I never took an oath not to drink because I knew that I had no intention of keeping it. You take vows that you can keep or you don't take them at all.

A lot of my friends who are most definitely Buddhists, smoke and drink. I am close to a Lama who smokes and drinks on social occassions. He's not a monk, a lot of Lamas aren't monks. Tantric Buddhism is not fundamentalistic about this sort of thing.

Considering that mercy (please don't kill me! Oh all right then, I won't, off you go, you can live) is a very practical manifestation of compassion, I think in any context in which the need for it arose, it would be a big thing.

lpetrich

That would be the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhists; that sect is rather big on claiming to have The Truth, and that sect considers the Lotus Sutra to be the all the scripture that one will ever need.

Thunder

I am gently amused at how gently you all approach Buddhism. If this was a thread on Christian theism, such a question would have brought on all kinds of discussions regarding worldviews, inconsistencies, incongruent actions, wars, killings and whatever.

How silent everyone has fallen regarding the Buddhist/Buddhist killings and wars. Interesting how no one has discussed Buddhist cosmology (whose claims rival those of a flat earth), Buddhist metaphysicalism (which is reincarnation and monisism), Buddhist salvation (which is produced through the cessation of thought--hence Zen koans), Buddhist evangelism (Buddhism is the first historical evangelistic religion), Buddhist variety (some like hometown Buddhism in Japan have worship services almost identical to Christian services including the singing of hymns) ...

All this put aside though, Buddhism is monistic Christianity. Just a few changes, take God out of Christianity, make salvation totally works dependent, and put an end to rational thought and you have Buddhism. Much of the goals are the same in the sense that the ultimate place one reaches is selflessness. The approach and reasoning behind it however is extreme opposites.

I once asked my Zen instructer (an intelligent Ph.D) how he reconciled all of Buddhist cosmology and metaphysics with what he knows from the natural world. His answer... "I don't."

I found Buddhism's greatest contribution to be in its development of Dependent Origination (Pratitya Samutprada--I think that's it, it has been a while). This work is quite fascinating and can engage the mind wonderfully in an analysis of our selfish natures.

Thunder