That's exactly what I disagree with. I abhor the idea of cancelling my desires and wanting nothing. IMO, those who have no desires are dead, and those who want nothing will have nothing.

I don't think this is the Middle Way that the Buddha is referring to. And I'm quite frustrated to know that the majority of people, especially Westerners to have this impression.

I guess it has something to do with bad translation. 'Desire' in the Buddhist context points more to lust, or to want something excessively, driven by greed and the impure mind. The more accurate translation would be earthly desire. Do not confuse it with positive desires. It would be wrong to assume as Buddhists, we have to eliminate all our desires. That would be impossible.

The Buddha himself had desires. He desired to find a way to relieve people from suffering. He desired for the well-being of the people, that's why he started the Buddhist movement of spreading the Buddhist philosophy of life. Life is so precious, and there is so much life has to offer. By mastering oneself, life can be enjoyable and one of value-creation...and not one of suffering. And that is precisely why Buddhism exists...a philosophy of life to help us enjoy our existence.

Some Buddhist sects that teaches people that salvation lies in escaping the cycle of birth and death is IMHO, distorted and deviated from the Buddha's true intention. Salvation can be no other than when we are alive.

It totally does not make sense that salvation lies in non-existence or a heavenly place with no suffering. It is escapism...it teaches people to be cowards who run away from difficulties.

It is important to know that the Buddha's teachings are divided into two parts. The provisional, or pre-Lotus Sutra and the Lotus Sutra that contains the essence of the Buddha's teaching. It is unfortunate that some school of thoughts actually took the provisional teachings of Buddhism as the core of Buddhist thus causing the confusion of many today.

Why is the Lotus Sutra supposed to be so special?

This reminds me of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, which recognizes only the Lotus Sutra, and which is disliked by other Buddhists as excessively preoccupied with material gain and stuff like that.

You are misunderstanding the quote,...Grasshopper.
One has desires and wants but one does not let them dictate ones actions. They become secondary to a clear mind. One does not become attached to the fruits of ones actions.

Of course ,we all have desires..read my reply to devnet. You are also missing the point...
It is impossible to eliminate desires as humans but we need to practice non-attachment to avoid being controlled by them on a daily basis. This doesn't mean one is a zombie, BTW.

Bell wrote: The Buddha himself had desires. He desired to find a way to relieve people from suffering. He desired for the well-being of the people, that's why he started the Buddhist movement of spreading the Buddhist philosophy of life. Life is so precious, and there is so much life has to offer. By mastering oneself, life can be enjoyable and one of value-creation...and not one of suffering. And that is precisely why Buddhism exists...a philosophy of life to help us enjoy our existence.

You've just made Buddhism sound about 100 times better to me.

'The Buddha himself had desires. He desired to find a way to relieve people from suffering. He desired for the well-being of the people, that's why he started the Buddhist movement of spreading the Buddhist philosophy of life. Life is so precious, and there is so much life has to offer. By mastering oneself, life can be enjoyable and one of value-creation...and not one of suffering. And that is precisely why Buddhism exists...a philosophy of life to help us enjoy our existence.'

Actually, we don't know for certain what the buddha desired. Again as in jesus, buddha wrote nothing down and all we have is what followers said he said. I have read in many places where it is said he did not want to be bothered but finally relented to constant questioning from others and gave a 'path' or 'technique'for those who wanted to achieve his state of 'enlightenment' or nirvana or peace or whatever you care to call IT.
I suspect that much of what is said to come from him probably came from early disciples.
Is Buddhism a philosophy or a path to freedom and truth? Does it matter.
He would probably say, 'Sit down and meditate and quit wasting time thinking about such things'

namaste,

Praise: Hey, somebody's gotta make that herbal tea I like.

Buddhism is a religion based on compassion. The Buddha taught about compassion and his concern for the people was immense. If he taught Buddhism because he didn't want to be bothered, do you think his disciples would be moved to remember his teachings by heart and took so much effort to preserve them till this very day? I don't think so...
There are basically two major streams of religion - the Mahayana (greater vehicle) and the Hinayana(lesser vehicle). The Mahayana Buddhists sought to spread this teaching to others in contrary to the Hinayana Buddhists who isolated themselves from the rest and are more concerned about attaining their own enligtenment. What you say about Buddhism sound more Hinayana-ish.



Buddhism is a philosophy of life that leads to freedom and truth. The most important thing that it exists for the welfare for people. I would think Buddha would say, 'Based on the Buddhist philosophy, start reforming oneself to be a better person, learn to master the art of living, be a great example of how life can be lived and enjoyed and help others to do the same.'



[This message has been edited by bell99 (edited May 14, 2001).]

Yes, but even what hearsay we have about Buddha, it is much better than what we have about Jesus. As far as I know, Buddha never called people of other opinion "brood of vipers" or "children of the Devil". Which is why the Buddhist reaction to the Taleban iconoclasm is so surprising:

http://www.geocities.com/freethought...hanbuddha.html

The Freethought Mecca has another article suggesting, as some New Agers are fond of doing, that Jesus was a Vedantic teacher:

http://www.geocities.com/freethought...almushrik.html