Ask a Buddhist

[editec]

Actually, Buddhism doesn't require blind faith.

Dogma isn't blind faith, SD, although that's how Skull was attempting to use the word...as an insult

That's why I pointed out that every religion or cosmological POV, or even philosophical system of thinking have their dogmas.

We are advised to 'try out' the teachings and accept only what seems true for us.

Which makes one question whether your kind of Buddhism (there is more than one kind of Buddhist, I suspect) is a religion at all.

Do you, for example, have FAITH in reincarnation?

Or do you just think. "Well, maybe...who knows?"

I suspect that you can take either POV and still call yourself a Buddhist.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

First...you have to know what an elephant really is.

 

[Sky Dancer]

So sky, what about reborn karma, who's observed that? Empirical evidence?

I could tell you that some high lamas have memories of their past lives. I'm not sure this will satisfy you. We could talk about rebirth in general and karma in general. I get your point however. If someone dies and has an experience of being reborn in one of the realms they usually don't come back to tell the story.

There is a book called DELOG, and it is written by the mother of Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, Dawa Drolma. Rinpoche is a Tibetan Lama that I studied with. Rinpoche's mother, 'died' for a week and came back. At least, she lay as if dead, and was revived. She had experience of traveling to other realms, including the hell realms and she wrote about it in her book.

I realize this account would strain most people's belief systems about death and dying. I'm not even sure how I feel about it. But it speaks to your question of reborn karma. Each of the places that Dawa Drolma visits the beings tell their stories.

 

[Sky Dancer]

Dogma isn't blind faith, SD, although that's how Skull was attempting to use the word...as an insult

That's why I pointed out that every religion or cosmological POV, or even philosophical system of thinking have their dogmas.




Which makes one question whether your kind of Buddhism (there is more than one kind of Buddhist, I suspect) is a religion at all.

Do you, for example, have FAITH in reincarnation?

Or do you just think. "Well, maybe...who knows?"

I suspect that you can take either POV and still call yourself a Buddhist.



First...you have to know what an elephant really is.

The question of rebirth and reincarnation are debated in Buddhist thought. Different schools of Buddhism answer the question in a way consistent with their teachings. Thervadin Buddhists don't go there with reincarnation because they only look a the Buddha's words and he said very little about it. Now that's a big deal because the culture in India at the time of the Buddha was Hindu, and Hindu's talk about reincarnation quite a bit. I've studied Theravadin Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism and Vajrayana Buddhism. In the Vajrayana tradition, there are reincarnate lamas or tulkus. HH the Dalai Lama is considered the fourtheenth reincarnation of the First Dalai Lama, and one of my teachers, Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, was also considered a reincarnate lama.

I am comfortable with the idea of rebirth because I look at just this life and it seems to me that if I take the continuity of this life alone, I can see I've lived many lives in just this life.
There is the life I lived as a fetus, then an infant, a toddler, a young child, a teenager, a young adult, and now I'm living a middle aged life.

When I meditate, and I sit with the continuity of awareness from moment to moment, the experience of time itself alters. The sense of self as solid changes in the meditative experience.
What's difficult to talk about with this subject of rebirth is that many of us consider ourselves and our egos to be solid, permanent, self-existing entities. We think we're 'real'. At the same time, when we dream, we experience our senses as real, and the dream seems real until we awaken. Similarly, we experience our lives as real until we go to sleep and the waking life vanishes into the dream.

It is teachings like these on the dream like nature of existence itself that inform my views on reincarnation and rebirth.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.

 

[Hister]

Sky, you're living in a dream world? Exactly what I would have said.

rinpoche is an imbecile to think he was re-incarnated with absolutely no real proof. I guess I can scratch Buddhism off my list of "possibly not completely deluded religion".

 

[Skull Pilot]

Dogma isn't blind faith, SD, although that's how Skull was attempting to use the word...as an insult

That's why I pointed out that every religion or cosmological POV, or even philosophical system of thinking have their dogmas.




Which makes one question whether your kind of Buddhism (there is more than one kind of Buddhist, I suspect) is a religion at all.

Do you, for example, have FAITH in reincarnation?

Or do you just think. "Well, maybe...who knows?"

I suspect that you can take either POV and still call yourself a Buddhist.



First...you have to know what an elephant really is.

Don't assume you know what I meant Ed.

Buddhists claim theirs is a religion without dogma and it is not true.

 

[Neubarth]

Hi Sky, is it possible to be a Buhddist and also have another faith simultaneously? Does practicing Buddhism preclude you from a faith or belief in God?

It is possible to be a Buddhist in philosophy and still be a Christian. During my life when I have not been killing people because of my vocation, I have been a devout Buddhist who would not hurt a fly. That is a lot of good Karma there.

 

[Neubarth]

Ah yes the intellectual superiority of the "enlightened"
Bullshit. You either believe that crap or you don't. So which is it?
Are people who deny the so called truth of suffering delusional or not? Or do you just hold yourself above those who do not join the flock and blindly follow your so called noble truths?

Skull Pilot--
What is it you want out of this conversation? It seems to be going nowhere.

Sorry for not bleating. Religion, or philosophies based on this type of bullshit dogma and blind faith are all the same as are their sheep. You hold conflicting views and have no congruency between thoughts and actions and the sheep of all religions constantly try to rationalize their blind faith and acceptance of the word of another as "truth" by retreating into the teachings of others rather than taking a hard look at why their thoughts and actions are out of sync. How does the rational mind resolve this?
That question does have an answer but in this discussion it is probably rhetorical.

I tell everybody that Buddhism is a philosophy for life. Short of the Indian teachings about reincarnation, Buddhism has never taken the step from a philosophy to a religion. One can still abide by the teachings of Christ, Mohammad, or other religions and still be a Buddhist. So many of the teachings of the main stream religions would have you be a good Buddhist in the way you conduct your life even though they do not call it that. I have seen millions of devout Catholics, who, if you did not know their faith, you could not tell apart from devout Buddhists as you watched them conduct themselves during the day.

SkyDanger is unique in that she openly attacks believers of the mainstream religions. Yet the common believers of the main stream religions do not attack Buddhism. (Note I did not say the "Radical Believers" of the main stream religions. Radicalism is a form of Anger combined with faith.

 

[Neubarth]

I haven't criticized the teachings of Christ.

I call BULLSHIT on that.

 

[Madeline]

I still do not understand why anyone would post to a thread inviting questions about Buddism just to ridicule the beliefs. IMO, very few posters show the respect and restraint of Sky Dancer, and she does not deserve this kind of aggravation.

Some people are evidentially just assholes.

 

[Neubarth]

Some people are evidentially just assholes.

Yep, that is exactly what I thought of SkyDancer when I saw all of her insane responses to what it says in the Bible. The Bible says what it says. She can call people who post what the Bible says all of the names in the book. All that does is make her look like a total creep. The Bible will still say what it says regardless of how screwed up in the head she is.

 

[Madeline]

IMO, Sky Dancer has been nothing but respectful towards christians, Neubarth. Now myself, I can be fairly criticized for having written some contemptuous posts...but not her. In any event, this thread is intended for people with questions about Buddism to make inquiry from one who is knowlegable and willing to share....if you'd like to trash all non-christians (or just Buddists) I invite you to commence a new thread for just that purpose.

I dunno what purpose it serves to say "the Bible says what it says". Apart from issues of translations, versions, etc., so what? "Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain also "says what it says", as does any other printed material. You invest the Bible with certain powers that not everyone else does....and I hope that belief brings you all you hope it will. Why's it so hard to coexist peacefully with those of us who do not?

 

[Hister]

"According to Buddhist cosmology, every living being dwells in one of thirty-one distinct "planes," of which our familiar human plane is but one. Some of these realms are home to beings (the devas) with unusual powers and extraordinarily subtle and refined physical bodies — or even no body at all. Their god-like status is, however, short-lived; like all living beings, they are mortal and ultimately subject to death and rebirth in other planes according to the purity and skillfulness of their actions (karma)."

You trying to say this isn't a religion? Gimme a break.

 

[Madeline]

Does it matter whether or not Buddism should be called a religion? Who cares?

I have a question, Sky Dancer. In times of distress, I have felt driven to my knees beseeching God for help to endure. Do Buddists have a means of seeking solace during very bad times as well? If they don't believe there is a God, per se, whom do they beseech?

 

[Sky Dancer]

Does it matter whether or not Buddism should be called a religion? Who cares?

I have a question, Sky Dancer. In times of distress, I have felt driven to my knees beseeching God for help to endure. Do Buddists have a means of seeking solace during very bad times as well? If they don't believe there is a God, per se, whom do they beseech?

We call on the refuge tree or lineage. That's is, we call on the ones who have gone before us who achieved moment to moment realization of timeless awareness.

That may be actual teachers of meditation living or dead, or it may be symbolic forms of awareness such as the female Buddha, Tara.

We might call on Tara by visualizing her and saying:

"Illustrious Tara, please be aware of me. Remove my obstacles and quickly grant my excellent aspirations."

 

[eots]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xMnmAwuupg]YouTube - When the Buddha Met Bubba Music Video[/ame]

 

[Sky Dancer]

"According to Buddhist cosmology, every living being dwells in one of thirty-one distinct "planes," of which our familiar human plane is but one. Some of these realms are home to beings (the devas) with unusual powers and extraordinarily subtle and refined physical bodies — or even no body at all. Their god-like status is, however, short-lived; like all living beings, they are mortal and ultimately subject to death and rebirth in other planes according to the purity and skillfulness of their actions (karma)."

You trying to say this isn't a religion? Gimme a break.

Buddhists debate whether Buddhism is a religion or philosophy. Buddhist cosmology is philosophy.

Buddhist mediation is practical.

 

[Hister]

"According to Buddhist cosmology, every living being dwells in one of thirty-one distinct "planes," of which our familiar human plane is but one. Some of these realms are home to beings (the devas) with unusual powers and extraordinarily subtle and refined physical bodies — or even no body at all. Their god-like status is, however, short-lived; like all living beings, they are mortal and ultimately subject to death and rebirth in other planes according to the purity and skillfulness of their actions (karma)."

You trying to say this isn't a religion? Gimme a break.

Buddhists debate whether Buddhism is a religion or philosophy. Buddhist cosmology is philosophy.

Buddhist mediation is practical.

Believing in 31 planes is philosophy? The philosophy of religion?

 

[Sky Dancer]

Yes. It's Buddhist philosophy, as opposed to Buddhist meditation practice.

 

[Madeline]

Do Buddists have any special rituals for honoring deceased friends and family, Sky Dancer?

 

[Sky Dancer]

Do Buddists have any special rituals for honoring deceased friends and family, Sky Dancer?

Yes. There are special prayers and practices that can be offered at the time of death. I can't speak to every Buddhist tradition but I can share my own. In my mother's case, I made offerings on her behalf at a week long retreat/sadhana practice and in a fire puja.

For the 49 days following her death I performed a special meditation practice for her. The 49 days after dying is considered the longest time any being will spend between lives and it is considered auspicious to offer prayers and meditation and visualization practice at this time.

I worked with a lama to make over 108 tsa tsa's, small symbolic representations of the buddha's mind. We prayed and meditated over each one and in each of them I placed a small amount of her cremated remains.

At the end of the 49 days, I packed the tsa tsa's in to a pristine waterfall and placed them where they would not be found.

It was a beautiful way to send her off.