The Buddhism thread

Why create this? Because short of a few references I’ve made and seen on other threads, I haven’t seen much posted directly about this. There’s a lot of mention about God and other religions but so far, this seems to have slipped under the radar. So, as a practicing Zen Buddhist, let me introduce you all to it

I'll admit that I'm not a perfect student. I still fall into a lot of the usual traps us human beings tend to. Luckily, Buddhism is as much about he effort as it is about he result!

I’ll be referencing a lot of texts readily available on the Internet. A lot of them are made “public domain” by their publishers for the sake of education, so feel free to do some reading on your own if you feel like it!

How did it all start?

Siddhartha Gautama – was born a prince in India to a wealthy Hindu family. Yep, he was “Buddha”. In his early 30’s he fled his palace, leaving behind his wife and newborn son – keep in mind, this was a Hindu culture back around 450 BC, marriages and families weren’t arranged based out of love. His ultimate quest was understanding human suffering.

Through much trial and error, he came to terms with what he called “the middle path”. Which is basically what it sounds like; not going too far to any extreme in a belief or practice.

Buddha, reasoned that others before him have achieved states of Enlightenment and that when a person’s “spirit” was ready, they would eventually achieve that same state. The term for that is Buddha… hence the name of the religion.

And then?

During his life, Buddha had disciples that followed him and learned from him. All the while, Buddha never claimed to be a god or related to a god in any way, shape or form - he was actually pretty firm about stating that he was just a human.

After his death, much like Christianity, his disciples spread out from India. Over time, two forms of Buddhism developed – Therevada and Mahāyāna. The first is the more traditional teaching of Buddha directly. The second is translated as “Great Vehicle” which forms a more worldly approach to Buddha’s teachings.

Buddha originally taught his students how to achieve enlightenment for themselves, in that if everyone practiced that way, no one would ever have to worry about their neighbors. Mahāyāna focuses more on the world and helping others as well, which was much needed when you look at more of a global picture of the world.

When Buddhism spread north, it went to a little kingdom full of vibrant colors, different gods and an assortment of beliefs. This was the Mahāyāna portion that spread up there and the Kingdom was Tibet.

Even though Tibetan Buddhism is popular nowadays thanks to the Dali Lama, its foundation is really based on much of those ancient Tibetan rituals, the Buddhism aspect comes secondary to those.

From Tibet it spread north into China. At the time it mixed with Taoism and helped form the belief of Chan.

From China it spread into Japan, where Chan was translated into Zen. Which also formed the foundation for Bushido – “Way of the Warrior-Knight” aka The Samurai.

So that’s the VERY abridged history simplified for time’s sake!!

What do you believe then?

Buddhism is confusing for a lot of people since it’s so drastically different! Since we all know a thing or two about MBTI on here, it’s easiest to say that most religions fall into the “Sensor” aspects of our lives; you’re given a list of rules and a set of practices you’re supposed to follow.

Buddhism strays off more into the “Intuitive” realm in that you’re given guidelines and an ultimate goal. The rest is left pretty open to whatever works best for you.

There are some guidelines written down in the form of the “Four Noble Truths” and the “Eightfold Path” (Link can be found here - http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/fourtruths.html) which most Buddhists try to stick to and keep in their minds all the time. Straying from them, or finding your own way to go about them, however, is part of the appeal Buddhism has for a lot of people.

If you read over the Eightfold Path you’ll see the translations are such that they can be open to different views and aren’t strictly “commandments” like Christianity and Judaism have.

In short… Buddhists believe in living our lives for the benefit of those around us. That life is full of suffering in its natural state, but not dwelling on that suffering and accepting it all as part of life is what will ease that suffering.

Death?

Simple answer is that there is no death. One of the Four Noble Truths state that “The origin of suffering is attachment”. Buddhists believe in impermanence, that everything is changing and nothing is static.

It’s when we hold on to the belief that things are going to always and forever be a certain way that we encounter suffering. It’s the same reason Buddhists don’t actually believe in labeling people as having souls. There is a belief that there’s a certain energy that goes into making us all, but to label that as a “soul” indicates a static state of being and since we are always in a state of change, even in death, there cannot be a soul in the common sense of one.

Reincarnation?

Is the common term used for what Buddhists believe. It’s a hard one for people to swallow too! In reality though, there are even scientific principles that reinforce this belief – the Laws of the Conservation of Energy for instance – stating that it can neither be created nor destroyed.

Life doesn’t just come from no where. For that matter, death doesn’t just cause all the energy that gave you life to disappear either. There’s a constant energy throughout the universe that “recycles” itself. You can see it when a creature dies, their body decomposes, bugs eat at it. They then fertilize the soil and new life emerges from the tinniest plants to the largest elephants. Everything is interconnected.

Interconnection?

All of the energy in the universe and on this planet interacts with one another. If you eat a bag of potato chips, you’re consuming the energy that went into creating the bag, growing the potatoes- sun light, fresh water, fertilizer - peeling, slicing and cooking the chips and the transportation of that bag via truck, ship or train.

Another term people like to use is called Mindfulness. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is a rather strong believer in this as well. This is what meditation is really about.

This is a reason many Buddhists are vegetarians, peace activists, environmentalists, etc. Because we all see how the actions of others and consequences of others affect everyone else around us.

Meditate… how?

You see the pictures of people sitting on cushions and kneeling on benches with their legs crossed and arms folded. Really though, meditation can take any shape or any form. You can even meditate while driving a car!

It’s all about letting your mind go. Now, I’m far from a master in this so I really don’t want to teach anybody (I’m still just a student!), but a lot of people think meditating is about clearing your mind. Yeah, try that! See how well it really works!

What meditation is really about is identifying, acknowledging and passing along the different thoughts that enter your head. Say, “Yep, there’s a thought” and just keep sitting while concentrating on something such as breathing. Eventually, and I can speak from experience, all your thoughts really become just… thoughts. The reality of how they affect you gets diminished when your brain is capable of identifying them as being just thoughts.

There’s a lot about the how-to’s of meditating. I’d recommend starting with one of Jack Kornfield’s books about the subject if you’re really new to it. He covers things from the basics of just how to sit, to what to think about and how to focus those thoughts once you realize them.

So how’s this different than other religions?

Here’s a short list of the cold, hard, basic facts:

1. There is no single God
2. There is no technical spirit and therefore, no afterlife
3. There is no heaven and no hell
4. Attachment to things, thoughts, ideas and even people, lead to suffering
5. There are no strict set of “rules” to follow
6. People are free to explore and question their teachings
7. No one is expected to ever become a “Buddha” or “bodhisattva” (teacher that helps others) we just do the best we all can
8. Everything around us, from the dirt we walk on to the company we keep is “special” to us since its all interconnected – we all come from the same place and are made of the same things, we’re all essentially the same

Ironically, a lot of what Jesus did in his life and was written about in the New Testament, can almost be paralleled with the life of Buddha and his teachings, if you look past the "religious" aspect of it all. The only difference is, Buddha came about 450 years earlier.

Buddhism lacks the dogma of other religions. There's no "do this because I say to" when it comes to this religion. It's all about trying it out for yourself and seeing what works. Granted, there are certain things that are expected, but as long as you understand the principles behind it all, there's no single, perfect way to go about any of it.

Buddhists will defend themselves (you've all heard of the Shaolin Monks?) but won't act out in violence... or at least try not to. As religion goes, it's also never been used as an excuse for violence - there have been some Buddhist uprisings, but they had secular causes and were never started "in the name of Buddha" so to speak.

Buddhism makes no reference to homosexuality or translations that can be considered towards it. The only references ever made are towards living a proper life, which includes refraining from sexual indecency, but not about not being gay. In honesty, it's really a non-issue.

Since Buddhism focuses on state of mind over worldly, physical items, Buddhists can practice anywhere from a grassy field to a temple. There really is no single place a Buddhist needs to go in order to practice. Monks, on the other hand, live in temples so they can focus their lives towards the teachings. The temples do provide a sanctuary and place of tranquility for anyone else who needs to study or meditate though.

 

One of the things I've always liked about Buddhism is the pure amount of tolerance involved. It really is compatible with nearly any religion when you get right down to the core values... even atheism. There are even a lot of Catholics and Jews that practice Buddhism outside of their churches because it is really versatile.

Since there's no aspect of God involved with Buddhism, there's really no conflict on that level. You could believe in Allah, you could believe in God, you could believe in the rocks and trees, or you could believe in nothing and still be going down the Buddhist path.