BS: Any Buddhists out there?

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: Amos
Date: 08 Mar 10 - 11:25 PM

AN excellent start!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Mar 10 - 11:33 PM

What do Buddhists call Vegetarian Military Rations?

Army Tofu ...


I know where the door is...

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 03:36 AM

"There's nothing sinister in the intent of NSB. The evangelical fervor comes from excitement in seeing one's life change and wanting to share it(shakubuku). Not unlike becoming a born again Christian."

I'd never heard of Evangelical 'Buddhism' before. Yeck! I thought the Buddha advised actively AGAINST proselytisation? My approximate understanding was that you ignore or subtley deflect the first two enquiries about your Buddhist practice, and only on the third enquiry do you engage in any discussion about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 05:16 PM

Anyone who discovers anything that rapidly improves their life becomes very enthusiastic about it and starts telling other people about it.

This is just as true of people who find a new diet that works well for them or a new way of fixing their car or cleaning their counters or growing garden plants.

Oddly enough, however, those people are not labelled "cultists" by other people when they go around enthusiastically tellin others about what they've recently discovered or experienced. ;-) You only get the label of "cultist" when your enthusiasm takes some religious or spiritual form. This may say just as much (or indeed more?) about the prejudices of the labeller as it does about those of the labelee.

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 05:27 PM

Peter Owen Jones, Anglican Vicar, did an excellent series last year on different faiths. The one on Buddhism was wonderful.

Just thought some of you may enjoy reading about it and watching some of the videos...

Around the World in 80 Faiths - BBC Website


Around The World in 80 Faiths - Youtube

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: GUEST,bankley
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 05:47 PM

Herbie Hancock practices NSB and got Miles into it for awhile before he died...

I tried , years ago, but just don't have much rapport with tribe mentality be it this form of practice or conventional Church...
tho they all have their place

I got to say that chanting did improve and deepen my voice

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: Peter T.
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 11:26 PM

That's Buddhism. No proselytizing, and no harassing or phoning people up and making threats against them if they leave (I helped a Nichiren Shoshu flee the cult many years ago).   They chant fast non-stop for hours on end, inducing a high (I've been there).   The money making thing is a steal from evangelicals -- praying for real estate.


yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 11:55 PM

There is a monk in Japan who has found a new way to present the sutras, appealing to the young folks...I heard about him on NPR, but couldn't find the program. Here's a bit about him with a video: MC Happiness.

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: Janie
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 12:42 AM

I am not buddhist. I have a very rudimentary knowledge or understanding of any of the principles of Buddhism that may be universal principles of all all divisions of Buddhism. Base on that limited knowledge and understanding, however, I think cultivation of Zen principles and practices promotes healing and acceptance in a huge way.

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: Stu
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 04:39 AM

I got interested in Tibetan Buddhism some years ago, and went to various teachings including HH The Dalai Lama at Manchester Free Trade Hall and even met his sister Jetsun Pema a few years later.

The best thing about buddhism is it encourages rigorous questioning of itself. It eschews the dogmatic, controlling approach of the monotheistic religions and nurtures debate and self-discovery of it's knowledge. It's teachings are guidelines for a way of living that transcends the need for a structured church or a catechism and instead centres on your relationship with your teacher. It's quite possible to practice buddhism and not actually be a buddhist.

Buddhism's (and the Dalai Lama's) main teaching is compassion. Pure, unjudgemental compassion towards all living beings regardless of who they are, how they slight you. It teaches that attachments are wrong and our attachments are the source of our unhappiness in the world.

As a system of psychology, Buddhism is a millennia ahead of western practices. I've been subject to both and the Buddhists have it down in a way it's difficult to believe; mind you, they've had 2500 years to get it to the point it is now and that time has meant a refined, sophisticated an considered system of thought has emerged.

My advice would be to start with the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Soygal Rinpoche. It's an excellent and inspirational book, and might be the first steps on a very interesting journey.

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: GUEST,jeff
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 11:53 AM

Honestly, Peter T I fail to find any indication of you deserving an Esq. following your name. No one or nothing is on trial here. Shallow intellectuals speak out of passion rather than ponderance. Not genuinely educated persons such as you. Relax, yours truly has simply given an explanation. One can find extremists in any belief system. What turned me off joining NSB at a crucial time in my life was in a meeting one of the leaders, who was Japanese let it slip that the western mind could practice the faith and improve their life condition, but lacked the subtlties to reach enlightenment in one lifetime. I took affront to that and called him out on racism in a rather large public forum and was ushered out by some of the members. But, I took it on myself to do an independant study of the history of the faith and decided it wasn't for me and the aforementioned gentleman's racism was a product of the enviornment of his culture. But, also came to the conclusion that the faith itself was well intended, though some within it were misguided as with any religion.

The Spanish Inquisition, Nazi Gemany, Idi Amin, Dick Cheney, Stalin, etc. History is rife w/monsters of all types acting in the name of something be it religion or power. That's not an indictment of organized faith, but I can see how your direct experience could lead you to be so reactive re this particular branch of Buddhism.

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: Amos
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 12:04 PM

If the history of our various churches has taught us anything, it may be that the subject and substance of the wisdom is not the organization thereof.

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 11:23 AM

Attachment is indeed a great source of suffering. I remember, for example, the acute suffering I discovered again and again in my youth when becoming emotionally attached to this or that young woman...

Desire is another source of suffering...but it can also be a useful fuel for supplying motivation. Working that out could lead to quite a discussion. ;-)

What if one was already happy...here and now? What if happiness did not lie in some outer objective or destination? What if one was happy just to be?.....rather than to be someone, something or somewhere else than one is now?

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: Amos
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 11:44 AM

Resistance in all its many forms is also a great source of suffering.

It tends to splinter the understanding into combative fragments.

Being completely in the moment (a rare state for anyone) is indeed happifying, absent desire and resistance. A wonderful state of mind in which to chop wood and draw water.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 11:59 AM

"By Jove, I think you've got it!"

Subject: RE: BS: Any Buddhists out there?
From: Stu
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 12:34 PM

"What if happiness did not lie in some outer objective or destination? What if one was happy just to be?"

You've got it LH! Most buddhists would agree that is the point - to be able to truly dwell within the moment, free from distraction and unperturbed by (but not unaware of) your surroundings. To be able to see without the fog we gather between us and the real world. It's one heck of a skill and a step on the road to enlightenment, and I always thought that Zen buddhism comes close to articulating how this works. Basic Tibetan Buddhist meditation teaches how to do this and can be very inspiring.

Look at a tree. What do you see? We would call it a tree, but it isn't, it just is. It is being and regardless of what we name it, the inferences we draw from looking at it, the associations we make from it; it is simply itself.

Desire is a result of attachment, it's not the same as compassion and is a result of us wishing to possess something; a motivator to be sure but a distraction to a Buddhist seeking enlightenment.