Posted by dj on January 29, 2000, at 11:52:24
In reply to To Dj : Religion, Idiocy & the opp.- full version, posted by cag on January 29, 2000, at 11:04:50
> Whew! You is one angry dude!
Only when it comes to dogma, dude and folks who preach rather than practice. I'm not accusing anyone of being Satan's spawn...If you're up on your bible you'd know that Christ had little time for such folk. I grew up with and know many real, as opposed to pseudo, Christians whom I have plenty of time and respect for because they are open to genuine discusssion and don't afflict me with dogma, narrow minds and promises of hell.
BTW, the header above refers to a 1993 book by Tim Ward who also wrote: "What the Buddha Never Taught". I'll let him speak for himself about some of the issues discussed above:
xi - xii "Before I left home to wander Asia, my good friend Dan Matheson, a retired United Church minister, by way of expressing his concern over my journey, told me that early European maps often contained large blank spaces to represent areas where no explorers had ventured. These places were marked "There be Dragons Here."...In the East...the dragon is a symbol of transformation...If I wanted to encounter dragons, I knew I would have to leave behind all I had learned in college and in church...and learn to see with Eastern eyes...I debated going to Bible college and becoming a pastor, but instead chose to study philosophy...To me a faith that couldn't stand up to rigorous intellectual examination wasn't worth owning...After graduation I realized I had glimpsed only a sliver of the world's wisdom. I had traveled Europe, studied philosophy and studied Christianity, but now I felt confined by the Western perspective I had limited myself to, and hungered for more. I looked East and saw...its spiritual traditions were in bloom well before Socrates...and before Christ was born. Although I knew little of Buddhism, its dedication to penetrating illusion by focusing the mind appealed to me greatly. I decided to go to India, plant myself in a Buddhist monastery, and learn to meditate as a starting block for exploring Asia."
134 - "Buddhism only teaches about suffering and how to remove it," said the monk "Believe in God or not, as you like. Do you want to remove suffering? Then hear the Buddha's words..."
"The Buddha observed that life contains suffering," the monk begain again, "This is the First Noble Truth. This is not a little problem. The world is on fire with suffering. It burns and blinds...The causes of suffering are desire, hatred, and delusion. This is the Second Noble Truth. The root of suffering lies not in the world around us but in our craving and aversion and ignorance. We want to have things that are seperate from us, and we want to be apart from things that we cannot escape. Even the things we have that we like, they will be taken away from us, just as the health of youth is destroyed by sickness, old age and death...But there is a way to escape suffering, a way discovered by the Buddha. By cutting the cords of desire, hatred and ignorance we can be free. This is the Third Noble Truth. Simple to understand, yes but difficult to practice. The way to cut the cords is to follow the Buddha's Eightfold Path. This is the Fourth Noble Truth. All the Buddha taught was the walking of this path."
137 - "The ultimate goal for a Buddhist is nirvana," the monk began, "from ni -- meaning the negative and vana -- the craving that connects one lifetime to another. Nirvana is the departure from the lust that binds us to suffering. One must practice all eight elements of the path to attain this goal:
"First, right knowledge of the Four Noble Truths, and second right understanding of how to apply these Truthes to life with compassion and wisdom. Third, right morality; avoiding killing, stealing, wrongful sex, or taking liquor -- actions that create bad karma and lead to more craving. Fourth, right livelihood: avoiding work such as butchery, selling animals for food, slavery, or work that oppresses or harms living beings. Fifth, right speech: no lying, slander, foolish chatter or harshness...Sixth, right effort: not wasting past good deeds by commiting evil ones, but consistently treading on the path. Seventh, right concentration: the ability to restrain and focus your mind. Eighth, right meditation: the stilling of the mind."..."Meditation is to purify...Every action produces karma, good or bad. But meditation is nonaction...the effects of even one minute of meditation -- that can never be destroyed."
I neither claim these views to be right or wrong, however I believe they stand up nicely in comparims to Christian and other religious ideals and in historical terms much good has come from the true practice of Buddhism and Christianity too, for that matter, as well as other religions.
poster:dj
thread:19818
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000128/msgs/19998.html