Hi, just introducing myself
Posted on: June 10, 2009 - 3:00pm
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Hi, just introducing myself
Hi, I am new, and thought I would just introduce myself...
I'm a writer (unpublished as yet). I am a buddhist (which is really not a religion, it's a philosophy), and an atheist when it comes to "the big three", and an agnostic on other religions, such as paganism etc. This looks like a great site, and I look forward to some interesting interchanges!
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Welcome to the site. You will find a lot of information here just ask. We are from all over the world, I am in A city near Toronto Canada where do you hail from?
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
Welcome to the forum, I'm relatively new here as well. You'll enjoy it immensely, I can guarantee.
"Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, show me the steep and thorny way to heaven. Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. And recks not his own rede."
Welcome to the forum!
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
Welcome!!! I'm very glad to see here someone with a similar attitude. Eastern philosophies were always close to my heart. I'm looking forward to your future contributions, once you'll take a look around here. Maybe you'll feel like sharing more of personal info, then.
Beings who deserve worship don't demand it. Beings who demand worship don't deserve it.
Hi Jeffrick!
I was born and raised in southern indiana, moved to california 30 years ago, and currently reside near Palm Springs. It's too hot here in summer - bet the climate is much nicer where you live!
Currently, I can only post from the library computer... my extremely old home computer will not let me post, tho I can read posts. But I'm looking forward to exchanging ideas, etc on this site.
Welcome
I do take issue with calling Buddhism a philosopy and not a religion. They have temples and statues that people pray to, munks and superstitions.
Buddhism started in the same era of ignorance as the polytheism and monotheism that surrounded it. Whatever tangential empathy that can be garnered in it's writings does not put it on the same level as a teliscope or DNA. The reality is that morals are not an invention of a novelty label, but the result of human evolution.
It doesn't take a Buddhist to teach me how to drive a car any more than it takes a Christian to tell me that robbing my neighbor is immoral.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
When you state that you're a Buddhist,tell me more,are you referring to the northern school of philosophy that is into the Dali Lama or are you into the southern school of thought,that is into Zen. I personally prefer the southern school of thought. There are a few good articles by Michael Parenti ; Friendly Feudalism:The Tibet Myth www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html and then there's the book "The Shadow of the Dali Lama:Sexuality,Magic,and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism"by Victor and Victoria Trimondi www.trimondi.de/EN/interv01.html which was a real shocker.
Signature ? How ?
HI
Welcome to the forums! Jump right in and have some fun
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
Fellow Hoosier, welcome to the forums!
I was born in Peru, although I have lived in the great state of Connecticut since I was two.
=
You are uninformed! There is no deity in Buddhism! Buddhists chant and meditate on the example of the Buddha (who is not a god, but a human like us) in order to tryto emulate him. There is no worship of any kind that I know of.
Well...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism
and
and that's just the intro paragraph...
"Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, show me the steep and thorny way to heaven. Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. And recks not his own rede."
Hello there! Welcome to the boards. I hope you enjoy your time here
Hi,
I'm new, too. ;o
First off, meditation and prayer are DIFFERENT. I have seen plenty of people at temples PRAYING. Buddhists can and do pray to spirits of dead loved ones. That act would indicate that they believe in an after life and as such makes their act of prayer a superstition.
Trying to backpeddle out of a superstitious past by ignoring it's roots wont change that it was, and for many around the world, still is.
Just as a Catholic and Baptist worship differently, doesn't change the fact that both believe that a dead man magically survived rigor mortis.
Your backpeddling is no different than theirs. "Buddha was a man" doesn't mean people don't pray to him. You assume everyone views Buddhism like you do.
Calling it "meditation" doesn't change the fact that it is a ritual, no different than the placebo a baseball player has in wearing a certain pair of socks in hopes he will make a home run.
The only thing Buddhists have in common is that they agree that Buddha was a man. How they "practice" and worship can be just as diverse as any other label.
Like I said, I have been to plenty of temples where the public walks in, lights a incense stick, puts their hands togeter, WITHOUT SITTING, faces the statue and talks to it as if it really could hear them. They consult the Buddha for advice and in their lives.
Call it what you will, it is still a superstition with as much credibility as any other label.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
You mean that era of ignorance when hellenistic schools of thought emerged?
There are twists of time and space, of vision and reality, which only a dreamer can divine
H.P. Lovecraft
I've seen quite a lot of Buddhist temples or 'wats', in Cambodia (including of course Angkor), in Thailand, Laos, Western China, and Mongolia.
In Thailand we even had some snacks offered to us by some Buddhist monks, which had originally been offerings to them by the followers, but they did not find particularly appealing or they already had more than enough of. We were having a break in our tour in the grounds of a monastery or temple complex.
One practice I had heard of and saw first hand in a couple of places was where you can buy caged birds in order to gain 'karma' points by setting them free. This has always struck me as somehow fake, a bit like the selling of indulgences by the Church in Europe.
I am also disturbed by the fact that Pol Pot came to power in the highly Buddhist country of Cambodia... I could not bring myself to visit a 'killing fields' display or memorial near where we were staying in Siem Reap.
On the other hand, I have heard quotes claimed to be from Gautama which seem very humanistic, sceptical, and enlightened, in the best European sense.
The various traditions or sects of Buddhism seem to have diverged into a fairly wide range of approaches to life, from ones which have acquired many of the characteristics of more traditional religions to those retaining the more 'rational' philosophical approach I associate with many of those sayings of the originator.
Anyway, welcome aboard! I am Australian, BTW, and live in Brisbane, in the state of Queensland.
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology