Buddhists and Intrigued Non-Buddhist Laymen, CONVERGE HERE

We once had a thread for Buddhism in OTC. I have no clue if it still exists, but whatever. Now we have another thread. THE THREAD. What purpose this will serve I do not know. Info sharing I guess.

I myself am a Buddhist. An awful one, but I am one. I used to head to a temple of the Thai Forest Monastery tradition. My knowledge and experience is mostly with Theravada though I do not know if I identify as such. There's a Zen temple being built up where I live. I should go visit it again. They have a nice garden and I'd like to talk with the monks.

I knew you'd make this thread eventually Aon! -sits quietly and listens- Edit: Oh, I'm supposed to ask a question, aren't I?

edited 5th Feb '11 9:56:13 PM by randomtropeloser

That would help with this conversation thing yes.

Okay! I love learning things, so let's see... Got one! Okay, so there are like 3 incarnations of Buddha, right? The stereotypical fat guy who is well known in the west, the nearly-starved old guy, and another one which I'm forgetting. If so, what do they represent?

There are multiple Buddhas yes. The one whose teachings led to the founding of Buddhism is Siddhartha Gautama. The Shakyamuni Buddha who is also just called The Buddha. If one is talking about The Buddha they normally mean this man. He is a skinny fellow when depicted.

The fat man you speak of Hotei whose purpose in Buddhism is...interesting. He's a Chinese deity and in Buddhism he is either a Bodhisatta (Enlightened being who opts to reincarnate and help save others among other definitions) or the Maitreya Buddha. The Maitreya Buddha is the future Buddha who is said to come to humanity and reveal the Dhamma once more in its truest form leading to the Enlightenment of many.

The Amitabha or Amida Buddha is the Buddha of Eternal Light. He is a central figure in Mahayana Buddhism and in particular Shin Pure Land Buddha. He's a rather Christ like figure I've found. He is said to come and save the faithful by Pure Land Buddhists. They also believe that this is more or less the only way one will make it out of Samsara because of how flawed living beings are. Namao Amitabha or Namu Amida Butsu is the small utterance spoken by Mahayana Buddhists in honor of Amitabha.

Buddhas are Enlightened beings and therefore there are quite a few more and will be. In Theravada one is said to achieve Buddhahood through their own hard work. This involves giving up Earthly passions. In Mahayana Buddhahood is an innate quality in the universe that is revealed in one's life by Buddhist practice without any specific relinquishment of desire and other Earthly pleasures.

edited 5th Feb '11 10:14:09 PM by Aondeug

Wow, so much information! That was one of the very few times I've actually grabbed a pen and notepad to copy down stuff from this site. So, there were some Buddhas who used to be human men, like Siddharta and Shakyamuni, and some who are more like metaphysical deities, like Hotei and Amitabha. Am I sort of catching on?

Yep. I don't know much about Hotei and Amitabha's roles or much about what exactly they are. Amitabha is a celestial Buddha so he's likely not human...

Yeah, the OTC thread is deleticated apparently.

Aww. It was a very informative thread too.

Interesting! I wasn't really sure how Buddhism worked, I kind of thought it was like Hinduism only they centered their beliefs more on this one guy than on any gods. Shows how much I knew, I guess. So if Buddhism has its own gods, does that mean they also have omse type of creator deity, or is that left mostly ambiguous?

Buddhism doesn't have a set of gods really. There are beings we call gods (devas) and they exist in a realm of bliss. One can become a god, but gods typically don't reach Enlightenment. Some Buddhists are more concerned with gods (I believe that Tibetan Buddhism may be bigger on them) while others don't really care. There are Shinto Buddhists in existence as well as Christian Buddhists...It works well with other religion's deities apparently.

As for a creator deity Buddha more or less said "Why does it matter how the universe was made or who made it? Will that knowledge really make you happy? I honestly don't think so,".

edited 5th Feb '11 10:38:50 PM by Aondeug

So in Buddhism, humans can possibly become gods or reach enlightenment, but probably not both? Do people have to choose, like there are two separate paths to follow or something? Hmm, Buddhism sounds pretty unique among religions for not actually claiming to know who created the universe. I also wasn't aware there were so many denominations, though the fact that someone can follow the teachings of Buddha and be a Christian as the same time is pretty cool. I don't think I've ever heard of two religions meshing so well.

P.S. Sorry for bombarding you with questions like this. It's rather typical of me once I'm interested in a subject. Feel free to just tell me to shut it if you find this too tedious.

There is only one path to eternal happiness and that is Enlightenment. All other happiness is limited and is therefore not True Happiness. Even that of a god. They live happy lives, but those lives are still lives that must come to an end. True Happiness is your ultimate goal.

The human realm is typically considered the optimal realm for reaching Enlightenment if not the only one one can reach it in.

And yes Buddhism is unique in that it doesn't claim to know and is in fact largely unconcerned with that matter. Tis the one of the reasons I was drawn to it.

Yes, I think I actually recall you referring to it as the religion happiness one time. So one could basically paraphrase the religion as being about getting rid of all the junk this world puts in your way, up to and including godhood, in favor of true happiness?

Yes I suppose. The ultimate goal is True Happiness which means escaping all the bad of life. It also means giving up all the good of life as well. Things like how awesome steak tastes and how much you want to fuck that hot broad down the street. All of that is gone because you have reached the thing. YOU HAVE REACHED NIBBANA/NIRVANA.

As you can see some schools or less strict on how one reaches that. Theravada is more or less the stricter and more conservative branch while Mahayana is the more lenient and newer one. Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism) is sort of in its own world...It's a thing.

edited 5th Feb '11 11:09:13 PM by Aondeug

-jots notes- Wow, you've taught me more just now than I'd probably have learned from several hours of wiki'ing. Thanks, I'm sure putting up with my questions for 14 straight posts was no easy task! I'm not sure how I'd actually feel about following Buddhism myself, though the idea of putting aside everything in this world is certianly intriguing, and would no doubt spare me a lot of pain. So yeah, thanks again Aon. It was totally cool of you to share this with me.

Sure thing.

-waits for others-

Hafta admit I am kinda curious about tantric practices in Buddhism, if you're the sort to answer that sort of thing. My introduction to Buddhism started with that really intense brand of Zen back-and-forth dialogue, and I suppose that's the sort of thing the roots of which I wish to know more about.

Ah. Oh...you came asking about something I know very little about! I really don't know much about Zen or its practices. Sorry about that. I do mean to speak with the monks up here about it though so I will be able to get back to you then.

...does anyone else know shit about zen?

Eh, emphasizes confusion, paradoxes, shutting off reason, parables that genuinely don't mean anything, etc

So...Mindfuck: The Buddhist Edition.

I'm oversimplifying and mostly know it through books by logicians and comparison of my own religion with the Rinzai school, so don't take me too seriously.

Ah.

...So hey, would you mind answering another one of my questions? I guess it doesn't have to be Aon or anything, and I totally don't mind if nobody wants to considering how many questions I spammed this place with last night, but this is something I find really interesting.

Sure. Ask away.