Buddhists and Intrigued Non-Buddhist Laymen, CONVERGE HERE

Still reading through the first page of the Buddhism 101 page. I'm taking breaks as it's a lot to take in and think about. I will say a lot of it seems right to me at least on a philosophical level, though not all of it.

Now that you've read through all of the Buddhism 101 thread do you have any other questions? Or things you would like to share? I'm a bit curious as to what it is that matches up with your philosophy and what doesn't. As well as your experience with it in general.

How similar is Buddhism to Jainism?

Not certain as I haven't looked into Jainism beyond the matter of where they stand when it comes to theism. The answer to that is "All over the place". There are likely similarities however being that they're both in the same family of religions. The Dhammic faiths along with Hinduism.

I also know that Jains apparently have a "Don't kill at all" thing and apparently some will carry brooms with them so they can sweep insects and the like out of their way as they walk. Buddhists have a vow of ahimsa, no harm, that serves as guideline prior to monkhood. In which case it becomes a rule that you strictly follow. I haven't heard anything regarding monks carrying brooms with them nor have I observed it however.

The ahimsa vow is more than just "Don't maim or kill people" but also applies to allowing harm to come to other individuals through inaction and harming of individuals in ways other than physical injury.

I'm not sure if this is the case with Jainism. I have been told that it's more of a strict absolute even for layfolk from someone who was formerly a Jain however.

My philosophy boils down to Life is suffering, suffering is caused by desire, attachment, one should learn to enjoy suffering as much as one enjoys joy no matter how hard it is to do so.

That's simplification. Though now my thoughts on that are even shifting, I sat up for hours last night thinking about what I had learned, just processing it all after I posted that. To be honest I'm still not done processing. As for whats next, I have no clue, I really shouldn't have tired to finish the entire thread in one day. :c

I will add another note though, I really like different realms aspect of it. I feel that it seems more plausible in my mind then any other. I was wondering is there name for people who believe in the cycle but don't follow Buddhist teachings?

I don't know if there's a word for that in particular. The realm concept plays into the other Dhammic faiths as well. The idea's likely appeared elsewhere as well.

Ahh, Okay. Thank you.

You could look into them as well. Jainism and Hinduism being the other big ones I can think of. There's also many varieties of Buddhism many of which resemble my own very little.

Okay, I'll consider checking those out then. Right now I'm still processing everything I've already learned lol

That's fine. And good in fact. Think it out.

I think I'll do that.

Though I'm beginning to think living a life more in line with the principles of Buddhism might be more right for me then I initially thought. Though I'm still thinking things through so don't quote me on that.

edited 17th May '12 10:10:21 PM by Vyctorian

Sorry to double post but I need to say something.

I'm torn right now part of me thinks that I should learn more about Buddhism and perhaps even looking into becoming a Buddhist myself, and part of me is well against it. :p

Is today a Buddhist holiday?

I'm asking because I just went to the supermarket, and in the main market square there was some sort of big celebration with Buddhist statues and male and female monks. I'm pretty sure that they were Chinese Buddhists, and I think that the main speaker (a female monk) said something about Buddha's birthday before talking about the Five Precepts; but she alternated Cantonese, Dutch and English, so I may have misheard something...

edited 19th May '12 5:41:54 AM by Carciofus

Vesak Day, the day we celebrate the Buddha's birth, has already passed when it comes to Chinese Buddhists. Was in April. We also use it to celebrate his Enlightenment and death. Which reputedly all happened on the same date on a full moon. Thai Vesak, Visakha Puja, has also passed. As for when...sometime this month.

Vesak is a hard holiday to keep up with. It happens on different days for different countries and appears to have a different date each year. I haven't yet noticed a pattern to it save "FULL MOON". The 5th of May is a very common date that some countries stick to yearly though. This is when Thai Vesak was by the way. I missed it.

edited 19th May '12 9:19:18 AM by Aondeug

Uh. I wonder what that was about, then.

Maybe the market was doing some kind of cultural outreach or something, or maybe they were missionaries.

OK, I checked on Internet. Apparently, it was a "Buddha Day" organized by the Buddhist Temple just a few steps out of my current apartment, in honor of Sakyamuni. So yes, you were correct .

I wish Buddhist missionaries would come where I live.

Same. I found one Buddhist temple locally but everything was in an Asian language, so I couldn't figure anything out on their site.

edited 19th May '12 2:20:14 PM by Vyctorian

The closest Buddhist temple to where I live is an hour's drive away from me o a good day and you have to call ahead to go in, so I haven't really been able to go for a visit as of yet.

We have a small Zen temple in the town I live in. I visited once despite not being Zen. It's a pretty place but rather quiet. Monks don't speak clear English either.

There's a few temples down the hill. Suddhavasa has monks who can speak English and is generally very open to the non-Thai population. We get things like school classes and such coming down for events at our place and there's a steady stream of people who show up to the meditation classes every so often or just once. The abbot goes around the country and gives talks and such. He's an important man in the Thai Council of Bhikkhus if I recall correctly. Organizer of the American branch...

You see monks walking around town occasionally, but it's rather rare. They tend to stay in the temples for the most part. Saw one at social security and another at a pharmacy though.

edited 19th May '12 4:48:43 PM by Aondeug

I saw a monk once in my city, he was traveling on the bus. Outside of this I'd never seen a monk before, outside of say Tv or the internet.

edited 19th May '12 4:55:46 PM by Vyctorian

Well they tend to stay in the temples. They're more or less cloistered there...Unless they have a reason to be out they'll be at their temple. In the West you don't see them begging for alms much either so that's one regular sighting that most won't get out here. Were most monks to beg for alms out here they damn well might starve.

And now I'm off to research alms :3

I finally got around to actually reading some of the Dhammapada, and I was a little bit surprised at some of the stuff I read. There are a lot of passages about showing reverence to the virtuous, which seems kind of counterproductive to me. Trying to follow a person's example is good, sure, but I don't see how a virtuous individual's identity is any more worthy of reverence than anyone else's. Reverence doesn't seem condusive to reaching enlightenment. There was also a lot of language that seemed to only have been included in the translation for western readers, I'm fairly certain terms like "the elect" and "sin" didn't actually appear in the original manuscripts. The translated version also often used "thou" instead of "you" and "art" and "hast" instead of "are" or "has." I'm fairly certain that was only done to make it seem more familiar to people raised on the Bible, unless the Dhammapada was orignially written in Middle English.