Buddhists and Intrigued Non-Buddhist Laymen, CONVERGE HERE

What? You think what you said was offensive to me? Eh? I thought you were talking of some weirdo who said you'd be reborn as a tree. Like Tzetze and his sluggyness.

Sluggitude, thank you.

If you want an ancient tradition that doesn't have a god, here's one. Buddhism isn't what you want.

Ah. Like I said, I was just making a jokey reference to what Justice said earlier. The closest thing I've ever received to an actual insult like that was when my brother saw that I was studying Hinduism and said that I was going to hell, but he's an idiot anyway.

Um, I'm glad I didn't offend you, at any rate.

edited 24th Feb '11 1:08:14 PM by randomtropeloser

so Cārvāka=atheist?

The closest thing I've ever received to an actual insult like that was when my brother saw that I was studying Hinduism and said that I was going to hell

"That's for Yama to decide!"

Yeah. That isn't a good way to offend me.

Yama is a cool looking dude. Then again he's an Indian mythological dude so that's a given really.

its a Everyoneis Bi case

Everyone in everything I write tends to be pansexual by default... Even strict lesbians are a rare thing.

edited 24th Feb '11 1:53:05 PM by Aondeug

Bull rides $1, Mustache rides $2◊

edited 24th Feb '11 1:58:08 PM by Justice4243

That 'stache is badass.

Stash Of Awesome

Wow... Alright, after I finish the mountains of homework I have to do, I'm devoting my time to that Hinduism book I borrowed. Sorry it's been taking me so long to make good on my offer, but I've been pretty swamped lately.

That's understandable. Don't force yourself too much, yeah.

so Cārvāka=atheist?

Well, they were atheists, but the word apparently means roughly «clever person who likes arguing».

And sadly I missed my meeting...dammit. I can try again next week though. Grr.

So is there information on what higher/lower realms are like?

Do you mean the six realms I talked about here?

Or was there something else you where getting at?

Hm... I meant the worlds of the desire realm, apparently. See, I have an idea for a fantasy setting, and one of the characters in it I thought of (without knowing specifics of Buddhism) as being from a higher but still earthly realm world. So that's what I'm wondering about. Wikipedia sure has some exhaustive descriptions, though

Manuṣyaloka (Tib: mi) – This is the world of humans and human-like beings who live on the surface of the earth. The mountain-rings that engird Sumeru are surrounded by a vast ocean, which fills most of the world. The ocean is in turn surrounded by a circular mountain wall called Cakravāḍa (Pāli: Cakkavāḷa) which marks the horizontal limit of the world. In this ocean there are four continents which are, relatively speaking, small islands in it. Because of the immenseness of the ocean, they cannot be reached from each other by ordinary sailing vessels, although in the past, when the cakravartin kings ruled, communication between the continents was possible by means of the treasure called the cakraratna (Pāli cakkaratana), which a cakravartin and his retinue could use to fly through the air between the continents. The four continents are:

Psh, it's already a fantasy novel.

EDIT AGAIN: So if I'm reading this right, humans are in a sweet spot as reincarnation goes, since we have short enough lives that we feel we have to do something with them, but life is still good enough that we're not too busy raging at our lives in hell to improve ourselves. Okay.

I think what I'm thinking of is close to an asura.

edited 2nd Mar '11 12:46:27 PM by Tzetze

Is this thread dead? I certainly hope not. Anyway, apparently the Dalai Lama just stepped down as Tibet's political leader. Does this count as Buddhist news? Is this significant in any way?

Posting a relevant link. Interesting to see religion and politics merge in this modern age, but it seems that merger is the sort of thing the Dalai Lama wants to go away, or at least, the sort of thing he doesn't think Tibet needs anymore.

Well, I have heard the occasional criticism that the communists took over because, oh hey, oppressive theocracy.

I’m not too familiar with how Tibet was run before China got involved, but I suspect motives when the Chinese Communists reaction to anything religious based is fairly well known and not exactly civil.

Which is also a sentence I’m thinking of nominating for understatement of the year.

Well, yeah, but they probably were a theocracy before the communists fucked shit up. But then my current idea of Tibet has been shifted from «that place China took over» to «that place with polyandry» because of anthro class so I should just sit in the corner.

OH HEY idea for topical question, anybody know about Buddhism in Mongolia? Apparently some Chinggis wannabe decided he wanted divine backing for his ruling and started a branch called Lamaism or something? And that's where the Dalai Lama came from? I'm not sure, the information I found in cursory searching didn't look very reliable. (this came up in a book I read)

Tibetan Buddism history here.

Looks like a marriage (and possibly a magical sky book) kicked things off and it’s been influenced by the various different types of Buddhism over time.

From memory, I’m not as familiar with this type of Buddhism when compared to Zen/Chan , but remember it being much more monastic than Zen.

Oh hey this thread lives.