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Buddhism

@AlchoPwn some more news of nastiness by Rohingya Muslim militants. You were right, there are two sides to this story.

Rohingya Muslim militants in Myanmar killed dozens of Hindu civilians during attacks last August, according to an investigation by Amnesty International.

The group called Arsa killed up to 99 Hindu civilians in one, or possibly two massacres, said the rights group. Arsa had denied involvement. The killings came in the first days of an uprising against Burmese forces, who are also accused of atrocities. Since August nearly 700,000 Rohingyas and others have fled the violence. The conflict has also displaced members of the majority Buddhist population in Myanmar (also called Burma) as well as members of the Hindu minority. Amnesty says interviews it conducted with refugees in Bangladesh and in Rakhine state confirmed that mass killings carried out by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) took place in a cluster of villages in northern Maungdaw Township at the time of its attacks on police posts in late August.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44206372

This illustrates a number of points I have made in the past quite well. You would think that Hindus, who are also a minority like the Rohingyas, wouldn't be part of a Buddhist vs. Muslim clash, and yet the Muslims have attacked them with the intention of forcing them to convert to Islam. What charming people the Rohingyas are. Don't you wish they were your neighbors? Thanks for the heads up ramonmercado, I don't like what happened but I do like being informed.

https://bdnews24.com/neighbours/201...a-killed-99-hindus-in-rakhine-in-2017-amnesty
 
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Amazingly, we don't seem to have any threads on this at all.

And of course there's a lot to say about this philosophy (it's not really a religion, after all).

The reason I mention it is that it has cropped up unexpectedly in a whodunnit I'm reading right now.

An old dairy farmer in NY state (not the main character in the book) falls in love with a woman interested in Buddhism, and decides to become a bodhisattva to get her attention. :shock:
(yes, it's ridiculous to follow a desire by embracing a philosophy that tries to eliminate desire, but the book is written humourously and sympathetically.)

Another reason to mention this is a couple of synchronicities associated with my reading of the book.

Today i unexpectedly received a cheque - and a clue in the book involved the murder victim cashing cheques.

And this is the third book I've read in succession that mentions the Holland tunnel in NYC.

---------------------------------

When i was in junior school (many decades ago!), I had a teacher who (i now suspect, with the benefit of hindsight) was sympathetic to buddhism. I'm sure i remember her teaching us something about breathing through one nostril at a time, which sounds like a yoga exercise. And i think I may have picked up from her a disdain for worldly goods... (Anyhow, that's how I explain my relative poverty!)

Any other thoughts about or experiences of buddhism?
 
I am a practioner of Vipassana meditiation as taught by S.N. Goenka who was credited with bringing buddhism back to India and uses a teaching style which aims to be much less secular than other forms of Buddhist teaching.
The observation of resperation is used as the first stage of learning to quiet the chattering monkey mind ..


https://www.uk.dhamma.org/about-vipassana/the-technique/
 

Hi mcgoofle

your response seems to be embedded in the quote. Is it the last paragraph? Maybe you would separate them for clarity.

Welcome to the FTMB!
 
Hi mcgoofle

your response seems to be embedded in the quote. Is it the last paragraph? Maybe you would separate them for clarity.

Welcome to the FTMB!
oops yep sorry.
Anyway what I was trying to say was Buddhism is today regarded much more as a philosphy than a religion as its modern teachers have dropped a lot of the mystisism and tend to concentrate on the central themes of understanding the connection between body and mind and observing reality with equinimity.
certainly the Vipassana branch of meditation is more about those issues than the better known T.M teachings

https://www.dhamma.org/en/about/goenka
 
One of my favourite Buddha sayings is-
"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."- Buddha

And it's especially true nowadays with all the fake news and media manipulation we're being subjected to..:)
 
apart from the 5 precepts the idea is to understand reality as it is in the here and now, not somebody elses reality'
The 5 precepts are :-

1. to abstain from taking life

2. to abstain from taking what is not given

3. to abstain from sensuous misconduct

4. to abstain from false speech

5. to abstain from intoxicants as tending to cloud the mind
 
A Randy Rinpoche has passed on.

Sogyal Lakar, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher accused of widespread physical and sexual abuse, has died aged 72.

Lakar, better known as Sogyal Rinpoche, sold millions of books and was widely seen as the best known Tibetan Buddhist teacher after the Dalai Lama. But allegations of physical and sexual abuse followed Lakar, although he was never found guilty of any crimes. An investigation commissioned by his group concluded that some followers were abused by him.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49505098
 
apart from the 5 precepts the idea is to understand reality as it is in the here and now, not somebody elses reality' - (but nobody really can):dunno:
The 5 precepts are :-
1. to abstain from taking life. - (but we kill millions of micro-organisms every time we take a breath):dhorse:
2. to abstain from taking what is not given - (but they can't take a hint):rim:
3. to abstain from sensuous misconduct - (tantra much?):itslove::lalala:
4. to abstain from false speech - (as all language is merely an approximation, every utterance is a lie) :deny:
5. to abstain from intoxicants as tending to cloud the mind - (if the aim of Buddhism is to end suffering, then intoxicants are a merciful stop-gap):boozing:

I hoped you enjoyed my Buddhism stand-up comedy set. You've been a great audience.
 
apart from the 5 precepts the idea is to understand reality as it is in the here and now, not somebody elses reality' - (but nobody really can):dunno:
The 5 precepts are :-
1. to abstain from taking life. - (but we kill millions of micro-organisms every time we take a breath):dhorse:
2. to abstain from taking what is not given - (but they can't take a hint):rim:
3. to abstain from sensuous misconduct - (tantra much?):itslove::lalala:
4. to abstain from false speech - (as all language is merely an approximation, every utterance is a lie) :deny:
5. to abstain from intoxicants as tending to cloud the mind - (if the aim of Buddhism is to end suffering, then intoxicants are a merciful stop-gap):boozing:

I hoped you enjoyed my Buddhism stand-up comedy set. You've been a great audience.
[Claps with one hand]
 
Here's Wikipedia's article on Buddhism and violence. Particularly heinous is the acquiescence of the Japanese Buddhists in WWII. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_violence Well done; Buddhism is probably the least crap religion, but it is far from perfect.
There are some sects, such as the White Lotus in China, that were engaged in organized crime a la the Tongs. Tibetan Buddhism also had some truly disgusting practices before the Chinese set about their cultural genocide. Japan however gets first place when looking for Buddhists behaving badly. The Tendai and Nichiren sects in Japan are notably terrible, with links to violent far right politics and organized crime. As you say, Buddhism is the least crap religion, but far from perfect.
 
I was listening to an interview with Chris Matheson, son of Richard Matheson and one of the creators of Bill and Ted. In book form, he's written satires of religion, and he has just done one on the Buddha, which he felt he should do because it was almost untouched from a satire point of view
https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Stor...heson&qid=1595603964&s=audible&sr=1-5-catcorr
From the moment of his birth, Siddhartha Gautama never doubted his specialness. He arrived with magnificently webbed digits and could lick his own earlobes. His karma had been that good. Thus, the question was never whether he would become a king, but rather, what type of king he would become. Siddhartha's journey took a sudden spiritual turn when he came to the first of his many realizations: things die, and before they die, they suffer, a lot, for real. This harrowing insight formed the first of his eleven Four Noble Truths (not including the five other parts) and informed his ascetic-minded mission: to free the world of pain, even if he was very glad to no longer care about anything or anyone in it. Having already experienced an incalculable number of past lives, Siddhartha wondered, how could he himself escape this endless cycle of suffering? With this question came an enlightened answer that promised a possible way out: only those who live can die. As his body begins to fail following an ill-prepared meal, Siddhartha faces his ultimate test: will he achieve his blessed wish—to cease to exist once and for all—or will he be reborn yet again into another oozing life of pain.

According to Chris, the Buddha died of diarrhea. Is that indeed the fact, and he and Elvis have another thing in common?
 
Elvis Presley didn't die of diarrhoea, he didn't die on the toilet, he died sitting on a chair in his (large) bathroom reading a book about the historical Jesus Christ (not Buddha).
 
Elvis Presley didn't die of diarrhoea, he didn't die on the toilet, he died sitting on a chair in his (large) bathroom reading a book about the historical Jesus Christ (not Buddha).
So no squirts in the death of Buddha?
 
He died of food poisoning, but I don't know which end its effects emerged from.
Found this that seems to confirm a final blowout:https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/who-killed-gautama/264458
For Batchelor, the Buddha’s death is the biggest mystery of all. The texts only say that a man called Cunda the Smith invited the Buddha and his attendants, including Ananda, home. “From the moment it was offered to him, it seems that Gotama suspected something was amiss with the food,” writes Batchelor. According to the texts, the Buddha told his host: “Serve the pork to me, and the remaining food to the other monks.” When the meal was over, he said to Cunda: “You should bury any leftover pork in a pit.” Then he “was attacked by a severe sickness with bloody diarrhoea”. His only response was to say to Ananda: “Let us go to Kusinara.” Which, under the circumstances, Batchelor says, sounds like, “Let’s get out this place.”
 
Monks on Meth.

A small Buddhist temple in Thailand has been left without any monks after they were all dismissed for failing drug tests, local officials have said.

Four monks, including the abbot, tested positive for methamphetamine in the northern province of Phetchabun, an official told news agency AFP. Boonlert Thintapthai said the monks were subsequently sent to a health clinic to undergo drug rehabilitation. The raid comes amid a national campaign to tackle drug trafficking.

The monks were reportedly removed from the temple after police administered urine tests on Monday, which saw all four men fail. Officials did not say what had brought the temple to the attention of police.

Mr Thintapthai told AFP that the "temple is now empty of monks and nearby villagers are concerned they cannot do any merit-making".

Merit-making is an important Buddhist practice where worshippers gain a protective force through good deeds - in this case by giving food to monks.

But Mr Thintapthai said that regional officials had sought the assistance of the local monastic chief, who had promised to assign some new monks to the temple in the Bung Sam Phan district in a bid to address the concerns of worshippers.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-63792923
 

Well, the main historical source for the Buddha's death is, unsurprisingly, to be found in the Buddhist Sutras (= sacred texts) which were written in sanskrit long after his death (until then, they were memorized and recited. Something you can actually feel when you read the oldest ones, because their structure is obviously aimed at memorization, with lots and lots of repetition).

The one dealing with the Buddha's death is the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, which exists in at least two versions, the pali one (from the Theravada school, dominant in Sri Lanka and Thailand) and the Mahayana one (from the later "Great Vehicle" schools, which became dominant in Eastern Asia).

The pali Mahaparinirvana sutra says that, during the rainy season, the Buddha, who was already extremely old (he was about 80 years old) suffered from an "illness" causing him "accute pain and deadly suffering". He pondered that it wouldn't be proper for him to die without saying farewell to his community. So he focused on using his willpower to overcome death and somewhat succeeded. The text politely says that "his illness was somewhat relieved". We should understand here, that he wasn't cured at all, of course ...

Interestingly, at this point, the Buddhist version of the christian devil, Mara, appears to tempt the Buddha to hurry to enter into Nirvana, in other words, to die. The Buddha answers that he certainly will die within three months.

It is only after these events that the Buddha went to have his lunch at Cunda's house. There he deliberatly eats the fated meat and gets his fatal dysentery.

So yes, he may have died of food poisoning. Yet, if we are to fully believe the texts, he was obviously already very ill and weakened. In spite of the sutra's insistance that nobody on earth could have survived eating Cunda's meat (hence the instruction to bury it), the Buddha was probably already doomed to die of something which we will never know, for lack of an autopsy.
 

'Merit-making' on hold as monks fail drug tests leaving Buddhist temple empty


A Buddhist temple in central Thailand has been left without monks after all its holy men failed drug tests and were defrocked.

Four monks including an abbot at a temple in Phetchabun province's Bung Sam Phan district tested positive for methamphetamine on Monday, district official Boonlert Thintapthai told AFP.

The monks have been sent to a health clinic to undergo drug rehabilitation, the official said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-29/thai-temple-left-empty-after-monks-fail-drug-tests/101713616

maximus otter
 
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