Eastern religion and philosophy

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What about it Ruveyn? <.<

AG, Can I thoroughly recommend to you the works of Lama Tsong Khapa? He was a Tibetan buddhist scholar from a tradition that relies *heavily* on debate and analytical thought.
He compiled the entire essence of the Buddha's teachings - both the sutras and the commentaries other scholars wrote on those sutras - into a concise and complete method to enlightenment. It has only very recently been translated into English. It is available in three volumes. It's called Lam Rim Chen Mo which means The Great Treatise on The Stages Of The Path To Enlightenment.

It's said to contain everything you need to know without burdening you with stuff you don't need to know. There's no pussy-footing around with Lama Tsong Khapa!

Meditation is used as well, but the process doesn't seem as vague as the Zen tradition. I love Zen too, but these teachings just seem less mysterious for people who feel they need something to grasp onto (before letting it go!). It's a step-by-step manual.

The third volume takes you through an intense debate between Lama Tsong Khapa and followers of other traditions about the notion of emptiness and the ultimate state of existence. It's possible to obtain teachings from present Lamas who can help explain some of this because it can be quite mind-blowing!

If you go to the FPMT website, click on the FPMT store or shop - you should be able to find these books. It's said you need incredibly good karma to meet the teachings of Lama Tsong Khapa. (If you believe in karma, idk!) If followed correctly enlightenment can be achieved in one lifetime, it's said.

AG, I was hoping you would ask something like this. Your views seem to be teetering on the edge of the stuff I've been studying. The religious formalities might put you off - but Lama Tsong Khapa himself recommends looking for the pith of the teachings. He can teach you the Middle Way between eternalism and nihilism - the direct way of seeing the true nature of existence.

There are so many sutras to study and their meanings can be quite ambiguous. If you rely on them it's easy to lose the perspective and become baffled with all the analogies. The Lam Rim Chen Mo explains the intention of all the sutras in a practical way. It came about at a time when the Tibetan people were confused by apparent contradictions in the teachings. Lama Tsong Khapa clarifies all the Buddha's teachings - both Theravada/Hinayana and Mahayana.

NB: Lama means teacher, as opposed to the animal llama!

The one-l lama,
He's a priest.
The two-l llama,
He's a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn't any
Three-l lllama.*

Ogden Nash

I think there's a huge amount of sense in Buddhism. While some sects (like Pure Land and the Vajrayana school of Tibet) are heavy on imagery and mythic symbolism, the basic central tenets, the Four Noble Truths, don't require you to believe anything at all. They're demonstrable facts about life and the world:

Life is suffering. (Not that everything's always totally awful, more that even the nice bits aren't ever totally satisfactory. The Sanskrit word for suffering used here, dukkha, means the grating of a wheel that's not properly fixed to its axle.)
Suffering comes from attachment. (The problem is that we want to hold onto stuff - possessions, people, situations, feelings - when the truth is that everything is constantly changing and there is nothing permanent in life we can hold on to.)
Cessation of attachment means cessation of suffering. (If we can learn to let go and accept the impermanence of life, we can be truly happy.)
The key to cessation of attachment is the Eightfold Path. (It's all about learning how to think, act, speak etc. in the right way, until the above facts become completely intregrated into your life.)

The Buddha said in the Kalama Sutra (and I'm paraphrasing here) 'Don't believe anything because a great man told you, or because you read it in a book, or because it's what everybody else thinks...check it out for yourself and then decide if it works.' Which is refreshing, given the number of people in religion generally whose stance is 'believe what I say or else'.

(PS If you want to take his advice, the Dhammapada is the place to start.)

some translations make the first noble truth to be, "life is imperfect," or "life contains suffering," or "life is unsatisfactory." Basically the idea is that low points will occur in any life, no matter how happy - if nothing else, we will all die at some point and most of us are attached enough to our lives to dislike that fact.

I thoroughly enjoy many eastern religions. I think they are beneficial in helping myself avoid rigid thinking and helping me relax. I also enjoy Alan Watts, although he can be difficult to read.

If you want something entertaining, then read the Tao of Pooh. It is funny and a good start to Taoism because you don't need much background knowledge to read it. It is of course, a silly book, but if we took everything seriously we would never have religion.