Buddhism

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What do you need in order to reach enlightenment? Do you need the backing of the gods? Do you need the belief in the Self? Do you desire a release from this world? Are desires wrong for you, even if they consummate your expecations?

I'm not Buddhist, and my beliefs aren't really reflective of their positions, but I agree with what they say (even though I consider it the incorrect method). What is best for you? That is the most correct method for reaching "happiness". You define what happiness is to you. My idea of happiness is oneness (everything and nothing).

To lessen confusion of my position, I am a Panentheist and believe wholly in the Self. There is attachment/desire in my faith (although not superficially).

Another good book is Buddhism Without Beliefs, by Stephen Batchelor.

NO ONE is as rigid as biblical monotheists.

I have a bong with Buddah on it.

If you believe that, you might want to read about the Nichiren Shoshu movement in Nichiren Buddhism. They are, like most Buddhists, nontheists. However, they are, in Japan, an almost militant religious sect. They even have their own political party.

Don't forget that Hindis were killing Muslims just as actively as Muslims were killing Hindis in the war of separation between Pakistan and India.

But the hindis were protecting themselves. Now that the muslims have pakistan and bangladesh, they are still harrassing the hindus. I'm not excusing hindu extremism but i see it as the muslims trying to take over the hindus' land. No offense to any muslims, but that is somewhat common all over the world. Even muslim nations are constantly at war with other muslim nations. The usa needs to form a stronger allience with india since they have a strong army and are dealing with the same issues that we are. Though israel often does terrible things, they are at war with the muslim extremists as well. Israel is actually more of an americanized nation. Though being a christian israeli you might experiance prejudice, you will still have more freedom than being a christian living in most muslim countries. In fact, when a group of jews migrated to india, the only anti-semitism they faced was from the muslims and christians there. The hindus didn't care. Hinduism accepts all faiths as one potential path. Islam believes it's the only true path. Which group of people do you think are going to be more openminded and accepting??

They aren't looked at too positively by other Buddhist sects, and there was a big scandal about fifteen years ago that involved money disappearing and some other shady dealings. They may practice the 8 fold path and the 4 noble truths, but there's some other wacky stuff in there that smacks of messiah-worship, and that's a big WTF in the Buddhist communities.

True, but that was my point. There are theistic groups in Judaism (such as the ultra-orthodox), Christianity (such as the Christian identity movement and the KKK), and Islam (like al-Qa'ida) which are not viewed too positively by many other Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The same is true with Buddhists.

In other words, I was questioning an earlier poster who said that nothing is worse than the monotheistic religions. IMO, he made a sweeping generalization which has no empirical support.

http://indianterrorism.bravepages.com/h ... mismup.htm
http://www.proxsa.org/politics/hindutva/partha.html
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/joe/reuben2.html

warning: greusome pics in the last one.

Hindis were not entirely 'just defending themselves,' although that certianly occured too. The fact is that Hindi extremism does exist; an extremist personality can find a way to accomodate itself with whatever religion it is born into (though I will grant that buddhism and hinduism probably make it at least a little more difficult than 'book' religions).

I have personally met at least one very holy catholic priest - someone truly 'called' to devote their life to contemplation - and I've met at least one 'holier than thou' buddhist, who thought they'd found the OneTruePath (tm) and anyone who disagreed with them was naiive or stupid. For that matter, I've met a few really obnoxious born again Pagans, too. People of all religions come in all personality types, and 'murderous extremist' is one of them.

Hinduism (the Vedas) and Buddhism (the Sutras) are both text-based religions. The popular image of Hinduism as a peaceful, tolerant religious category basically goes back only to the 19th century with Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. The religious sects of India have had long histories of bitter sectarian battles.

Sure - there have always been political and religious conflicts there. There are differences in the various sects. Gandhi was killed by extremists from his own religion.

Nominalist - I was using the Islamic word for the 'big three' monotheisms - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The first text for all three is the old testament of the bible, though the latter two have added on.

The Islamic word which is sometimes translated monotheism is tawhíd. However, most Muslims do not consider mainline (trinitarian) Christianity to be monotheistic.

I used to post here. since then i discovered buddhist, or as i prefer to call it buddha-dharma, and it has help a lot. if anyone has any question i can try to clear them up.

Buddhism is attractive to me, not only because of its noble truths and eightfold path but also because it is somewhat agnostic with regard to the nature of deity.

Though the Isrealite God made humans, male and female in "Our" image, it is hard to imagine a High God who is asexual, bisexual or hermaphrodite. The High God almost always (especially in pastoral societies like the semitic peoples) turns out to be male with all the postive and negative characteristics attributed to males (leadership, self reliance, cruelty, aggression, jealousy, dominance, etc, etc.)

In one of James Aho's early books (sorry, I can't remember the title) he compares warfare waged by Jewish, Islamic, and Protestant societies with warfare waged by Hindu, Chinese and Catholic societies. He finds the former far more cruel. serious, and destructive in their warfare. He doesn't relate this to Monotheism (after all Catholics are monotheists also), but I believe that belief in an all powerful male deity expecially encourages rigidity, cruelty, and an inability to compromise in His followers.

This leaves me puzzled about the Buddhist generals of Burma and the goverment of Sri Lanka which is so sanctimoniously determined to crush the Tamils. Maybe all bets are off in the postmodern world.