Buddhism, an out of place religion?

Does anybody else think the Buddhist religion was formed a bit ahead of its time? It just seems strange to me that everybody else in the world was worshiping a pantheon of violent, possessive or omnipotent gods…..but the Buddhist religion was based upon the oneness of the universe and self realization. Maybe this is not accurate, but it sure seems that way.

On that topic, has anybody noticed a trend that seems to be coming about……modern Christianity seems to be viewing the same concept of oneness (under the name GOD) as opposed to older versions of Christianity?

I am really not a religious person, but I would be really interested to hear whether anybody has any input as to why the Buddhist/Zen concept is what it is, or how you think it came about.

oops, I just got a message via u2u. I am not trying to insult anybody's religion, sorry if it came off that way. I really just wanted to know.

I'm not a 100% on these religions, but from what little I do understand, Hinduism and Shintoism are similar.

I believe Buddhism is a philosophy and not a religion. Same with Shintoism and Taoism.

Originally posted by DerbyCityLights
I believe Buddhism is a philosophy and not a religion. Same with Shintoism and Taoism.

Well that's what I get, two posts and I already feel like an idiot.

Originally posted by DerbyCityLights
I believe Buddhism is a philosophy and not a religion. Same with Shintoism and Taoism.

agreed... more a philosophy or ideaology rather than a dogma style practice...


the only thing i cannot completely accept is the tradition that led some zealot Monks to pour gasoline on themselves and ingnite themselves into crisps ---

ostensibly to end-the-war or some other passionate cause of the moment.

One of the major factors of Buddhism is that they not have a list of demands to follow in order to achieve happiness. Here's a snippet from an entry on the base teachings of Buddhism.

In the remaining years of his life, the Buddha traveled and taught. However, he didn't teach people what he had realized when he became enlightened. Instead, he taught people how to realize enlightenment for themselves. He taught that awakening comes through one's own direct experience, not through beliefs and dogmas.

Also,

Most religions are defined by their beliefs. But in Buddhism, merely believing in doctrines is beside the point. The Buddha said that we should not accept doctrines just because we read them in scripture or are taught them by priests. Instead of teaching doctrines to be memorized and believed, the Buddha taught how we can realize truth for ourselves. The focus of Buddhism is on practice rather than belief. The major outline of Buddhist practice is the Eightfold Path.

So, yeah Buddhism to me, was ahead of it's time. I'm glad this belief system is not corrupted like many others.

I do not think that buddhism was "ahead of it's time" it is just an eastern religion. Too many people think the deffinition of religion is "christian,catholic,jewish and muslim" which does not make sense because all four of those need to be true for the others to be true. However eastern religions have nothing to do with the 3 bibles so people discount them as religion because they are not based off the 3 bibles.
But this kind of begs the question what is buddhisim? Many people think buddhisim means meditate and make up whatever you want and call it buddhisim. Take a look around and see what people call buddhisim and it becomes very laughable.
But i think the "its not a religion thing" was really started because it made sense to people of faith and atheists. Now a some christians could not say that another religion is good because of the flame war they would start at their church and the evangelical type atheists cant really say it's "good" for the same reason, and the can't really "debunk" buddah like they do the bible. so people just say it is not a religion.

[edit on 28-4-2010 by zaiger]

Originally posted by hyperion.martin

Originally posted by DerbyCityLights
I believe Buddhism is a philosophy and not a religion. Same with Shintoism and Taoism.

Well that's what I get, two posts and I already feel like an idiot.

No need to feel that way. I didn't know this until I home schooled my daughter for a few years and I put religion as one of her studies. You would be amazed at how many people think the same as you my friend

[edit on 28-4-2010 by DerbyCityLights]

Originally posted by hyperion.martin
Does anybody else think the Buddhist religion was formed a bit ahead of its time? It just seems strange to me that everybody else in the world was worshiping a pantheon of violent, possessive or omnipotent gods…..but the Buddhist religion was based upon the oneness of the universe and self realization. Maybe this is not accurate, but it sure seems that way.

On that topic, has anybody noticed a trend that seems to be coming about……modern Christianity seems to be viewing the same concept of oneness (under the name GOD) as opposed to older versions of Christianity?

I am really not a religious person, but I would be really interested to hear whether anybody has any input as to why the Buddhist/Zen concept is what it is, or how you think it came about.

I like the BUDDHIST ways for they are represented by the BROTHER MONKS WHO ARE VERY HUMBLE and EXTREMELY ADVANCED SPIRITUALLY they keep the light shining bright in that region, smh CHINA. As far as why the new age CHRISTIANITY is seeming to embrace the concept of oneness, mabey CHRISTIANITY IS developing into what it was always ment to be LIGHT FOR ALL WHO SEEK AND DESERVE it. This is why I cannot just ignore any religions for they all seem to possess GIFTS AND FLAWS but when all combined together make the best picture ever which presents = and love for all. Which helps destroy the inner feelings many possess which question if 1 religion is better then others causing conflict even in todays world..

[edit on 4/28/10 by Ophiuchus 13]

Originally posted by hyperion.martin
Does anybody else think the Buddhist religion was formed a bit ahead of its time? It just seems strange to me that everybody else in the world was worshiping a pantheon of violent, possessive or omnipotent gods…..but the Buddhist religion was based upon the oneness of the universe and self realization. Maybe this is not accurate, but it sure seems that way.

On that topic, has anybody noticed a trend that seems to be coming about……modern Christianity seems to be viewing the same concept of oneness (under the name GOD) as opposed to older versions of Christianity?

I am really not a religious person, but I would be really interested to hear whether anybody has any input as to why the Buddhist/Zen concept is what it is, or how you think it came about.

I as a Buddhist am not offended by your question however Buddhism is not a religion, it's a way of training the monkey mind to see the truth of nature, a way of controlling oneself, and self help it's more like going to a psychologist to understand who YOU are and what we call I. I could go on and on for days.

I hope you find the answers you seek.

If you listen to the teachings of Christ they are very Buddha-like in nature. Actually, the Essenes were around a few centuries before Christ and were teaching the same message. Also, there are stories that during those missing years age 12-30 Jesus had visited India and Tibet. Given the very Buddhist like style of Christ's teaching these claims are not all that outrageous. Both religions teach the same virtues:

Love
Compassion
Oneness
Understanding

The only law is to love God with all your mind/body and soul, and love your fellow man as yourself. I think the major religions of today are a lot more similar than people realize. Especially Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity.

reply to post by hyperion.martin


I completely agree with you about Buddhism seemingly being before it's time given the plethora of other religions out there. Personally, I do not see Buddhism as a religion at all. There really isn't much dogma to speak of and they don't worship a specific deity and require others to do so in order to be able to call themselves Buddhists. Also, they don't try to dwell too much on whether or not there is some omnipresent creator and how we got here. To them, it's about what you do with your time on Earth. The rest is just secondary and almost inconsequential.

I watched a fabulous documentary about the inception of Buddhism and exactly how the Buddha came to be enlightened. Listening to the Dali Lama speak about Buddhism and the rest of the religions of the world was so inspiring I'm getting chills right now thinking about it.

Buddhism does not require that you follow a certain path in order to achieve enlightenment and transcendence. There are simply some basic principles to adhere to, but the best way to describe it is you get to sort of mix and match with those principles to find what works best for you.

Buddhists promote peace and love and self realization; however, they do not expect anyone to not every give into the negative emotions such as anger and fear. They realize these are part of the human condition and are unaviodable. It's what you do with these emotions once you experience them that matters.

I'm not a Buddhist, just to be clear, I just learned all of this only a couple of weeks ago from this documentary and I realized how much I and others dont' really know about Buddhism. Once I learned these things, I realized that the Buddhists belief system and my own were almost exact.

I honestly believe that one can be Christian, Muslim, Jew, etc and be Buddhist at the same time.

I don't see Buddism as a religion at all. It is a method and attitude that can be pursued toward the goal of self-enlightenment. I particularly like the concepts of self-centering, humility, open-mindedness, and allowing "reality" to unfold instead of forcing things.

Originally posted by nunya13
reply to post by hyperion.martin

 

I watched a fabulous documentary about the inception of Buddhism and exactly how the Buddha came to be enlightened. Listening to the Dali Lama speak about Buddhism and the rest of the religions of the world was so inspiring I'm getting chills right now thinking about it.

Do you by chance remember the name of the Documentary? It sounds cool

Originally posted by RuneSpider
I'm not a 100% on these religions, but from what little I do understand, Hinduism and Shintoism are similar.

I'm not sure about Shintoism, but Hinduism is slightly like Buddhism except that they have certain deities they worship and dogman they follow. In this sense, Hinduism can definitely be called a religion whereas calling Buddhims a religion is up for debate.

Also, as opposed to Buddhism, they have and do succumb to violence to get their point across. That I know of, not taking the monks who set themselves on fire into consideration, there is not really a case of Buddhists causing violence against others. There may be isolated incidents brought on by an individual, but the Buddhist belief system has no room for violence whatsoever.

reply to post by hyperion.martin


Yes, it was simply called "The Buddha"

Here is a link to the site on PBS Link

It really was a very informative documentary and also inspiring. The Dali Lama really is a very enlightened person.

Actually you shouldnt be embarrassed by the similarities between shinto and tao and buddhism, seeming to state that several eastern philosophies state the same thing. There is a reason for this. Buddhism originated from the hindu path to enlightenment, when sidharta came to realise enlightenment as prescribed in hinduism was largely more difficult to attain for the laymen. Buddhism, as we know it now, and especially zen, is formed from the meshing of ideas between hinduism and taoism, making enlightenment more practical and attainable for the average lay person. Taoism and Shinto also shared early influence as well, which cause them to be similar. So in actuality all three, taoism, shinto, buddhism, can be seen as branches from the same tree, similarly to the way that christianity and islam are branches from the original hebrew old testament.

The discernment that hinduism is more dogmatic is not necessarily true, as the true reason for the multiple deities is actually a representation of our true inner beings, and the hindus (in the esoteric tradition) use these as focuses for their intent, which when cultivated lead to the attainment of enlightenment and compassion, as well as many "siddhis" or powers, such as say, christs turning water into wine, or sathya sai babba's spontaneous creations of sacred ash etc. This is similar in nature to the native americans tradition of spirit animals or totems, which are in actuality manifestations of a persons interconnectedness with all things, and communion of which give the practicer greater abilities of insight and intuition. Indeed, shamanism also has many things in common with those esoteric eastern religions, and indeed all forms of spirituality, including judeo christian, originated from early shamanic thought and ritual.

funny thing is Jesus taught Buddhism For those wanting to know check out the life of saint Issa. Most Christiam scholars also believe Jesus taught Buddhism so it is obvious christanity has nothing to do with what Jesus taught people

I forgot to add...I never realized until i participated in practice with some western american native americans myself, that shamanism actually is a largely meditative practice as well, which leads to exploration and expansion of consciousness similar to that of buddhism.

One more thing to keep in mind....while most mainstream religions have large arguments and even wars over small details...all the mainstream ideologies also have mystical groups as well. For christians its the gnostics, for judeaism its kabbalah, for islam its the sufis and dervishes, and for hindu its the yogis. While the mainstream fundamentalists and lay people may argue and fight, these mystical sides of their religion actually align quite closely, and most say many of the same things as zen, espousing greatly the ideas of personal experience with the divine, rather than a priestly mediator, and also of the unity of all creation and the interconnectedness of all things, and of the reality that most of the material existence that we perceive is actually illusion, what tribal groups often call the "dream". All of these esoteric groups, every single one i believe, accept as given our divine nature, and the complete lack of seperation from god or divinity itsself.