Religion Buddhism

I'm a follower of Buddhism.

I'm fascinated by the system of ethics and about what a society, ran by followers of Buddhism would look like.
 
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I want to become a Buddhist like Richard Gere... but do I have to shove a gerbil up my butt?
 
Are we talking about Buddhism-Buddhism or Barbary ape-buhdism?

(Please, somebody get this)
 
I looked into it at one point, but the little bit I read about I didn't like. There are good parts too, but if you're going to follow a religion, you can't cherry pick just the parts you like.

You're supposed to be vegetarian, so as not to kill other living creatures. But, if someone offers you meat, you're supposed to eat it, so you don't hurt their feelings. So, someones feelings are more important than the life of an animal?

Also, the karma system tends to blame the victim. If you have an abortion, you and the unborn fetus are both punished ( not sure how else to describe it); you for the abortion, the fetus because it must have done something bad in a previous life to be aborted. If you're poor, have an illness, are raped or killed, etc it's because you must have done something bad in a previous life.

I may have interpreted what I read wrong, please correct me if so.
 
Calliegirl said:
I looked into it at one point, but the little bit I read about I didn't like. There are good parts too, but if you're going to follow a religion, you can't cherry pick just the parts you like.

You're supposed to be vegetarian, so as not to kill other living creatures. But, if someone offers you meat, you're supposed to eat it, so you don't hurt their feelings. So, someones feelings are more important than the life of an animal?

Also, the karma system tends to blame the victim. If you have an abortion, you and the unborn fetus are both punished ( not sure how else to describe it); you for the abortion, the fetus because it must have done something bad in a previous life to be aborted. If you're poor, have an illness, are raped or killed, etc it's because you must have done something bad in a previous life.

I may have interpreted what I read wrong, please correct me if so.
Click to expand...
It is a little more complicated than that, but to each his own! :)
http://www.dhammawiki.com/index.php?title=Vegetarianism_and_Buddhism

The Pali Canon and vegetarianism

Main article: Anguttara Nikaya 3.16“Monks, one possessed of three qualities is put into Purgatory according to his actions. What three? One is himself a taker of life, encourages another to do the same and approves thereof. Monks, one possessed of three qualities is put into heaven according to his actions. What three? He himself abstains from taking life, encourages another to so abstain, and approves of such abstention.” Anguttara Nikaya 3.16

8u2yzu6y.jpg


The Fruits of Absolutism
http://buddhism.about.com/od/basicbuddhistteachings/a/abortion_2.htm
Although Buddhism discourages abortion, we see that criminalizing abortion causes much suffering. The Alan Guttmacher Institute documents that criminalizing abortion does not stop it or even reduce it. Instead, abortion goes underground and is performed in unsafe conditions.In desperation, women submit to unsterile procedures. They drink bleach or turpentine, perforate themselves with sticks and coat hangers, and even jump off roofs. Worldwide, unsafe abortion procedures cause the deaths of about 67,000 women per year, mostly in nations in which abortion is illegal.Those with "moral clarity" can ignore this suffering. A Buddhist cannot. In his book The Mind of Clover: Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics, Robert Aitken Roshi said (p.17), "The absolute position, when isolated, omits human details completely. Doctrines, including Buddhism, are meant to be used. Beware of them taking life of their own, for then they use us."

What About the Baby?

My understanding is that an individual is a phenomenon of life in the same way a wave is a phenomenon of ocean. When the wave begins, nothing is added to the ocean; when it ends, nothing is taken away.Robert Aitken Roshi wrote (The Mind of Clover, pp. 21-22),"Sorrow and suffering form the nature of samsara, the flow of life and death, and the decision to prevent birth is made on balance with other elements of suffering. Once the decision is made, there is no blame, but rather acknowledgment that sadness pervades the whole universe, and this bit of life goes with our deepest love."

The Buddhist Approach

In researching this article I found universal consensus among Buddhist ethicists that the best approach to the abortion issue is to educate people about birth control and encourage them to use contraceptives. Beyond that, as Karma Lekshe Tsomo writes,"In the end, most Buddhists recognize the incongruity that exists between ethical theory and actual practice and, while they do not condone the taking of life, do advocate understanding and compassion toward all living beings, a lovingkindness that is nonjudgmental and respects the right and freedom of human beings to make their own choices."
 
Lately I have seen Buddhists saying things like "There is no point in helping others as everything is meaningless anyway and life is an illusion, and trying to help others interrupts the flow of life." I have seen that sort of thing come up from time to time via some Buddhists.
 
Freesia said:
Lately I have seen Buddhists saying things like "There is no point in helping others as everything is meaningless anyway and life is an illusion, and trying to help others interrupts the flow of life." I have seen that sort of thing come up from time to time via some Buddhists.
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Well, that is pretty depressing. I disagree with that statement. :)
 
I don't want to quote the whole page, but this explains karma. Which basically says, anything good or bad that happens to you, is because of something similar you did in a previous life.

If you have wealth, you must have given a lot of money to others in past lives. If you are beaten, it's because you did that to others in a previous life.

...The objective and subjective conditions together determine the weight of karma. This is important because understanding this will help us to understand that karma is not simply a matter of black and white, or good and bad. Karma is moral action and moral responsibility. But the working of the Law of Karma is very finely tuned and balanced so as to match effect with cause, so as to take into account the subjective and objective conditions that determine the nature of an action. This ensures that the effects of actions are equal to and similar to the nature of the causes...

...For instance, when Maudgalyayana was beaten to death by bandits, the Buddha was able to tell that this event was the effect of something Maudgalyayana had done in a previous life when he had taken his aged parents to the forest and having beaten them to death, had then reported that they had been killed by bandits...
Click to expand...

So all those rich, powerful, rightwing nutjobs, trying to take away women's rights, must have been wonderful people in past lives to be in the positions they are in. While that girl who was raped and killed in India, must have been a pretty horrible person previously.

http://www.buddhanet.net/fundbud9.htm
 
I like this explanation of Karma.
de5yba2y.jpg

"The word Karma literally means “action”. And that is exactly what Karma is, it is our conditioned behaviors, or accumulated sum total of our actions. Our conditioned behavior patterns which follow us from life to life, ARE our Karma. Think of karma like this: Imagine that your behavior patterns, or habits, are like the grooves in a record. They play the same tune as long as we keep playing the same record. We keep digging deeper grooves in our own broken records by making the same mistakes, reacting in the same ways, and performing the same karma. Karma is the groove in the record that we keep replaying on our metaphorical record players of life. So in sum, Karma is our conditioned behaviors that define our relationship to the universe. So to change our Karma, just put a different record on the stereo. Change your ACTIONS!That being said, there are ancillary consequences that play out in a “law of attraction” kind of scenario. In other words, we keep sending out bad actions, reactions and behaviors into the cosmic energy field, and BAM we attract those energies right back to us. The world is a mirror, and we we reap what we sow. So remember, karma is NOT the law of attraction, it is our own behavior that is our Karma. It is our actions which define us within the world that we interact with in real time. The Law of Attraction merely plays along and cooperates with us.And so goes the saying “we must BE the change we wish to see in the world.” Changing our behavior, our action, our Karma, changes the world, and our relationship TO IT.
Namastet " http://www.soundmindmeditation.com/blog/?p=148
 
Rachel in Glee once described Karma as "the law of physics."

That was one of the many times I've been tempted to throw the remote through the TV because of that show.
 

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