I haven't seen too many threads about buddhism here. I was reading about it & it sounds interesting to me Any buddhists in the house? What do you think about buddhism?
Iam not of Buddhism though i agree with the concept of karma in Buddhism which was taken from hinduism.
My sister recently converted to Buddhism. The Foundation of Buddhism in based on Hinduism. Id you see Buddhism is not purely a religion, its a way to lead the life. Buddha never represented himself as a Prophet/Son of God/ Messenger of God or anything.
Yeah, Thatz why i like buddhism, next to hinduism. No one person can be close to god, or son of god or daughter of god or sister of god or brother of god
I would actually say that Sikhism rates higher on the peace deal...their only major fight to my knowledge was when the muslims tried to take over the punjab region of India, and the Sikh's kicked them back out.
They are good people, but not that much peace loving. At least from what I have seen. They terrorized India in 80's
I dont think I have ever heard of a war with Buddhists involved. Most wars seem to be between Christians, Muslims and Jews.
d16, I'd have to respectfully disagree with you here. I am fairly close to our Sikh community in Chicago. From what I have seen, they pride themselves on their martial and military tradition. They even have their own tradition in martial arts - it's called "gatka," which is basically an armed form of sword combat, some empty-hand, and some horseback forms. I've seen the competitions and exhibitions. Here, I just dug this up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatka No such tradition exists in buddhism, in any of its schools - mahayana (zen, tibetan, "pure land," you name it), or the vinayana of southern asia. At least not to my knowledge. That the samurai of Japan embraced zen training has more to do with their having to find something that allowed them to die on a moment's notice, without hesitation; and this ethos - action without hesitation, full commitment - flowered into other things in Japan, including art. But this was Japanese culture extracting zen, not the other way around. Webmaster is correct, at least insofar as there has been a longstanding, violent struggle between sikhs and the putative hindu state structure in India. The most obvious marker of such violence is probably Indira Gandhi's own murder, by her sikh bodyguards, in 1984. To call it "terrorism" I will have to deign to others more knowledgeable.
They do have their Shaolin Kung Fu, which is quiet famous, and world wide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaolin_kung_fu I've never heard of a buddist war at all, and they do seem like peaceful people, who just like to be able to defend them selves in my opionion.
Sohan, great point, and I absolutely agree with you. The only thing I would add is that Shao'lin, at least as reported in the texts, was seen by the founder of Ch'an (Zen, Japanese), Bodhidharma (Da Mo, Chinese; Daruma, Japanese), as a means of revitalizing what he saw as a moribund, effete class of intellectual monks, by physical training. The idea of "the way in is through the body" has been part and parcel of zen ever since. Hence, "chop wood, carry water," and other notions - use the body, whether sitting in meditation or in cleaning the stairs; vigorous training always. The attitude of "relaxed concentration," samadhi, inherent in meditation, found a ready marriage in martial training. Here's a poem, in dedication to my teacher. Something, I hope, of the marriage: Dew decked leaves give way, one darkly narrow and bumbling path. One clutch, clouds and antic high so one wind, rotting wood, and keen, green scents. One cut, Sensei, and Lightning Cleaves the Dim. Herons surge among the tilting reeds - morning mist on blue-black pond.
Dumb.... This is a thread about Buddhism, why do you need to bring Christianity? Someone will jump and say similar about Islam. And then the thread will turn into another Christian Vs. Muslim heat deal, like we do not have enough.. So stay away from thread hijacking...
I dislike Christianity as much as any sane person, but trolling an off-topic thread and looking for people to irritate doesn't do anyone any good. If you feel like you have something to say and you genuinely want to change someone's mind for the better, do it in the right place and with the right attitude.
Buddhism is probably the only religion that still exists that I actually respect. There were others, but they're all virtually gone. As for anything else? I rank them on my Sphincter Scale.