The Official Buddhism thread

[wally]

I think it's high time we had a thread about Buddhism on this board. Please forgive me if we already have one that I have somehow missed.

To me it seems like most american-born buddhist converts that I meet are primarily concerned with Tibetan Buddhism. I assume this has to do with the influence of the Dalai Lama. Maybe I just haven't met any people that adhere to other variations.

Good news! depictions of Buddha are most welcome in this thread!

[Solon]

I think it's high time we had a thread about Buddhism on this board. Please forgive me if we already have one that I have somehow missed.

To me it seems like most american-born buddhist converts that I meet are primarily concerned with Tibetan Buddhism. I assume this has to do with the influence of the Dalai Lama. Maybe I just haven't met any people that adhere to other variations.

Good news! depictions of Buddha are most welcome in this thread!

This thread is insufferable.
[Buddhism joke!]

[UtahDan]

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[wally]

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I assume you are referencing the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_arrow"]Parable of the arrow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

I personally really like this parable. Don't get lost in the unknowable.

[wuapinmon]

Who gave you permission to use a photo of that statue of me?

[Indy Coug]

When your mind becomes motionless
and the brilliant eyes of the peaceful mind
take a straight look down into the depth of your heart
you will see the life-force pulsating and thriving
in the warmth of pure love.

As you experience this pure love
what we all call "heart"
beams of light will begin to radiate from the center of it
for heaven is there in eternity.

If you can release this radiance of love
and allow it to flow through you,
your heart will become light.
The spirit will get liberated into the air
and then, from a place of inner stillness
you will know what it would be like
to be an eagle and soar in the evening skies.

And most of all,
you would understand
what it would be like
to be perfectly sane.

...

[UtahDan]

My main complaint about Buddhism is that it wants you to achieve peace by ceasing to be attached to anything, including people. I think attachments to people, even when they painful, are the best part of life.

[jay santos]

On my mission in Korea, nearly everyone we met knocking on doors said they were Buddhist. When I asked them what they believed, maybe 1 out of 1,000 could give me a coherent response. I think it might be possible that there's no such thing as Buddhism.

[wuapinmon]

Some traditions of Buddhism hold that the self and other do not exist, which can lead one to nihilism and the realization that all that exists is nothingness, a vacío as it were. However, once enlightenment occurs, one then becomes aware of the cosmic interconnectedness of everything, sometimes called non-dual awareness. Robert Thurman in his lectures On Buddhism says, “There is no self, but there is a soul. We are not nothing,” meaning that there is no self and others realization, but a realization that the highest purpose of the collective is the role and betterment of the individual self. In these traditions the individual still asserts some notion of identity, perhaps via the choice to be compassionate or to remain in a state of servitude to his or her desires. In this way the individual, albeit part of the collective, is still “free” to follow his or her own agency as he or she decides whether to obey the imperative to be compassionate to all sentient life.