Buddhism: Religion or Philosophy?

god's toy

DublinWriter wrote:

A very dangerous phrase for a Buddhist to use!

I walked on the wild side maybe.

Anyway i'm sure you know what I was trying to say.


Peace to you and yours.

Asiaprod

DublinWriter wrote:

The central teachings of the Buddha are ......

DublinWriter wrote:

Alright then, I'll give you the 'non-Enlightened' answer!

Always the best one.

The central teachings of the Buddha are called 'The Dharma'. This comprises the central philosophic core of Buddhism and came from yer man himself. This is what I'd call the 'philosophy'.

Agreed,

Schools of Buddhism later developed based on this central Dharma. These are what I'd define as the 'religion's.

Also agreed, about 15,000 at the last count.

Hundred's of schools of Buddhism emerged and the break up makes the whole Catholic/Protestant thing look very simple indeed.

It does indeed, the number of Christianity splits and breaks pale by comparison.

The current Dalai Lama went on a major PR drive about ten years ago to warn certain Buddhists about following 'evil' schools of Buddhism who worship so-called 'dark-Gods'.

Yes, I have two of his lecture tours on Video tape. I will try to turn them into movie files and post them. They are very informative.

Schools of Buddhism even engaged in full-on wars, notably in Tibet around the 8th/9th Centuries.

That is indeed where we got Kung Fu from.

I personally follow the Mahayana School...sorry...religion!

I do too, but I do not agree with the word religion. There is nothing religious about my practice.

Here's a good summary of it and how it differs from classic Tibetan (Hinayana) Buddhism...

An informative site, but it does not tell the whole story. One point not mentioned is how the original writings of the Buddha have come to be know as the Provisional teachings. These teaching were further refined as Buddhism spread westward into China and on down through Korea and Japan. The great thinker Tien Tai comes to mind here. The jist of this was that traditional Buddhism as it stood very much focused on leading the life of a monk. In fact, there was a period where only monks were capable of attaining enlightenment, not the common public. Hence the monks devoted their days to continued prayer for us common folk, and we common folk supported them for their efforts on our behalf. This eventually was deemed to be elitist and incorrect, since the Buddha himself stated that everyone is equal and everyone can gain enlightenment.
One of the more fascinating aspects of Buddhism is that it is a progressive belief system. Again it was said by the man himself "if you are not taking one step forward, you are taking two steps back"
So in essence we have a choice, we can become monks and devote our entire existence to praying for others, or we can be ordinary people and devote our life to learning and practicing in the real every day world. The choice is up to the individual. I choose to live in the real world.

hairyheretic

DublinWriter wrote:

The current Dalai Lama went on a major PR drive about ten years ago to warn certain Buddhists about following 'evil' schools of Buddhism who worship so-called 'dark-Gods'.

I'd be interested in hearing more on this aspect.

John Doe

Asiaprod wrote:

So in essence we have a choice, we can become monks and devote our entire existence to praying for others, or we can be ordinary people and devote our life to learning and practicing in the real every day world. The choice is up to the individual. I choose to live in the real world.

Excellent, I have been wondering about this topic for a while, namely whether it was possible to be a 'true Buddhist' without being a monk. That's a nice answer, I may be actually quite close to being a Buddhist. Oooh, 100th post!

Asiaprod

John Doe wrote:

Oooh, 100th post!

Wow, its my 500th and I just got made a 3 star general:D