Religous views

[katleoyumi]

Well..props to you for being intelligent. =P

[Whispers]

Hooray! Propellers! *flies away* Whee-hee-hee-heeeeeeee!

[Pyronic]

The process of thought is what i believe in :O

[thecursed]

Where is Agnostic on the list?

[Whispers]

There needs to be more options or at least an "other".??Some people are not sure, some are polytheistic (more than one deity).??I, myself, am Buddhist.

In Buddhism there are six realms of existence; three lower and three higher.??The three lower realms of existence, in order from lowest to highest, are the hell beings (those who are in hell), hungry ghosts (spirits, ghosts, etc.), and animals.??The three higher realms, from lowest to highest, are humans, demi-gods (angels, demons, "lesser" gods, etc.), and gods.??I should note that although the god realms are the highest form of existence they are not ones aim in Buddhism.

The cyclic existence in which we are born, we age, and we die only to be reborn is called samsara.??Samsara is replete with suffering.??Three types of suffering are seen as tying us to samsara - ignorance, anger, and desire.??Our ignorance of what actually is causes us to desire things which are, in their true nature, undesirable.??When we do not obtain these things or they do not fulfill our needs we become angry.??Anger causes us to engage in acts which have negative karma.??Karma (negative, positive, and neutral) ripens according to the manner in which is was obtained--that is to say that if you shoot someone then somewhere along the line (this life, the next, or eons from now) you yourself will suffer a similar fate.

We have lived in samsara since beginningless time and it has obviously brought us to naught.??Henceforth it can be seen that one thing and one thing only should be sought - freedom from samsara.

All beings from all realms in samsara are subject to comparable fates.??Just as the chicken in your fryer may now be a deity; so, too, can a deity die and be reborn in one of the 16 hell realms (eight hot and eight cold).??Knowing this we see gods as being just as transitory as are we--albeit with much longer lifespans (up to 3,000 years)--we do not put our faith in them.??One might as well pray to the chicken in his paper bucket.??

In that the realms of the gods and demi-gods (in some lineages these two are one in the same giving us five realms of existence) are another form of existence the population is about as comparable to the other respective realms.??

So, you see I don't have a god; however, I do not believe that there is no such thing as a god.

It is in my belief that most religions are true, actually.??Although I do not feel that what the deities promise can be validated I do believe that the gods and goddesses exist/ed.??I feel that Christianity is seeing such an unfortunate decline because the Christian god is over two thousand years old.??We believe that gods have an average lifespan of around three thousand years so Yahweh (The Judeo-Christian God) may be dying or dead which is quite sad.??Of all the past theistic faiths Christianity has been the kindest and gentlest.??Now it stands before us broken, misread, profited, and shunned.??Were we extant a thousand years ago we would be in the heyday of miracles--when God was young.??Now one can stand in the most horrific thunderstorm and take His name in vain without consequence.??We do believe gods have godly powers although they do not have the power to intervene after our death - to enter the bardo.??Only the dead and those free of samsara's illusions may pass freely from state to state--that is, to say, the Buddhas.
This is not a Buddhist belief, don't misread me.??Nowhere in the Sutras (Buddhist teachings--we don't have a single bible but thousands of years of teachings and commentaries on previous teachings) does it say that the Christian god exists and is close to death.??This is merely my own observation.??

[EDIT]

If there was ever a better time for my emote, it is now.??Feel free to copy its link and use it.??=p

[Rei Ayanami]

yay fellow buddhist.

i believe in you who believes in me.

[Kretzer]

Who the hell Necroed this crap? =/

[Whispers]

That would be Child of Bodom when he thanked everyone for participating in his poll. It appears most people feel there is no god while less than a third of that feel there is a god. Seems heRO is a godless server. =p

I helped, too, in that I didn't know of this thread and felt I'd give my two cents when I saw there were new posts.

[mahawirasd]

<3 whispers... <3

if i may sidetrack just a little bit;
whispers, do you think that Buddhism is a religion (A strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny) or more appropriately called "a way of life"?

i do not mean to be condescending or anything, on the contrary i hold Buddhism in high esteem. It's just that i feel that Buddha did not talk about supernatural powered deities that control human destiny, but rather talked about how we should behave in order to find inner peace (free ourselves from our bonds) regardless which deity we believe in (thus the notion that a Christian/Muslim/Jew can also behave "appropriately" and thus attain the status of a Buddha).


back to agnosticism;
i personally believe that even though some times it is much more convenient to believe that there is a god and other times it seems overwhelmingly evident that god does not exist, i have to accept the fact that my existence as a human being limits me from really knowing or confirming neither the former nor the latter.
I find that we as humans are limited. We are blinded by our own senses to the extent that we have to rely on them without ever being able to affirm whether they are actually giving us the correct impulses or not. Thus we exist in a universe that we can perceive but can never confirm. Thus "god" too often comes in handy in acting as an external point of reference to justify our existence - thus the all-too-persistent nature of humans to adhere to such meta-physical justifications...

must everything that exists come from something else?

turtles all the way down?


-w-

[Whispers]

I believe it is both.??It just depends on what your aims are.

If you wish to simply live a happy life - free of unnecessary woes and stress - then you can do this with Buddhism whilst worshiping whatever god you so choose.??We call this the "initial scope."??This means that your aims do not extend beyond your own aversion to suffering.??Everything the Buddha taught outside of rebirth and samsara is based on absolute logic and has actually been scientifically proven.??Meditation on wisdom-inducing topics (compassion, loving-kindness, patience, etc) has shown to shrink those areas of the brain associated with negative emotions while promoting growth and productivity in those areas associated with positive emotion and better brain efficiency.

Nowhere in any religious text does it say meditation is sinful.??Rather they praise the cultivation of positive emotions to better our lives.

Now, everything beyond this, however, deems necessary a belief in reincarnation as the two further scopes - intermediate and great - deal with ones next life, or lack thereof in the case of the great scope.

Whereas the initial scope is used to ensure a lack of suffering in this life, the intermediate scope aims to both seek refuge from suffering also in future lives as well as attaining a more appropriate position in a next life so as to attain nirvana - the absolute release from samsara's plights.??It is most definitely possible for anyone to attain nirvana--the Buddha calls this innateness ones "Buddha Nature"--through intense practice and dedication but it is far easier to do so in, say, a monastery in India.??

Through more advanced practices such as meditations on the four noble truths, true sufferings, delusions and actions, death and rebirth, the twelve dependent-related links, etc. one follows the intermediate scope.??Ones aim here is to create the causes to be reborn as a fortunate being worthy of perfect instruction and practice so as to obtain nirvana in a future life.??We realize the negative karma we have accumulated since beginningless time (we see time as beginningless--everything in samsara is born, lives, and dies - including moments in time.??A moment in time is born from the previous moment and is followed by the next moment upon its death.??It's not a literal meaning of birth, life, and death, of course.).??Seeing this negative karma we know it may be a while until we reach the life of a monk/nun (even women can be Buddhas.??None of that silly sexism or racism in Buddhism??); so, we wait patiently while we purify this karma and/or wait for it to burn off.

Following any of the three scopes bars one from entering any of the three lower realms - the initial scope is not limited to those of other faiths... sometimes it's easier to do just enough.??This doesn't mean your next life as a human will be talk shows and mansions, though.??Some places in the human realm are worse than others in the animal realm (think of an animal-lover's dog ).

The great scope is the ultimate path to nirvana.??One is not merely worried about their suffering in this life, they are not aiming for a fortunate rebirth in a next life.??The aim of a person of the great scope is liberation from samsara.??More than a half hour of meditation everyday/other day.??More than taking precepts at dawn (precepts are taken by more serious practitioners and are promises of abstention from five actions:??harming or killing any living beings, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct [far different definition than the Christian one], lying and false speech, and the abusive consumption of intoxicants and drugs).??More than sitting with a sutra every now and again.??Those on the great scope eat, drink, sleep, live the dharma.??No matter what one is doing they are always contemplating the dharma, meditating, teaching, and/or reciting mantras.??They dedicate their life to obtain parinirvana (the ultimate nirvana achieved upon the death of the body.??Nirvana is usually achieved in life and is a state free from suffering, confusion, and the mental poisons [ignorance, anger, desire].??Parinirvana is the state of non-returning in that one is not reborn in samsara but is free from its fallacies).


So, you see, it can be simply naught more than a way of life when applied as a philosophy or mental science.??However, it is also a religion when used to escape from the binds of samsara.??Then again, one who is Hindu can also see Buddhism as a philosophy in that they already believe in samsara, Buddhism just shows the way out.??I doubt anyone entering Buddhism would say they are Hindu with an emphasis on the teachings of the Buddha, though.??=p