Questions about Buddhism, ask them here.

[dyanaprajna2011]

If anyone has any questions about Buddhism, post them here, and I'll answer them to the best of my ability.

[Baz]

I must admit that I haven’t found anything that appeals to me in the little I know about Buddhism, it often sound to me like it is saying “The world is full of pain and suffering and life is stressful learn to live with it.�

I would be interested to hear how you feel about being a Buddhist and where to find the brighter side. I do find meditation very beneficial for focus and relaxation and believe it to be a big part of Buddhism so I can see benefits there. I think I would describe it as a religion would you?

[Divine Insight]

If anyone has any questions about Buddhism, post them here, and I'll answer them to the best of my ability.

I have a have a half-a-dozen questions for you:

1. Do you view Buddhism as a spiritual philosophy, or as a secular philosophy?

2. In your view, how does Buddhism different from Taoism?

3. What is the meaning of the concept of nirvana?
(is this a secular psychological concept, or a spiritual concept?)

4. What form, or sect of Buddhism do you personally favor?

5. Do you believe in reincarnation on terms of personal consciousnesses?

6. What does the concept of Karma mean to you?
(is karma just action/reaction in this life, or is it something more than this that mysteriously flows through many lives as in the concept of reincarnation?)

Thanks. I'm just asking to hear your views, not to contest them.

[dyanaprajna2011]

I have a have a half-a-dozen questions for you:

1. Do you view Buddhism as a spiritual philosophy, or as a secular philosophy?

I view it as a spiritual philosophy.

2. In your view, how does Buddhism different from Taoism?

There's not much difference. Even Zen took some of what it teaches from Taoism. I can't think of any major differences off the top of my head.

3. What is the meaning of the concept of nirvana?
(is this a secular psychological concept, or a spiritual concept?)

It can be viewed as both, but, at least to me, it's primarily a spiritual concept. Nirvana is the mind that is free from the three poisons of greed, aversion, and ignorance. It is the mind that sees reality clearly, instead of through the dirty lens that we view it through.

4. What form, or sect of Buddhism do you personally favor?

I'm primarily Zen.

5. Do you believe in reincarnation on terms of personal consciousnesses?

No, not really. In Buddhism, we don't really call it reincarnation, we call it rebirth. The difference is that, in reincarnation, it's ones personal, independent, ego-self, called a soul, that is reincarnated. In Buddhism, there is no such thing, it's simply one's karma that is rebirthed.

6. What does the concept of Karma mean to you?
(is karma just action/reaction in this life, or is it something more than this that mysteriously flows through many lives as in the concept of reincarnation?)

Karma is the law of cause and effect, on a spiritual and moral note, and spans lifetimes. It is what influences a rebirth, whether in the human realm, or one of the other five realms of existence.

Thanks. I'm just asking to hear your views, not to contest them.

No problem.

[dyanaprajna2011]

I must admit that I haven’t found anything that appeals to me in the little I know about Buddhism, it often sound to me like it is saying “The world is full of pain and suffering and life is stressful learn to live with it.�

I would be interested to hear how you feel about being a Buddhist and where to find the brighter side. I do find meditation very beneficial for focus and relaxation and believe it to be a big part of Buddhism so I can see benefits there. I think I would describe it as a religion would you?

Many people read about Buddhism, and one of the first things you learn is that "life is suffering", which is the first noble truth. This does seem to be pessimistic, and most people just leave it at that. But, to go on and read the other three noble truths, one finds that the Buddha gave us the reason for suffering, says it has an end, and gives us the path to suffering's end. This is the bright side, this is the good news.

Buddhism is more than just learning to live with pain and suffering. It's a change of mind and attitude that sees what causes pain and suffering, and learning to eliminate it from one's life and mentality.

Buddhism does have religious elements, and I certain consider it a religion. Most people say that it's properly a spiritual philosophy, as a lot of the elements found in other religions aren't found in Buddhism. But some say that they are there, they're just understood differently.

[Divine Insight]

Karma is the law of cause and effect, on a spiritual and moral note, and spans lifetimes. It is what influences a rebirth, whether in the human realm, or one of the other five realms of existence.

Thank you for your quick replies.

Can you elaborate more on the five realms of existence?

Thank you.

[dyanaprajna2011]

Karma is the law of cause and effect, on a spiritual and moral note, and spans lifetimes. It is what influences a rebirth, whether in the human realm, or one of the other five realms of existence.

Thank you for your quick replies.

Can you elaborate more on the five realms of existence?

Thank you.

The six realms of existence in Buddhism are the heaven realm, the asura realm, the human realm, the animal realm, the hungry ghost realm, and the hell realm. One ends up in one of these realms depending on the karma they cultivated while in the previous realm. For instance, if one spent most of their life with a mindset of greed, envy, and jealousy, always trying to get things, then they're likely to end up in the hungry ghost realm. If one spent their life with the mindset of doing no harm to any being, living rightly and morally, one is likely to end up in the heaven realm.

[Divine Insight]

Karma is the law of cause and effect, on a spiritual and moral note, and spans lifetimes. It is what influences a rebirth, whether in the human realm, or one of the other five realms of existence.

Thank you for your quick replies.

Can you elaborate more on the five realms of existence?

Thank you.

The six realms of existence in Buddhism are the heaven realm, the asura realm, the human realm, the animal realm, the hungry ghost realm, and the hell realm. One ends up in one of these realms depending on the karma they cultivated while in the previous realm. For instance, if one spent most of their life with a mindset of greed, envy, and jealousy, always trying to get things, then they're likely to end up in the hungry ghost realm. If one spent their life with the mindset of doing no harm to any being, living rightly and morally, one is likely to end up in the heaven realm.

Well, on a personal level that sounds pretty inviting to me?

But then again I'm not clear on what it should be? Who is me?

So here's couple more questions for.

One question is on what you said previously: "In Buddhism, we don't really call it reincarnation, we call it rebirth. The difference is that, in reincarnation, it's ones personal, independent, ego-self, called a soul, that is reincarnated. In Buddhism, there is no such thing, it's simply one's karma that is rebirthed."

Can you elaborate on the difference between the "ego-self" and this idea of "Karma" that is birthed.

I mean, in terms of conscious awareness what is the difference? Is there an independent conscious awareness that is re-birthed.

It seems to me that if there isn't, then what sense does it make to even speak about an existence in another life that was determined by the actions in this life?

What is it that's going to experience this re-birthed life? Wouldn't that seat of consciousness be considered some sort of "soul".

This is what I don't understand. If there is no independent recognizable seat of consciousness that is "my soul", then what meaning does it have to speak of a next life being determined by the actions I had undergone in this life?

What you just said here: "One ends up in one of these realms depending on the karma they cultivated while in the previous realm.";

Seems to imply that there is some "One" that is being kept track of in some way. Otherwise what sense odes it make to speak about my next life being determined by my current actions?"

So there must be some 'individual one' that is being kept track of or preserved from one incarnation to the next. And that certainly reeks of an idea of an individual "soul".

Not that I have anything against that idea, but it seems to be a bit of a contradiction in terms here with the concept of karma spread out over different lifetimes.

~~~~

Now, if I accept what you've said thus far, I would expect (rightfully or wrongfully) that my next incarnation will most likely be either human again, or in the asural or heavenly realms.

By the way I've never heard of the asural realm. Is that a typo? Did you actually mean astral realm? I'm very familiar with the astral realm from Wicca and European Faery Lore. Although their ideas may be different.

Could you elaborate on this asural realm (or astral realm if that's what you meant?)

I'm curious to see if it's much like the Wiccan and Faery Teachings.

Is this part of Zen Buddhism? I didn't realize that Zen Buddhism got into such detailed spiritual concepts. I thought Zen Buddhism was more abstract like Taoism without really saying much about what any afterlife might be like.

This is interesting.

[ndf8th]

Now I must admit I am bad at using Google search
but I did put in some hours and effort and spread out
through some years too looking it up again and again
and I did not find any good group of former Buddhists.

Christians have groups online of former or Ex.Christians
and Muslims have such groups too. Mormons have Ex-LDS
and Jehova Witness have groups for those those that left them.

Buddhists have at most Communist in China doing some kind of
Anti-Buddhist work online but not really of friendly Ex-Buddhists.

then there are two or three individual Buddhist Monks
that wrote books of them being Monks and now they
are lay person but still Buddhis?

Buddhism seems to be so effective in indoctrination that one can not
be Ex-Buddhist or that one would never admit that in public or help
out other Ex-Buddhists other than in secret?

Do these Ex-Buddhists exist but them keeping a very low official presence?

Or are Buddhism so effective that one can not leave it ever?
The person caught is forever lost into Buddhism? How else
to explain there are no strong presence of Ex-Buddhists?

One reason that I ask is that Amida is known to care about
all sentient beings so those that have been Buddhist but left
would be one such group to care about. When I asked atheistic
Buddhists about Amida then they told me that where religion and
not something they cared about? Could that attitude of dismissing
be one answer why there are no online support for Ex-Buddhists?

It goes against that one should look down upon the religious Buddhists
and not help them out?

English is not my native language so I dearly hope that text
is not seen as hostile or overly critical I am just very surprised
and try to make sense out of a fact. Hope you can shed some light on it?

[Divine Insight]

Christians have groups online of former or Ex.Christians
and Muslims have such groups too. Mormons have Ex-LDS
and Jehova Witness have groups for those those that left them.

All of the religions that you've mentioned here are based on a jealous God who commands that thou shalt worship no other Gods before him. And even mere disbelief in this God is considered to be a heathen sinful act.

So all of the Abrahamic religions are basically condemning people who reject them or leave them. This also flows over into being socially outcast by societies that are mainly religious in terms of an Abrahamic religion.

So people who leave these religions require support groups because they are constantly being harassed and accused by the remaining believers to have "Turned against God", etc.

How else to explain there are no strong presence of Ex-Buddhists?

That's easy to explain. Any Ex-Buddhist, simply move on. There is no social terrorism or accusations of being a heathen if you leave Buddhism, and thus no need for any support groups.

Also, the original Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama actually taught people to never accept anything as dogma just because it's written in a book or because someone else claims it to be true. But instead to seek truth for yourself and be drawn to what calls to you.

If you take that principle seriously, then "ex-Buddhists' who have moved on to other things that have called to them are actually still practicing the core philosophy of Buddhism. So in that sense, it's actually impossible to leave Buddhism really. Buddhism isn't about calling yourself a Buddhist. Nor is it about supporting a specific dogma, or belief system (although some Buddhists do go down that path). But in a sense, it's impossible to not be a Buddhist. Anyone who is following what truly calls to them is basically a Buddhist whether they realize it or not.

This would include followers of Abrahamic religions (assuming that they are indeed following something that truly calls to them). However most followers of the Abrahamic religions aren't following the religions because they were called to them. Most of the followers were born into the religion or convinced to believe in it out of guilt and fear. So it's hard to say how many followers of the Abrahamic religions are actually called to the religion. Probably not too many. The overwhelming majority most likely associate with the religion because they see it as the socially right thing to do. Either that or they have been convinced that to refuse to believe in the religion does indeed translate somehow into an outright rejection of God and a refusal to obey God.

So Buddhism is so dramatically different from the Abrahamic religions that they really can't even be compared at all. And this is why there is no need for any support groups for so-called 'ex-Buddhists'.

I have personally embraced Buddhism and I still do. But I also embrace Taoism and Wicca. I see no real conflict between all three of these. So that's another factor there. Many people who move on to other things from Buddhism never really reject Buddhism altogether, they simply add more to it. So again, they never really feel a need to think of themselves as "ex-Buddhists". They are simply Buddhists who have acquired even a richer spiritual picture of reality.