Buddhism General

[Bart the General]

I am not an expert on Buddhism and I won't tell you what path I follow because that's PI but I enjoy talking about the subject and sharing things that have helped me. I'm skeptical that I'd even be here shitpoasting right now instead of incarcerated federally were it not for a book written by a Buddhist that seemed to articulate truths I knew to be self evident but couldn't express on my own to make them tangible. There are a LOT of misconceptions about buddhism but it's basically the God tier religion by having no actual god. The statues the Taliban destroyed are being rebuilt, they recently discovered a buddhist statue that was solid gold and was painted over the hide it, even if you don't dig the old school shit, buddhism is ever evolving and a true, noble path to follow. Buddhism can be shaped to be any number of things to suit you and your immediate surroundings.

Anyways, enough missionary work, discuss all things Buddhism ITT including whatever concepts and ideals you've found especially helpful in your life, perceptions you have about it, people you know who follow it etc.

[equanimity]

I've always found theistic religions to be at odds with my immediate surroundings, so this is very good news on my end.

[Bart the General]

I've always found theistic religions to be at odds with my immediate surroundings, so this is very good news on my end.

Did you not know that Buddhists have no "God." Some people hold the Buddha to be the true, enlightened and ideal being but Buddha himself didn't think he was enlightened or achieved Nirvana so there's that. Really, if you read a book on Buddhist principles there might be a passing mention of the Buddha in there but it's definitely not a focal point. The only theistic religion whos concept of a Deity made any sense to me is Allah because he's 1, everything and nameless, shapeless, sexless etc.

[equanimity]

I hear he left his family to wander around as an ascetic.  Was this culturally acceptable back then, in India?

[equanimity]

What would constitute "unwise" livelihood?  Is it okay to work for a multinational corporation that poisons their consumers and rapes the environment if you're a janitor who takes pride in making the world better one bathroom stall at a time?

[equanimity]

If I don't exist, then why am I here and what is my purpose?

[Bart the General]

I don't know anything about his life story really other than sitting under a tree for a while, but it seems more culturally acceptable now as newfag parents tell their overprivilaged kids to "find themselves" in Europe or planting trees or something but the difference is they have cell phones now

[Bart the General]

What would constitute "unwise" livelihood?  Is it okay to work for a multinational corporation that poisons their consumers and rapes the environment if you're a janitor who takes pride in making the world better one bathroom stall at a time?

I would say "no." Some Buddhists have a lot of emphasis on repetitive tasks as meditation and obv doing them for the benefit of something detrimental would affect your mental state to an extent if you're practicing mindfulness but I can't really speak for everyone, that's just how I know my path would interpret it.

Think "Do no harm" especially when it comes to your own personal objectives instead of those of a collective

[equanimity]

Buddhism has been surprisingly good at adapting itself to various different cultures and even religions around the world.  How is it that none of the fundamental teachings have been lost?

[Bart the General]

Buddhism has been surprisingly good at adapting itself to various different cultures and even religions around the world.  How is it that none of the fundamental teachings have been lost?

I couldn't really tell you, I don't know the history so much but I do know that temples, monks etc. are insular, ancient and have good record keeping so that's probably a few factors. Probably the repetitive task aspect encourages them to create monuments to their faith (the 8 movements of the fundamental Qi gong set are in statue form to preserve their knowledge) and really, just living in a temple in the woods and being EXTREMELY disciplined and mindful all the time, it's pretty likely you'll write some things down. Buddhists also had a form of caligraphy back in the day (a lot of buddhist teachings fall under "if you're gonna do something do it well and go all out" more Chinese than Tibetan though) and also Buddhism is something where the word kind of spreads. Think about Christianity, how is folklore going to travel about people converting to Christianity (apart from crusades)? "Wilfred turned christian and now he doesn't drink" is all that comes to mind. Meanwhile you've got stories of Buddhists surviving crazy temperatures, being the first ninjas, inventing martial art forms, forging gunpowder etc etc etc in that respect its more accessible to an ancient widespread collective audience than many others, hence no "converting the nonbelievers" back in the day

[equanimity]

I get really depressed sometimes.

What can Buddhism do for me?

[equanimity]

Also: what does this cost?

[Bart the General]

Try meditating and reading texts I guess. Whenever I went to openmeditations there were always people looking for "self help" (which is really the fundamental core of all religion) and the instructor would tailor it kinda to that. Meditating releases dopamine and serotonin.

You already knew all this though, zek

[equanimity]

reading texts

What, like the totse archives?

[Bart the General]

No, read that book I told you I'd mail you a copy of but I'm sure you can find it for free online anyway