Anyone know anything about BUDDHISM ??

Question

I asked this last nigth.. and i'm asking again since I still dont understand..

I'm trying to understand their concept of No "i" and No Soul .. Buddhism denies the existance of a soul as it denies the existance of a self... that there is no soul so there is no ego that rules our life on earth which is an illusion.

I am also having difficulties with since there is no i or self because we are constantly changing beings. Coming to the 5 aggregates .. of matter, feelings, perception, volitions, and consciousness. which is constantly changing.. so we are constantly changing.

1st i dont understand those two .. and 2nd what confuses me more is that they believe in reincarnation.. but they dont believe in a soul ??
Also.. They believe you learn from each reincarnation .. How do you learn if you dont remember the past ?

Could you tell me your thoughts ?

Answer 1

No "I" means there's no perception of ourself. For example, we may have these belief of ourselves as "I'm clever/stupid", "I'm white/black", "I'm a Muslim/Buddhist", "I'm ..... etc". No "I" means no to all these "I'm..." thing.

Don't be mistaken. If there's no soul, then why rebirth is possible? If there's no soul, then why should Buddhism strive for enlightenment? Who's the one being rebirthed? Who's the one being enlightened? Ego is ego. Soul is soul. Just because our ego is the problem doesn't mean our soul is also the problem and must get rid of. Ego is not soul. I think soul is spirit.

The current modern Buddhist teaching is very dangerous. If you observe, you'll see that there're many Buddhists out there with the ambition to achieve total extinction, be it the soul, mind, ego, body, etc. That means to achieve the total nothingness as if Buddhism's concept of nothingness is about total annihilation. They are all wrong. Nothingness is impermanence, NOT total self-annihilation nor total extinction. Buddhism never taught about self-annihilation or total extinction.

There're also Buddhists that instead of striving after Buddhahood, they strive after Bodhisattva-hood instead. Some also go for Arhat-hood. And they instead of striving after enlightenment, choose to strive after compassion instead as an end. They think like that because they believe pure enlightenment is impossible. Doesn't that mean the Buddha was promoting the wrong thing because I remember Buddha promoted enlightenment? A bunch of total fools. Compassion is not an end. Not even enlightenment is.

Change/Impermanence/Emptiness/Nothingness is that everything changes, including our mind, ego, etc. Today we are John, tomorrow we'll be Susan. Today we are angry, tomorrow we'll be happy. Nothing is fixed.

People reincarnate but they forgot for reasons I still don't know. But I am clear that whatever you learnt in the past lives, you'll know them in this life. There're great singers today. Maybe because these singers were people that chant sutras throughout their past lives. That's why they have master their vocal ability. There're those who are Kung Fu masters. Maybe because they were also Kung Fu disciples in their past lives.

Be aware when studying modern Buddhism. Their teachings have diverted quite far off mark.

Answer 2

There are numerous questions in your question. I would suggest a lighter read, I generally suggest on forgiveness by the Daili Lama.

As for no self or I. This has to do with the thought of interdependence. We are all dependent on one another for happineess. If I hate you I am making negative feelings for both you and myself. There are many difficult questions in Buddhism. The main problem I have had is I have been raised in a western materialistic world. They think in a different way. True buddhism is not a one hour a week thing, It will take years to find your answers, not the way many western buddhists treat their religion, but through long meditation and research.

Im sorry I couldn't be more help, I didn't want to just quote my philosophy text book as someone who doesn't practise it, should not comment on it.

I still have trouble with the whole emptiness concept.

Best of luck

Answer 3

What Buddha denied was the permanence of an ego- an individual soul which exists after death. He did not deny the existence of mindfulness-a consciousness that survives bodily death. He taught that nothing exists permanently except truth and compassion hence Buddhism is a system of philosophy and practice that seeks to encourage the attainment of enlightened consciousness by adhering to a set of moral precepts. To understand the fundamentals of Buddhism, don't think in terms of spirit or soul but consciousness.

Answer 4

I keep in mind that Buddhist doctrines are better "the thanks to" than "keep on with me". The Buddha change into an exemplar of the mind-set of discovery, cognizance and reaction to the misery of the international, no longer a "god". I also keep in mind that Buddhism inherits from Hinduism the concept the actual international is ultimately an phantasm of separation and want that disappears alongside with the guy expertise at the same time as wisely perceived. To its credit, Buddhism states that the actual reaction of an enlightened human being in the international is compassion, despite the indisputable fact that it remains understood that this too is allegorical. The objective continues to be to get out of this corrupt and illusory international. Atheists frequently believe that for all functional applications the international is what it really is and could be dealt with as such, and that hypothesis about a deeper "actuality" might want to be saved in the area of ideas until eventually there is convincing evidence of its existence. and that i recognize there are a selection of styles of Buddhism, which include theistic varieties that attraction to diverse divine Buddhas for help.

Answer 5

A very misunderstood part of Buddhism is that people think Buddhists believe in reincarnation. This is completely false and is the opposite of Buddha's concept of 'rebirth'. BUT ... Buddha did NOT mean for ANY of these concepts to be taken as Truth -- rebirth, no self, etc. are meant to be used ONLY as tools to get to the same experience he had. I was listening to a dharma talk by one of the zen masters at Zen Mountain Monastery and he was talking about the weirdness of calling buddhism a 'philosophy' (and I would also say the weirdness of calling it a 'belief' system). He stated the obvious fact that talking about and believing that our True Nature is non-dualistic and without form does nothing -- only by directly realizing and experiencing it is it transformative (and KNOWN).
People get confused with the reincarnation thing because of the Tibetan buddhist reincarnation-like beliefs (those beliefs resulted from buddhism's integration with Tibetan native religions) and because the Buddha's enlightenment story talks about his past incarnations. One of the Zen masters at Zen Mountain Monastery responded to a guy's question about tibetan reincarnation, saying that enlightened tibetan masters (my note: not the ones like the dalai lama who haven't realized themselves) don't subscribe to the reincarnation concept. As for the Buddha's 'previous lives', if there is no individual self -- and there is only one thing in the universe -- then everything (me, you, rocks, trees, etc.) are projections of that one thing. And therefore when one realizes oneself, it must be that one sees oneself as EVERYTHING -- includnig every form that has come and gone. And, so, the buddha's 'past lives' were just the realization that he was all those people and is all of us -- and we are that, as well -- we are everything. Words are getting weird now so ... better to stop. Can't explain non-duality.
Buddha's enlightenment showed him that the fundamental problem is the belief in a psychological self -- a self that has individual consciousness and in a physical body -- and that this psychological self is actually an illusion. Instead, there is literally only ONE thing in the universe, with all the individuals like you and me being that ONE thing -- kind of like there's one guy with multiple personality disorder and the personalities (us) are not real and enlightenment shows us that 'we' are that one thing. Rebirth tries to get this across but many misunderstand it as being nihilistic. The bottom line is that NONE of this can EVER be understood -- it has to be directly experienced. Your questioning is the way to do it -- especially if we consider the question that if there is no self, then WHAT is it that feels, sees, thinks, hears? Is it the brain? Is it some illusion of consciousness? If the latter is true, then still -- WHAT is experiencing the illusion? Zen masters have used this natural koan (Who is the Master?) as a means to get to self-realization. The experience of enlightenment is one that shows us that we're not this individual 'bag of skin' (with a personality and limited consciousness) but instead we're 'everything' (aint no way that can be perceived - has to be directly realized). Take a look at '3 Pillars of Zen' for some pretty good info. Also, some dharma talks by the Zen masters at www.mro.org are very good. Sorry for pushing Zen (there are other sects of buddhism); it just appeals to me more than the others.

Answer 6

I think urs is an interesting question. I hv to admit that I don't have any personal experience whatsoever about this topic, and my answer will be based on book knowledge as well as from my own thoughts only.

To me the concept of no "I" has the purpose so that people can constantly remind themselves to not be attached to their view of self, because once they are attached to the view of self, then suffering will follow from that, like when someone watch a TV and see a person who is sickly is being shown on the TV, when that person has attachment to his body as being him/herself, fear will arise in that person, but not to someone who has no attachment to his body as being him/herself. The latter person will understand that it is the nature of the body to be sick. And I also think because of the attachment to the view of self, some people are afraid if someone says that our life is just an illusion(this just came up 2 me).

Btw, if we try to stand in front of a train to test whether life is an illusion or not, the result is that we will get hit by the train. This is because it has been our habit to perceive that life is real, what we see, hear, smell, taste, touch; everything is real as real can be. Even though when you stand on the rail you've tried to convince urself to think that it's just an illusion, ur mind has already been programmed for so long to think that u will get hit by the train if u stand on the rail when a train is coming.

We view the 5 aggregates as self, but since all the 5 aggregates change, and that which changes is dukkha(suffering), and something which changes and suffering, and can't be controlled by us is not proper to be regarded as I, as myself, as mine. We can say that sometimes we have control over the 5 aggregates, but I think that it is not really us controlling, since actually everything is conditioned, even the way we think.

The attachment to the view of self is also what drives rebirth. Rebirth in Buddhism refers to the flow of consiousness. Buddhism denies the existence of a permanent self. When someone dies, it means the conditions for a human existence ceases, and the consciousness will take up existence in realms where the conditions cause it to be. The consciousness in the new existence is not the same as the previous one because of the different conditions, so it's not a permanent self that gets reincarnated.

As for learning from past lifes, without being able to remember the past, I think it's possible. Say, since we were kids we were taught about things. When we get older, sometimes we do things in a certain manner. When we do these things, we may not remember that we were taught to do that, but it's already implanted in our memory to do certain things. For example, we were taught how to use spoons, knives and forks to eat when we were kids. When we use those cutleries now, we don't exactly remember what happened when we were first taught how to use them. We use those cutleries the way it is because it is already programmed in our memory/perception, how to use them.

I hope I'm not making it more confusing, but yeah, what ur asking are questions that can only be understood fully through experience. Gotta meditate to understand them. That applies to me too.

Answer 7

Buddha was a man who never intended to start a religion. He believed in a set of ethics. Buddha was influenced by Hinduism which believes in reincarnation(Samara). This reincarnation is inevitable but determined by Karma. Meditation or Yoga is emphasized to release you from the vicious circle of life. Buddha didn't have much of a care about the soul or heaven or hell. Buddhism believes that through asceticism or self denial that one can stop being reincarnated. That my friend is the goal.

Answer 8

Basically, Buddhism is all about meditation to seek enlightenment, An contrary to popular belief, Buddha is NOT a God or deity of any sort, but merely an enlightened man who spread the religion.

Answer 9

I humbly suggest you go to lywa.org and type "emtiness" in the site search. The expression of emptiness is fundamental to the buddhist worldview, but in the Mahayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism there are several distinctions forming the four major tenet systems. "The Sutra of The Heart of Transcendental Wisdom" is a compact distillation of this expansive collection, and as such, it is very concise. One very good book to reference is "The Essence of The Heart Sutra" by His Holiness The Dalai Lama. Please be patient with unpacking the meaning of these teachings. The Dharma is not something that you can approach and grasp without some stabilization and realization of our present contaminated worldview and "get" readily. You are welcome to e-mail me directly with any further questions and I will do my best to help you. Good luck!

Answer 10

I had a friend who was into this type of thinking. I told him that if all of life was an illusion, that the both of us can walk down to the train track and stand in front of a train. The train was an illusion and it would not hit us.

He quickly said...I don't think we should that. My response what exactly...life is not an illusion at taught. The teaching is very decitive.