What is Buddhism all about? Why are Buddhist monks known for being peaceful, nature lover, and quiet people?

Question

Why cant other religion do that? I know some Catholic monks, but only some of them..How about the others? What do you call the 'bible' of the Budhhist?

Manhattan girl..whats happening in Sri Lanka is a political thing..its not about religion.

Answer 1

Basically, Buddhists believe that all suffering is caused by desire, and that to eliminate desire, one must follow what is called "the Eightfold Path". These paths include making sure one speaks and acts properly in order to not offend or harm others, mastering your mind and body, and thinking and understanding in a "pure" way. There is no true "bible" of Buddhism, since the Buddha never actually wrote any of his thoughts. There are many different texts, scrolls, and other writings that are considered as authority on Buddhism, but these vary from sect to sect. Generally, Buddhism does promote tolerance and peace. I find Buddhists to be kind, generous, and peaceful, and I have never met one I didn't like.

Answer 2

Buddhism is about universal truths and how one can have inner peace and happiness by understanding the realities of life.

Buddhist monks are supposed to be cultivating mindfulness, compassion, and equanimity. That's why they possess the radiance of calmness and peace. (I am referring to genuine monks, of course!)

Other religions cannot do that because their adherents always insist that their religions are the only true ones. They cannot respect and tolerate others' beliefs. (I am referring to bigots and "strayed souls", of course! And there many in this world!)

Question: "Bible"? Why must there be a "bible"? Answer: The Western mind has been "religiously" indoctrinated by only a specific group. They can't think out of the box. But just the same, the equivalent is called Tipitakka. Literally means three baskets, where the Buddha's teachings are grouped into three main groups.

Have peace :-)

Answer 3

To put simply: Do good,avoid evil,purify the mind...These is the teachings of the buddha

Or according to Buddha: I teach dukkha(unsatisfactoriness) and the way to liberate from dukkha..

The bible of the Buddhist is the Tipitaka,which is 11 times the size of the Christian Bible.


No need for missionaries etc. The Buddha is more interested in quality rather than quantity. WHich is why he said "investigate first before embracing" (reference: Kalama Sutta)

Peace be upon all living beings!

Answer 4

And we all know whats happening in Sri Lanka. But of course Monks are very peace-loving people.


EDIT. but if we go by your logic... the whole world wars are cuz of politics.

Answer 5

probable because of the fact whilst somebody tries to realize peace without Christ, the devil can overpower them and get them to do his evil paintings. ___________ might a million, 2006 Church assaults enhance in Sri Lanka Christian persecution has better in modern-day days, in Sri Lanka, as a clean regulation that would ban "forcible" conversions is being seen with the aid of the Parliament in Sri Lanka. This time the persecution isn't coming from Islamic militants, yet instead Buddhist demostrators. The Buddhist aggression against Christians has escalated and on Sunday, April twenty third, a Methodist church in Piliyandala, Sri Lanka replaced into interrupted. Buddhist demonstrators rallied an area mob of a hundred with the aid of yelling anti-Christian slogans from the loudspeakers fastened on their vehicle, disrupting the church provider. The perpetrators additionally incited the gang’s anger with the aid of calling the 20 Christians interior “Anti Buddhist.” 2 clergymen and yet another demonstrator slipped with the aid of 3 stationed law enforcement officials into the development and ordered the provider to provide up at modern-day. The police intervened yet recommended the pastors to end the provider early, which they did. between the church leaders replaced into struck in the leg with a flagpole bearing the Buddhist flag, and yet another replaced into hit in the face. a girl evangelist replaced into additionally bodily attacked. whilst believers lower back to their autos outdoors the church, they chanced on the mob had flattened tires, siphoned gas and smashed windshields. Protesters additionally toppled motorcycles and bumped off their helmets. One evangelist modern-day replaced into summoned to seem in court docket on April twenty 5th, concerning the incident. The Christians have not retaliated after this journey yet have remained at peace. Please remember those persecuted Christians on your prayers, and likewise the Buddist persecutors. Ask the Lord to open the eyes of people who're no longer following Him so as that they might come to salvation in Christ. published with the aid of: Stacy L. Harp in: Christian Persecution

Answer 6

Nirvana Sutra

http://www.nirvanasutra.org.uk/

The last sutra of Siddartha Gotama the Buddha

Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, meaning the all-encompassing conclusion of all sutras, meant to teach followers of the Buddha's Dharma before he entered paranirvana (final great nirvana).

The conclusion that we are all one and undivided.

Answer 7

i have seen monks driving big cars, carrying handphones, credit cards, smoking and drinking when buddhist should get rid of desires.

but the desire to get rid of desires is also a desire itself.

so they will never get out of this vicious cycle.

Answer 8

The Middle Path - non extreme

This is the Middle Path which the Buddha discovered and expounded, which gives rise to vision and knowledge, which leads to peace, wisdom, enlightenment, and nibbana - the Noble Eightfold Path:

1. Right Understanding: of suffering, of its origin, of its cessation, of the way leading to the cessation of suffering.

2. Right Intention: of renunciation, free from craving; of good will, free from aversion; of compassion, free from cruelty.

3. Right Speech: abstaining from false speech, abstaining from malicious speech, abstaining from harsh speech, abstaining from useless speech.

4. Right Action: abstaining from taking life, abstaining from stealing, abstaining from sexual misconduct.

5. Right Livelihood: giving up wrong livelihood, one earns one's living by a right form of livelihood.

6. Right effort: to prevent unarisen unwholesome evil states of mind from arising by making effort, stirring up energy and exerting mind.

7. Right mindfulness: mindful contemplation of the body, mindful contemplation of feelings, mindful contemplation of the mind, mindful contemplation of mental objects.

8. Right Concentration: Quite secluded from sense pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states of mind one enters and dwells in the first jhana (meditative absorbtion), which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought with rapture and happiness born of seclusion.

http://www.buddhanet.net/

Answer 9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism

http://www.buddhanet.net/

http://buddhism.about.com/

http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/footsteps.htm

http://americanbuddhist.net/taxonomy/term/51

Answer 10

Buddhism is one of the leading world religions in terms of adherents, geographical distribution, and socio-cultural influence. While largely an "Eastern" religion, it is becoming increasingly popular and influential in the Western world as well. It is a unique world religion in its own right though it has much in common with Hinduism in that both can be called "eastern" religions, believing in Karma (cause and effect ethics), Maya (illusory nature of the world), and Samsara (the cycle of reincarnation) among other things. Its founder Siddhartha Guatama was born into royalty in India nearly 600 years before Christ. As the story goes he lived luxuriously growing up and even marrying and having children with little exposure to the outside world. His parents intended for him to be spared from influence by religion and any exposure to pain and suffering. However it was not long before his thin shelter was penetrated and he caught a glimpse of an aged man, a sick man, and a corpse. His fourth vision was of a peaceful ascetic monk (one who denies luxury and comfort). Seeing his peacefulness he decided to become an ascetic himself. He abandoned his life of wealth and affluence to pursue enlightenment through austerity. He was very skilled at this sort of self-mortification and intense meditation. He was a leader among his peers. Eventually he let his efforts culminate in one final gesture. He "indulged" himself with one bowl of rice and then sat beneath a fig tree (also called the Bodhi tree) to meditate till he either reached enlightenment or died trying. Despite his travails and temptations, by the next morning, he had achieved enlightment. Thus he became known as the 'enlightened one' or the 'Buddha.' He took his new realization and began to teach his fellow monks, with whom he had already gained great influence. Five of his peers become the first of his disciples.



What had the Gautama discovered? Enlightenment lay in the "middle way," not in luxurious indulgence or self-mortification. Moreover he discovered what would become known as the ‘Four Noble Truths’ – (1) to live is to suffer (Dukha), 2) suffering is caused by desire (Tanha, or "attachment"), 3) one can eliminate suffering by eliminating all attachments, and 4) this is achieved by following the noble eightfold path. The "eightfold path" consists of having [a] right 1) view, 2) intention, 3) speech, 4) action, 5) livelihood (being a monk), 6) effort (properly direct energies), 7) mindfulness (meditation), and 8) concentration (focus). The Buddha's teachings were collected into the Tripitaka or "three baskets." [Win Corduan, Neighboring Faiths (IVP, 1998): 220-224].



Back of these distinguishing teachings are teachings common to Hinduism, namely Reincarnation, Karma, Maya, and a tendency to understand reality as being Pantheistic in its orientation. Buddhism also offers an elaborate theology of deities and exalted beings. However, like Hinduism, Buddhism can be hard to pin down in regards to its view of God. Some streams of Buddhism could legitimately be called atheistic, while others could be called pantheistic, and still others theistic such as with Pure Land Buddhism. Classical Buddhism however tends to be silent on the knowability or reality of an ultimate being and is therefore considered atheistic.



Buddhism today is quite diverse. It is roughly divisible into the two broad categories of Theravada (small vessel) and Mahayana (large vessel). Theravada is the monastic form which reserves ultimate enlightenment and nirvana for monks while Mahayana Buddhism extends this goal of enlightenment to the laity as well, that is, to non-monks. Under these categories can be found numerous branches including Tendai, Vajrayana, Nichiren, Shingon, Pure Land, Zen, and Ryobu among others. Therefore it is important for outsiders seeking to understand Buddhism that they not presume to know all the details of a particular school of Buddhism when all they have studied is classical historic Buddhism. (Corduan, 230).



It is important to be aware that the Buddha never considered himself to be a god, or a divine being of any type, rather he considered himself to be a ‘way-shower' for others. Only after his death was he exalted to God-like status by some of his followers, though not all of his followers viewed him that way. With Christianity however, it is stated quite clearly in the bible that Jesus was the Son of God (Matthew: 3 [17] and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased) and that He and God are one (John 10: [30] I and my Father are one). One cannot rightfully consider himself or herself Christian without professing faith in Jesus as God.



Jesus taught that He is the way, and not simply one who showed the way as John 14:6 confirms, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me." By the time Guatama died Buddhism had become a major influence in India; three hundred years after his death Buddhism had spread so far that it encompassed most of Asia. The scriptures and sayings attributed to the Buddha were written about four hundred years after his death. This delayed period between his death and the writing or commentary containing his message allows for several scholarly challenges to arise over the authenticity and reliability of Buddhist scriptures.



The Buddha lived and died well before the time of Jesus. His travels never took him more than a couple of hundred kilometers from his home. The bible and its message do not appear to have been known by the Buddha, and in fact he never spoke of God, or Jesus; consequently Buddhists, generally don’t speak out for God as Christians do. In its classical form, Buddhism does not speak of any personal God or Divine Being.



Sin is largely understood to be ignorance. And where it is understood as somehow "moral error" the context in which "evil" and "good" are understood is amoral. Karma is understood as nature's balance and is not personally enforced. Nature isn't moral, therefore karma is not a moral code, therefore sin is not ultimately moral. Thus we can say, by Buddhist thought, that our error is never ultimately moral since it is ultimately just an impersonal mistake and not an interpersonal violation. The consequence of this understanding is devastating. For the Buddhist, sin is more akin to a typo than to transgression against the nature of omnipotent God. This understanding of sin does not accord with the innate moral consciousness that men stand condemned because of their sin before a holy God (Rom. 1-2).



Since sin is impersonal and fixable error, it does not issue in the doctrine of depravity as it does in Christianity. With Christianity, man's sin is a problem of eternal and infinite consequence. Buddhist views of sin do not compare. Therefore there is no need for a Jesus' character to rescue people from their damning sins. For the Christian Jesus is the only means of rescue from eternal damnation over our personal (and imputed) sins. For the Buddhist there is only ethical living and meditative appeals to exalted beings for the hope of perhaps achieving enlightenment and ultimate Nirvana. But more than likely one will have to go through a number of reincarnations to pay off their vast accumulation of karmic debt. For the true followers of Buddhism the religion is a philosophy of morality and ethics, encapsulated within a life of renunciation of the ego-self. One may appeal to countless Boddhisatvas ("Buddhas in the making") or Buddhas (Gautama is later viewed as being one among many Buddhas) (Ibid., 229). But ultimately reality is impersonal and non-relational therefore it is not loving. Not only is God seen as illusory, but in dissolving sin into non-moral error and by rejecting all material reality as maya ("illusion") even we ourselves lose our "selves." Personality itself becomes an illusion.



When asked how the world started, who/what created the universe, the Buddha is said to have kept silent because in Buddhism there is no beginning, and no end, instead there is an endless circle of birth and death. One would have to ask what kind of being created us to live, endure so much pain and suffering, and then die, over and over again? It may cause one to contemplate, what’s the point, why bother? Christians know that God sent His Son to die for us, just the one time, so that we don’t have to suffer for an eternity. He sent His Son to give us the knowledge that we aren’t alone, and that we are loved. Christians know there is more to life than suffering, and dying (2 Timothy: 1[10] But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel).



Buddhism teaches that Nirvana is the highest state of being, a state of pure being. And it is achieved by means relative to the individual. Nirvana defies rational explanation and logical ordering therefore it cannot be taught, only realized. Jesus in contrast was quite specific, He taught us that our physical bodies die but our souls ascend to be with Him in heaven (Mark: 12 [25] for when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven). For Buddhists there is no merciful Father in heaven who sent His Son to die for our souls, for our salvation, to provide the way for us to reach His glory. The Buddha taught that people don’t have individual souls for the individual self or ego is an illusion.

Recommended Resource: Jesus Among Other gods by Ravi Zacharias.