Right Concentration,Right Understanding, Right Thoughts,Right Speech, Right Actions,Right Livelihood,Right Effort,Right Mindfulness? if memory serves me well.

oh.i kinda get it.. most of my buddhist education was in chinese..so still struggling with english terms

correct. So you must understand what each of them means.

What is right concentration?
What is right mindfulness?


If we don't know what they mean, can we say we are walking on the 8 fold path?

8 fold path leads to Nibbana and cessation of suffering. To get to heaven, or happy human state , you don't need this 8 fold path. You can follow any other path or teaching. But to get to this state , you NEED to walk on the 8 fold path.

but we destroy environment. Environment consist of not only food... it also have micro-organism. Imagine hectar of green.
How many animal and micro-organism in it...

At first, I feel Buddhism is the most logical religion of all. Mana tahu I go deep to study buddhism and it has all sorts
of supernatural things that I found illogical. After that, I just left BUddhism and go into Atheism.

TRUE buddhism is begging for food. Vegetarian is not true Buddhism.

and may you find happiness in Atheism.

Just a note. There is no such thing as "joining buddhism". It is not a club membership where one may join and leaves. Thats as stupid as learning maths and say that you're joining mathematics, and when u suck horribly at it...u want to leave mathematics. What u learned stay with you, having learned that 1 + 1 = 2, no matter what you label yourself, 1 + 1 will always = 2. That is good enough. Unless you're stupid to think that by "leaving" mathematics 1+1 stops being 2.

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Added on August 14, 2010, 10:19 amthere is no such thing as true buddhism.

This post has been edited by teongpeng: Aug 14 2010, 10:23 AM

do you agree? somehow saying buddhism is
teaching is misleading

yes there is...in my context...

Do you mean to say you wish the Buddha hadn't taught those things that he did?

If that is the case, what's the difference between the great philosopher the likes of Voltaire , Socrates and Plato?

I , of course, don't agree with you. . Yes, some of the stuffs sound very supernatural . For example - past life. Maybe I will ask you in return, just how certain are you that there is nothing like Past, and future? The best you could tell, it's a 'maybe', but if you tell me that you know for certain 100% , then you are not being honest like some hardcore egoistic atheist I meet so often.

God in Buddhism is insignificant or none at all, shouldn't it be consider Atheism?

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Added on August 14, 2010, 1:06 pmmicro-organism in the forest is much less than those factories (yogurt, beer, wine, sewage treatment ... etc etc) in terms of production rate per cubic inch (nature rate is fix, man produced is still growing)...

This post has been edited by randyhow: Aug 14 2010, 01:06 PM

i mean, Buddhist shouldn't say their teaching is just philosophy because it ain't. For full Buddhism, you need
to suspend belief.

How I certain? The thing is, as atheist, I don't need to certain about this. Because it never was. And never will.
If supernatural exist, which supernatural is correct? If Buddhism is correct, Christianity is wrong. And vice versa.
All this cannot be proven.

This just make Buddhism failed as much as Christianity in logical and philosophical department.

You're right. When the notion if rebirth is created, they don't have statistic that human population increased. Another proof
that Buddhism is just another religion created by human to understand their nature and environment.

To your last part, rebirth (in Buddhist terminology) doesn't mean an increase in headcount.
But rather, the same soul coming back to learn something on Earth, and takes the form of a human being.
The body is just a meat bag, and can range from white to black. Geography and culture will define the learning experience.
But one thing in common that all from white to black share: ability to love, ability to share with each other, ability to feel joy, sadness, etc.
Therefore it's also said that when one achieves enlightenment, one is not reborn into the physical world anymore.

Okay, before starting an argument out of this, this is just what I know based on the terminology of rebirth. I don't really intend to comprehend why humans can be reborn as animals etc, or any other in depth studies, because that's out of my league, and will not benefit me in any way. That however, can serve as a good tool to people who are "lost", e.g. rapists, murderers etc that are seeking a form of redemption after having realized the implications of their own acts, it can serve as a starting point for them to learn.

I don't call myself a Buddhist by the way. I just call myself a Buddhist when there is a need to fit in, such as social groups that preach so heavily on it, or in registration forms to facilitate ease of registration and conform to social ideologies. I actually learn a lot from Hinduism too, because I've frequently been exposed to it. Haven't really been exposed to Islam and Christianity, but I really don't mind learning too, if it is suitable or easily comprehensible.

This post has been edited by entryman: Aug 14 2010, 05:40 PM

Milk, soya sauce, preserved bean curd are ok for vegetarians.

Eggs are a bit of a gray area. The eggs we get in the market can't be hatched into chickens. So some vegetarians consider it ok to eat them. Some don't.

Sea cucumber is a marine animal. So no.

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Added on August 14, 2010, 5:56 pmSure. There are many worlds and realms. There might be a decline in animal population in this realm but there might be an increase in another realm.

This post has been edited by joe_mamak: Aug 14 2010, 05:56 PM

Huh? what make u say on the bolded? To suspend belief? where u learn Buddhism from ? Journey to the West? Monkey God? or TVB drama?

In which part u are comparing between Buddhism and Christianity on the right or wrong? some concept in both maybe in contradiction but some are compatible... u can't just generally said which is wrong or which is right..

gogo2,

You disagreed with one type of Buddhism, But, that is NOT the only kind of Buddhism. Buddhism is not like those Abrahamic religion where there is ONLY one way.

Buddhism do not believe that you have to believe in Buddhism in order to reach enlightenment either.

There are Buddhism that believe re-incarnation and all those supernatural stuff are necessary. And, there are those like Zen Buddhism that could not care for this.

<<somehow saying buddhism is teaching is misleading>>

Honey to someone is poison to others. If this does not work for you, do something else.

Fundamentally, Buddhism believe that all the answers are WITHING us. We do not have to look outside to get it. Now, how do you reach enlightenment, there are many ways. Pick the one that works for you.

Dreamer

there's nothing wrong with Buddhism being as a creation of human.. Newton's law too a creation of human, it's not totally accurate but still been using till today..

At first, I learn my Buddhism from books written from well known monk about how to live the Buddha's way.

Then I read from Sutra that being translated to English.

To believe in rebirth, all seeing Buddha, multiple realm etc is to suspend belief.

The fundamental things about answer is within us and all sorts of logical nice to hear things for us who think deeply really
concerns me. Why this thing concerns me?Its because I believe these words only touching the surface of Buddhism.Its very misleading.

In the end, whatever type of Buddhism u go, there's element of suspended belief.

Did I say anything wrong? LOL... I'm just trying to score a point that religion are human made. Any supernatural stuff like rebirth, multiple realm etc
is just created during that time because people that time are more incline to belief such things.

Now who want to belief such stuff? ONly religionist will belief.For me, as atheist, its all in the mind. You mind have trick you to belief
all this supernatural things is real...

Honestly I don't see any difference between this thread and All about Religion v2 Thread.
Joe, what's the point of having this when the content of discussion is more less similar?

For me, All about Religion always like Believers (abrahamic religion vs the rest of the world).

While this thread is about Buddhism vs Atheist...

Since Buddhism always like to say they are philosophical but actually they are not if they delve
deeper. This probably the most misleading thing about Buddhism. Lured you in by promising the
most logical religion ever existed.But when you're in and delve deeper, the same supernatural
thing like Christian exist.

At least, Christian are totally honest about it. THey said we're supernatural. Need faith to understand.
But Buddhism instead tell us, hey, no supernatural. All philosophical. Yeah right.

Well said. It is exactly the stuff that i was arguing with these buddhists and some of them even got mad at me. LOL. I was really surprised at that time because like what you said buddhists being wise and reasonable, practice some form of detachment but yet they displayed the same behavior as would believers of abrahamic religions, taunting and cursing.

Buddhism is a religion and it has supernatural elements. While it's philosophical views of life may be enlightening, you need to have faith to believe.

It's not just purely faith.
It's real live experience with God.
That is the difference.
Until so long, you still don't get it.
Sigh.

SpikeMarlene,

<< Buddhism is a religion and it has supernatural elements. While it's philosophical views of life may be enlightening, you need to have faith to believe.>>

Who say so??

One type of Buddhism has supernatural elements. You DO NOT have to believe in that kind of Buddhism. You can choose something else.

For example, can you claim that Tibetan Buddhism to represent all kinds of Buddhisms??

Just because one dog is black, it does not mean all dogs are black.

For example, Zen Buddhism do not care about re-incarnation and all those super-natural stuff at all. Zen Buddhism does not care about any sutra at all.

Dreamer

P.S.: For a TRUE Buddhist, there is NO POINT in arguing with anyone. If it works for you, choose this. If not, do something else. There are NO BROWNIE point for making people to believe in Buddhism.

This post has been edited by dreamer101: Aug 15 2010, 01:59 AM