Well, human nature.

Thats why one should not say no wars were waged in the name of buddhism. Its just so happen that its not convenient to do so.

Fighting between Mahayana and Theravada in Sri Lanka?  I think you should a bit on the civil war there.. it was India which was already hindu (mahayana already extinct in india at that time , driven up north ) taht invaded Sri Lanka, causing the order of the Nun of Theravada to be lost.

Mahayana never actually reached Sri Lanka.

Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka in about the third century BC and has had a continuous history on the island ever since.  Sri Lanka is today a Theravada Buddhist country, like Burma, Thailand and Cambodia. However, this sculpture, and other Sri Lankan bodhisattva images are clear evidence for the presence in the medieval period of Mahayana Buddhism as well as the Theravada form of the faith.

which buddhist told u that?

Buddhist kingdoms have entered war before.
Ming-Kotte War

As to who started what, I've forgotten about it. 
Last time when I watched voyages of Zheng He on National Geographic, I think it started from a civil war for the possession of a Buddha relic.
Busy with the civil war, they didn't wanna pay tribute to China or something which got them destroyed by Zheng He 
Depends on the schools of teaching, the monks may be required to take a vow of not eating meat.

In ancient times, even Buddha ate meat. In fact, Buddha died from consuming tainted pork 

Buddhist monks generally live on alms. People offer food to them and they were not allowed to choose their food and only consume what was offered (mostly leftovers).

Buddha allowed meat for his disciples under a condition, that is that his disciples did not know, or even suspect that the meat offered to the monk was done so by killing the animal solely for the purpose of offering them to the monks. It's kind of like in restaurants now where fishes are kept alive in aquariums and when you order that fish, they purposely kill the fish for you.

This is the difference between taking a life and eating meat.

However, there are Buddhist schools who are now arguing that the act of eating meat itself is creating more demands for meat, thus encouraging the killing of animals. You will see that some of the Thai monks, or even Nepalese monks eat meat. In general they eat what is offered.

erm, can people stop trolling "religious" threads? i mean like seriously if you wanna talk about religion the "understand religion thingy" thread can be found in the real life thread.

discussing about buddhism isnt really what this thread is for is it? its going out of topic. maybe a mod can help clear things out?

gathering wealth n money through the proper ways is not wrong la.

one must not attach to desire if you are a monk(but unfortunately most modern monks still have their own personal desires) or u really really really wanna strive to become the next arahant/Buddha.

for a lay Buddhist, its perfectly alright to have desires.

Actually, i have no teacher. LOL. I dun intend to dwell into the deeper studies, just the basic. IMO, Buddhism is like a formula. It's up to you how you use this formula and apply it. It's not like a typical God-based religion, where they emphasie to tell you what u can do and what you cannot. It's like, give a man fish, he'll eat for one meal. Teach him how to fish and he'll have the knowledge to support himself.

Just to share... when i was younger...during my 20's,  was looking for some answer...after studying different religious books for sometime, one night, while i was about to sleep, thinking about all this Buddhism thingy, suddenly i have like an experience where all the jigsaw puzzles fit into places...i can't explain it...mini-enlightment perhaps?? LOL. Anyway, from that day onwards. I simply know Buddhism is the path.

It doesn't happens overnight....it might takes many lifetime for one to be ready to finally leave all desires behind....I know i am not ready this lifetime. It can wait. No hurry.

dreamer101 from Zen buddhism may not agree.

to him, if it works for you, then it works...no need bother about teacher, sutras and guides..

OK, the statue showed us that Mahayana buddhism did reach Sri Lanka but how do you draw conclusion that there was a war between Theravada sect and Mahayana in Sri lanka from that statue alone?

Kindly provide links of the war, all I read is just civil war, and invasion from India which wiped out most buddhist monks at that time, that they needed to import the Monks from burma to reintroduce the THeravada lineage there.

The invasion of the arabs in the 10th century and coperation with local hindus opposed to the Buddha's teaching sealed the demise of Buddhism in INdia. Unfortunate.

here: http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2007/2/12560_space.html

This is an opinion from a reader, not a historical datasheet, but then history are written by the victors. Possible for the local Sinhalese to resist any outside attempt to convert them.

http://sigiriya.org/89.htm

This link shows us that Mahayana buddhism definitely reach Sri Lanka, but what about the history of war between Theravada and mahayana?

I think it's more to the Ethnicity problem where the local Sinhalese were Theravada and they may have tried to resist the outsiders who might have been hindu-mahayana. ANyway, looks like a ethnic war rather than a religious war.

But then, Sri Lanka is the cradle of Theravada buddhism> without them, Burma and thailand will not be a theravada country today.

hard to verify. What exactly happened in INdia also at that time that caused the decline of buddhism was also not well understood. Some scholars said that the local Buddhism in India evolved slowly , incorporating more and  more of Hinduism practices until the end there wasn't anything that is buddhist anymore. The Islamic invasion in the 10th century also destroyed many records in the buddhist universities, and sealed the end of buddhist era there.

sad.... many monks were killed at that time. Surely the people who commit such acts will be in Avici already

I read there were some political motive behind it. The local tribes opposed to Buddha's teaching also colluded with the invaders to put the final nail to the coffin.

But we should be glad, that buddhism was able to propagate beyond the shores of INdia (nortwards to china/tibet) and southward/eastwards to Sri Lanka/southeast asia.

Hi guys, I have a question. And this is not trolling.

As far as I know, monks (Theravada only or all?) are not allowed to wear underwear.
The reason is that Buddha don't want his followers to have attachment to their clothings, so all must wear the orange robe. So since they haven't invent underwear at that time, it is not in their "uniform".

But why the commando practice still goes on today in the modern age? Why not wear underwear now?
Isn't holding on to the old practice for the sake of the old practice is an attachment?

I may have made some assumptions above. If I'm mistaken in any part, it's because of my lack of knowledge. Don't flame me.

         
What? I never feel excited wearing underwear everyday... I'll feel more excited if I don't wear.

anyway regardless of everything previously wrote (i read the 1st page) but i still need to ask.

what is the purpose of this thread? i initially thought this thread was about buddhist retreats, u know... place where people go to meditate?

Those who rojak Buddhist and Christian cannot make up their damn mind... lolol