Need to pay or not ?
Or later organise trip to buy caged animals from their own syndicate and go jungle to forng sang ?
These are not true Buddhism.

Ok lah. .I deleted it. Buddhism is a peaceful world. I should not argue.

This post has been edited by simpletraveler: Nov 28 2014, 05:06 PM

It will be active if we stay on. What you like to discuss, learn or teach ?
Recently I discovered and learnt so much about Buddhism that even their monks don't know.

Where is that ? Care to share ? What he meant by sexual activities ? Male and female stay together ?

This interest me.
Actually they are right if they refer Allah as God because as you may know by now, Islam copied from Christianity and Jesup story is actually copied from Buddha's story. Check out all their similarities. The Christians and Muslims are always discouraged by their heads not to study Buddhism is because afraid more people know about it.

It is all placebo effect. In Buddhism or any way of life or any religions, there is no such things as praying can get what you want. The Buddhists pray the statue or their ancestors or any gods are out of respect to them.

Later took over by Christianity which is more aggressive in marketing and Islam is more forceful and lawful.
It shows Buddhism Hinduism Taoism are all too soft and not ambiguous.

I am more interested in Buddhism teachings that are related to science. You can see what I wrote in the thread titled..science, energy, placebo, etc in real world issues.

I fully agree with the part that Buddhism taught the basic flaws of human are ignorance, greed and aversion. Those 2 religions had all 3 types of people well examples. The founder of Christianity who was a Buddhist(believed to be a Mahayana member) created Christianity obviously out of greed for power and money. See the way they pass around the money bag to collect money instead of a donation box and the encouraging donation based on monthly income. Then their followers are brainwashed to think that by being donating more, hardworking or loyal to their religion, they can go to heaven. Later Islam left them to start their own religion, again out of greed but aversion level is the highest in Islam. In fact, both of them had holy wars. The whole picture also proved the effect karma. Christianity was created out of knowledge from Buddhism to betray the Jews and later Islam betrayed them.

This post has been edited by simpletraveler: Nov 29 2014, 09:01 AM

Out of the 3 basic flaws of human, ignorance is the real cause actually. For example based on your statement.
Buddhists are not ambitious and don't do marketing to spread like Christianity, so slowly many Buddhist followers esp the ignorant ones are easily converted by Christianity. I advise Buddhists to share more knowledge to their children to prevent them from being influenced and converted by others. Most Buddhists still think that they should be compassionate to others and let freedom of religion to their children and everyone. This is actually ignorance too. They don't realise that Christianity is using money to spread their religion. On your last part that those 2 religions tried to convert people so that everyone can go to heaven is the highest level of ignorance and greed. I always tell people not be cheated by such beliefs. If they really believe they can go to heaven, why didn't their leaders...like the priests and pastors commit suicide ?

Knowledge is the most precious and the best remedy for ignorance.
I always encourage people not to be selfish by keeping knowledge to themselves. They should share their knowledge to others. When we share knowledge to others, our knowledge will not be reduced. We lose nothing. In fact, we gain merits. This is the effect of karma, action and reaction. Science can't be wrong.

Why is the name with the word "retreat" if you meant to discuss all about Buddhism ? At a glance people will think you are announcing an event like those meditation retreats.

This is what I meant by better marketing and most people, regardless of any religions, are ignorants. The smart ones will not need to be followers of any. They would have been the leaders. Buddhism need to repackage their practice if they do not wish to lose followers. Actually more non-Buddhists Chinese convert to Christianity compared to Buddhists Chinese. In Malaysia, as long as the Chinese worship any god or ancestors, they are classified as Buddhists. Actually they should not.
Buddhism should also simplify their lessons and make it clear to the new followers what's Buddhism is about right from day one. Many Chinese convert to Christian because they don't get what they pray and Christian easily mislead them over. Once inside Christianity, they know how to brainwash them to no-return. This is marketing. They teach their followers to condemn Buddhism and other religions, so that they cannot return back or go to Buddhism. Christianity also know how to make their religion easy, appealing and attractive. Being able to be forgiven once every 7 days and still able to go heaven is definitely more appealing than doing good and sacrifices. Who want to suffer in hell as in Taoism ?
Being ignorant, greedy or aversive in nature, everyone is sure to do something wrong. So using words like sins to frighten them and then God will forgive them a are so attractive. So is their Christmas. See how they make that day into a month long celebration such that even a non Christian celebrated unknowingly.

Christianity also know how to use psychology. Passing the money bag in front of everyone will make everyone tend to pay more money. They will be embarrass not to pay. With more money, they will be able to do more marketing events and even send people out to recruit more followers. Nowadays, elderly folks are getting more lonely and they know how to target on these elderly victims too.
Now in Malaysia, they are targeting on the foreign workers too as they are mostly lonely. The church in bukit bintang always have more Myanmar people now.

Buddhism should learn from them in these aspects.
So I always advise everyone to caution their family members and friends from being tricked and converted.

This post has been edited by simpletraveler: Nov 29 2014, 01:36 PM

4 Pak,

You robbed me !! I am about to continue this in my thread in Real World Issues to explain Placebo and Energy Effects.
To elaborate further for you, when people have certain belief and faith, even those it is blind or wrong, they develop a positive energy in their body and that helps them happier and eventually his life and work go smoother. Of course it is only temporary but it helps for awhile. Buddha did not explain this at his time.

This post has been edited by simpletraveler: Nov 29 2014, 02:45 PM

How about deleting the word "retreat" so people can find it easier and don't get misled ?

No. I imply that Buddha did not explain how placebo effects for the body. During his time, there is no such scientific knowledge yet.

It's the same like Buddha taught karma theory but karma was believed even in Hinduism and Chinese religions long before that. Hinduism and Taoism do believe in karma but it wasn't until Buddha's arrival that explained them but Buddha did not explain how karma and rebirth takes place in the body in a scientific manner, certainly not about placebo and energy effects.
I am trying to elaborate or explain for him so that people can really "understand" the biological effect and not just "believing" it.

Why do you think it is useless ?
By just claiming rebirth and karma effects, do you know others, especially the Christians make a mockery out of it calling it superstitious or nonsense ? Don't you agree that it will be better if it can be explained in a more scientific manner to let people "understand instead of believing" ? If one will to believe, better believe in god and heaven, so much easier.
Many people don't know yet karma is related to the scientific theory of action and reaction and rebirth is related to the theory of energy discovered by enstein.
It is time the Buddha's teachings make a step forward instead of staying stagnant or permanent. Buddha said nothing is impermanent, isn't it ?

This post has been edited by simpletraveler: Nov 29 2014, 06:13 PM

Don't stay stagnant or go backwards. What the Buddha said is 2500 years ago without scientific evidence. What I say now is the same meaning as what Buddha taught but in a more scientific manner.
This is a scientific age. Even the Dalai Lama cannot disagree with me.

It's very simple answer. You just need common sense, some logic and a little bit of science.
The soul is the part of the body that is totally of a different dimension, invisible but still a form of energy. Science said energy can neither be created or destroyed but it can be transformed. This is the explanation for soul and rebirth.
There is nothing that anyone can do to the dead's soul although some Taoism priests or mediums claim they can communicate with them. Even if they can, they cannot change the state of that soul. Just like no God can do anything to affect humans.
The energy or soul will take its own natural cause and be transformed. Since it's a suicide, it's considered unnatural and the person was a very unhappy one before he died. As to what or where he will be transformed will depend on his past karma but whatever or whoever he becomes should not matter to the family or anyone. His transformation will no longer be his old self. They are cases where some people are born to be human again and they can remember their past lives but that is not important.