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Whoa, my bad. You clearly know more than me about Buddhism. For me, I limit myself to Theraveda Buddhism and especially to Buddha's teachings only. Long befo
by rg111 5y ago
Whoa, my bad.
You clearly know more than me about Buddhism.
For me, I limit myself to Theraveda Buddhism and especially to Buddha's teachings only.
Long before I grew an interest on Buddhism, I realized that very few people actually understand great people and their teachings. Normal people dilute, misunderstand, and misinterpret what great people taught and communicated.
Years before I started studying about Buddhism, I always read original sources- Russoe, Voltaire, Tagore, Smith, Lenin, Bose, and so on.
My understanding stood correct. Very few of the people who talk about great people actually undestand them.
So, when I started with Buddhism, I told myself that I will limit myself to Buddha's direct teachings only. It's not that I will not touch Great Vehicle stuff, but I will never go deep into it. But reading never hurts. Tibetan Buddhism is interesting, colorful, and exotic. But not for me!
There are people who understand the great people that came before them- but filtering them out is a lengthy and tiring process.
But I remain genuinely interested to study deep into Dingnaga and Nagarjuna, and their philosophy ajd works.
- themodelplumber 5y agoAh, you have a PURSe, a Personally-Understood Religious Structure. My compliments on the way you've sorted your awarenesses into something that works for you. (And, when you have listeners, co-believers, or followers, may you let yourself watch them both come and go, sensing no flaw in contradiction... --Marc)
- rg111 5y agoI am both kinds of athiest (nastika and nirisvara). So, in that sense, I am not religious. Theravedas do not believe in any conversion ceremony unless you are going to be a monk. I have no intention of becoming a monk, as Buddha taught about six-directional duties of a man, and he himself confirmed that thousands of people attained Nirvana while being in a family (was it to Batsagotta? My memory eludes me). And I am not sure I deserve your compliments. I drink occasionally (intoxicating drinks were forbidden by the Buddha), and I keep eating meat and fish. I reached the conclusion of absolute nothingness and human beings being not more than complex biological machines with Science only, and no Buddhism. I started with Buddhism to figure out what to do with the knowledge. So far, I am very glad, and I am finding what I was looking for and beyond. I was completely blown away by the ehipassika (come and see) philosophy, lack of blind faith, and the inherent logical structure of Buddha's teaching. I remain deeply impressed by the same.