/dharma/ - Buddhism

I am Buddhist and I find Taoism very fascinating as well. Zen/Chan Buddhism in particular seems to have some similarities to Taoism and they both developed alongside each other in China so I wonder if they had influence on each other in some way?

I read the Tao Te Ching/Dao De Jing w/e in high school from front to back on a whim just so I'd have familiarization with eastern thought. 3 years later when I got into Buddhism and politics I found that it's influence on me created a strong gravitation towards Zen and anarchism.

>>2
From what I understand Buddhism is remarkably secular and humanistic to the extent that the ideas contained therein are natural. I was just about to make a thread about it but I find severe parallels between Buddhism and pre-Socratic philosophy. They are rational and derive their truth from the human condition, rather than some prophet figure who has uniquely saved all humanity and we must worship him. Buddahood is something to aspire towards. It's about the self rather than some external entity. In this way I have been "practicing Buddhism" in an uncodified form all of my life.

>>3
Buddhism is heavily psychological and revolves around awareness, correct thought and conduct.

There is a metaphysical element however, especially in Mahayana Buddhism.

Customs and practices vary quite a bit between regions and sects, but as for folk tales, there are quite a few that I find amusing, heartwarming, and enlightening.

The Jataka Tales are old Indian texts said to be tales of Shakyamuni Buddha's past lives:
http://www.himalayanart.org/pages/jataka.cfm

Koans and parables written by Zen Buddhist monks are also quite interesting, some are fairly humorous as well:
http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/zenindex.html

More stories here:
http://www.ic.sunysb.edu/Clubs/buddhism/story/

Sometimes Buddhist texts are written in proverb format, sometimes in question & answer format, etc. but there are also many texts written in story format among the Theravada and Mahayana traditions and different regions have their own stories as well.

>>51
those are very neat

>>34
Oh you paranoiacs are wasting everybody's time…

From your Tibet CIA link:
"In his 1991 autobiography Freedom in Exile, the 14th Dalai Lama criticized the CIA for supporting the Tibetan independence movement "not because they (the CIA) cared about Tibetan independence, but as part of their worldwide efforts to destabilize all communist governments".[20]
In 1999, the Dalai Lama claimed that the CIA Tibetan program had been harmful for Tibet because it was primarily aimed at serving American interests, and "once the American policy toward China changed, they stopped their help".[3]"

Tibetans were offered free help from America and given the circumstances of oppression by the Chinese Communist Government, why would they refuse it? But ultimately the U.S. only really cared because they didn't like Communists gaining power. Same reason for getting involved with everything in the Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War, and numerous other proxy conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, and South America etc.

As for Nazis, they were infatuated with the ancient Aryans of India so they were interested in various things related to Indian culture. Tibet was still fairly isolated in that era so they wouldn't have seen those few diplomats from Germany as being much different from any other Europeans.

The only overtly wrong things the Tibetans and old Tibetan government did were serfdom and cruel punishments, but these were reformed and the current Dalai Lama worked to do so. Practically all countries have had unjust societal systems (slavery, castes, abuse of positions of power) and cruel forms of punishment at some time or another, but ideally they change their ways and reform, which Tibet has.

What more do you want from a man who made his society more humane and is now trying to teach people wisdom and compassion?

>>41
>Oh you paranoiacs are wasting everybody's time…

on the contrary, there's nothing paranoid about facts: http://www.westernshugdensociety.org/photos/the-dalai-lama-cables/

>What more do you want from a man who made his society more humane
it's not his society: it's the buddha's, not the dalai lama's

>and is now trying to teach people wisdom and compassion?
his antics are by definition incompatible with the buddha's teachings

file related: http://internationalshugdencommunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/The_False_Dalai_Lama.pdf>>41

justification of states is itself contrary to buddhism, which recognizes no nations nor distinct beings

>>42
fixed link
http://internationalshugdencommunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/The_False_Dalai_Lama.pdf

>>42
>it's not his society: it's the buddha's, not the dalai lama's
I meant "his" society as "he is a member of it", i.e. "his" family, "his" hometown, etc.

>justification of states is itself contrary to buddhism, which recognizes no nations nor distinct beings
Buddha wasn't focused on the "justification" of whether people decide to consider themselves distinct beings or nations, he simply said that doing so is a view that keeps one in Samsara, whether or not one does it or "justifies" it is up to them.

As for your facts, they're better sources than a silly paranoid YouTube video merely implying guilt and immorality by association. But even assuming they're true, the light arms they were only supplied by the U.S. under the specific conditional agreement that the Dalai Lama was leaving Tibet, so the arms were meant for self-defense if anything, not the most strictly monastic thing to do but understandable to protect Tibetans from the Chinese government who did end up hunting down and killing Tibetans who were fleeing the country.

>>48
>doing so is a view that keeps one in Samsara

then you are doomed to Manuṣyaloka rebirth

I personally haven't learned of the structure of Karma you mentioned though it could possibly be the canonical definition.

But from what I understand, Karma is the accumulation of causes and effects attributed to the things you identify with.

Doing, saying, and thinking unskilled and unwise things accumulates "bad" effects and somehow these effects will manifest themselves and cause suffering to you or the things you identify with, whether it is immediately or much later in time. The opposite applies for skillful actions, words, and thoughts that tend to accumulate "good" effects. Skilled vs unskilled generally depends on factors of wisdom vs ignorance, compassion vs hatred/fear, discipline vs greed/indulgence.

The attainment of Nirvana seeks to eliminate bad effectual karma and while it is not focused on gaining good effectual karma (though it can help make the process smoother when managed properly), I don't believe the Buddha says that it is explicitly wrong to gain good karma though he advised not to indulge in it or abuse it.

It depends on the school, but it seems like some say one can still reach enlightenment at any time even whilst having accumulated a lot of bad-causing karma as long as the mind is unhindered, but they will need to endure the process of eliminating that bad karma before even having the option of entering the state of Nirvana, which seems basically like a state of total equilibrium.

I might be mistaken though so if there are other knowledgeable people out there who would like to correct me, please do so.

In Hinduism, *all* karma is binding until one reaches Moksha (Nirvana). Even good karma will just get you into a lesser heaven and not union with god.

http://www.shreemaa.org/story-of-three-thieves/ This shows it off well