Buddhism

Well, it keeps an important philosophy alive that promotes good will and inspires peace

Answer:

There is no need for any -ism or -ity. However having a philosophy which has been reviewed and commented on by several thousand years worth of scholars helps us in our own meditations on big questions like "How should I conduct my life?"

In the case of Buddhism it establishes some basic premises. The chief being that most peoples lives contain sadness or unhappiness and this condition is caused by desire for things we think we need. It then offers a route (the Eightfold Path) to help us escape this sadness by proposing a simple way to avoid the desires that make us sad and lead our lives in a more skillful manner.

One advantage of Buddhism is that it offers a no guilt religions where people are not blamed for being inherently evil (inherent sin), and proposes that people are fully able to improve themselves without divine intervention.

Aside from each being integral to their faith the contents of Buddhism's Eightfold Path and Islam's Five Pillars of faith have no similarity.

Buddhisms's Eightfold Path is:

• Right Knowledge
• Right Thought
• Right Speech
• Right Action
• Right Livelihood
• Right Effort
• Right Mindfulness
• Right Concentration

Islam's Five Pillars of Faith are:

• To uphold the main belief that there is no other god but Allah, and that prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is His Messenger;
• To perform the daily solat (prayer, 5 times a day;
• To fast for one month during Ramadhan;
• To offer zakat (tithe) as laid down by the prophet; and
• To perform the Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, at least once in a lifetime when one can afford it.

EXAMPLe:

If you do something good, enjoy your life. If you do something bad, you'll get something bad.

A good phrase to describe Karma is, "Every Action has an equal or opposing reaction".

what goes around comes around, it could be good or it could be bad....

Life, Reincarnation, Karma, Moksha and Brahman are the best examples

It must be mentioned here that since Brahman is the Hindu god of facts, Reincarnation, Karma, Moksha and Brahman must be directly compatible with science. Therefore, there is absolutely no scope for beliefs and imaginations.

ACTUAL MEANING OF THE ABOVE WORDS:

1. Life - activity

2. Reincarnation - transformation of an activity every time it is repeated

3. Karma - fluctuations in tone of our muscular system that causes transformation of the activity every time it is repeated.

4. Moksha - Abolition of fluctuation in tone of our muscular system that makes all activities of our life involuntary/ automatic , thus enabling us to use inborn reflex system of life, which we call Brahman.

5. Brahman - inborn human reflex system, common to all human beings, thus independent of time, place and person.

It is for this reason that 'I' and Brahman are one and the same (Aham Brahmasmi - Brihadarankyaka Upanishad 1.4.10).

PURUSHA (RIG VEDA - 1.10.90:

Karma occurs in Purusha.

All the skeletal muscles of our body can isometrically contract (harden) and relax (soften) as though they were a single skeletal muscle, which we can call as Unified Skeletal Muscle, USM.

In Hinduism USM is known as Purusha.

Purusha is same as Brahman (Manu Smriti - 1.11) with whom we become one with, after getting rid of our Karma and thus attaining Moksha.

We get literal interpretation of Purusha and not the one based on the symbolism involved. This makes us conclude that Purusha is something Mythological and totally incompatible with science.

KARMA:

Karma is fluctuations in tone of Purusha, that raises or lowers the center of gravity. This facilitates, retards, modifies, abolishes or substitutes the activity.

These unintended results are due to favorable or adverse effects of rest of the activities of our life.

Karma indicates that the activity is not compatible with rest of the activities of our life and therefore it has to be modified (reincarnated) every time, to make it compatible with rest of the activities of our life.

GETTING RID OF KARMA:

Karma is abolished if each and every activity of our life are independently correct, just as in science.

Otherwise, facilitation by one activity and an equal retardation by another activity would make the activity appear correct for some time.

MECHANISM OF KARMA:

If all the activities of our life are independently correct, then they can be merged in any combination, separated and remerged in new combinations. This can be done as many times as necessary and yet none of the activity would get modified (reincarnated). This is what we mean by 'getting rid of Karma'.

It must be mentioned here that Brahman is the state at which all such independently correct activities of the highest status are interlinked and synchronized.

Poverty is not connected to religion. There are also poor Christian and Islamic countries. Another reason might be that the Buddhist religion does not equal wealth to happiness. Attachment to material things ultimately hinder you from reaching nirvana.

Enlightenment!

The Founder of Buddhism was the historical Buddha (which means the Fully Enlightened One), born in Nepal (year 623 B.C.) as Prince Siddhartha of the Sakya Kingdom. The natives of ancient Nepal were the Kirat people (Tamang, Sherpa, Rai, Gurung etc.), better known as the Gurkhas today.

Prince Siddhartha left Nepal (in the Himalayan mountain range) at the age of 29 years old, crossed over to ancient India and eventually gained Enlightenment (Bodhi) at the age of 35 years old, at a place subsequently named as Bodhi Gaya. He became the Buddha.

The key teachings of the Buddha, encapsulated in the Four Noble Truths, are:

1. Living a simple life of love, non-violence and compassion will result in a person getting reborn in heaven, or in good circumstances as a human being. The former is consistent with Christ's Teachings. For the latter, clinical cases of human rebirth have been extensively researched and published by Dr. Ian Stevenson, MD and university Professor.

2. Practising meditation / yoga / Zen together with point 1, will bring about spiritual happiness here and hereafter. This is consistent with Laozi's Teachings.

3. Practising points 1 and 2, together with the initial knowledge of the intrinsic nature of all worldly things (impermanence, insubstantiality and insatisfactoriness) will lead to the end of rebirth, and go beyond heavenly existence. This is termed as Nibbana (Nirvana), which the Buddha has described to us as Highest Happiness, Freedom, Unique and Beyond Space-Time Continuum. Nibbana is not existence nor extinction.

4. The precise method for point 3 is known as the Noble Eight-fold Path.

At the age of 80 years old, the historical Buddha entered into Final Nibbana (Parinibbana). 500 years later (year 57 A.D.), the Buddha appeared in a dream to the Han Emperor Mingdi, which prompted the Emperor to ask his Court the next day about 'a golden man with light shining from his neck'. This account is recorded in China's historical archives. One of the official said he had heard of a holy man in the western region, who had find immortality and whose skin was golden. Subsequently, Han Mingdi sent an expedition to found out more. This marked the spread of Buddha's Teachings from the western region (Himalayas), and also India, into the central plains of ancient China.

2600 years later, Albert Einstein said:

"There is a third stage of religious experience…the individual feels the futility of human desires…beginnings of cosmic religious feeling already appear at an early stage of development, e.g., in many of the Psalms of David and in some of the Prophets. Buddhism…contains a much stronger element of this."

Robert Oppenheimer said:

"If we ask, for instance, whether the position of the electron remains the same, we must say 'no'. If we ask whether the electron's position changes with time, we must say 'no'. If we ask whether it is in motion, we must say 'no'. The Buddha has also given such answers when asked (about Parinibbana)."

Niels Bohr said:

"For a parallel to the lesson of atomic theory...(we must turn) to those kinds of epistemological problems with which already thinkers like the Buddha and Laozi have been confronted, when trying to harmonize our position as spectators and actors in the great drama of existence."

Answer 1: No. Buddhism itself is not even a religion, but a philosophy and way of life. There are no "gods" in Buddhism in the strict sense. Various cultures (Tibet, China, Japan, India, Korea, Burma, Thailand) created gods and goddesses as visual representations of Buddhist principles....but the teachings of Buddha in the beginning were not about gods or spirituality, but how to think, act, and function to attain "enlightenment".

And... yes it is. Certain forms of Buddhism are purely Pantheistic. The "theism" here is misleading. The fundamental concept that there exists no supreme being but rather an all pervasive energy that is the structure of the whole universe, is common to both Pantheism and Buddhism. "Enlightenment" is defined differently according to the sect of Buddhism. Many Buddhists believe that enlightenment is found when denying ones desires, however, in Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism which is based upon the final teachings of Shakymuni Buddha (found in the Lotus Sutra), "enlightenment" is "happiness" reached through your desires and is defined by a true understanding of Mystic Law. That law is basically Pantheistic in nature.

To put it more simply, when one fully understands the connection of every "thing" to the whole of the universe, true happiness can be attained. Practicing Pantheists revere nature and "worship" their connection to nature. This revering of "the truth of natural phenomenon" brings happiness to the Pantheist. The "I" is lost in the sea of reality. This worship of nature itself combined with the understanding of one's connection to it, is precisely what is meant by practicing Mystic Law in certain forms of Buddhism.

It is interesting to note that the famous American Pantheists were transcendentalists who studied the Lotus Sutra.

Answer 2: In Buddhism, every human being (or every being, according to some Buddhists) is in the process of becoming a god (meaning: invoked one). Therefore, it is a pantheist spiritualism to some, and technically a religion is the sense that to practice it one has to bind themself to a set of rules, standards and moral doctrine. But it is not a religion in the sense that you have to pay homage to a church or temple. In other words, one is not a vassal (servant or slave) to a god (invoked one) or church in Buddhism, but on the path to becoming enlightened to reach a state in which one is no longer bound to cycles of corporeal life and death. Buddhism also believes in ascension, but as to their meaning of it being the same as the Gnostics or Jains is open for debate and interpretation. Gnostics tend to pray and serve an ascended being and Catholics tend to worship one ascended being, whereas Buddhists do not worship or serve an ascended other than their future ascended thelves. The reason for this is not entirely known. Moreover, Buddhists may not be required to worship an ascended being but some do choose to. Meaning that one can be a Buddhist Gnostic, or Buddhist Orthodox, etcetera. I suppose this is a heresy in the eyes of some. But one can really Buddhist and serve the Architect that so many call God, YHWH, Alla, Zeus, Odin, Elohim, Annanuki, etcetera.