@xris,
xris;130796 wrote: I'm sorry that I upset you in criticising your chosen path but no one or anything is above investigation.
Alright Xris, pay attention, because I have mentioned this before. I am not a Buddhist, I do not practice Buddhism, I do not practice any religion. I do not adopt to any religious belief. However; I have studied many religions and theologies. If I am annoyed or as you put it, upset, it would be because you are making generalizations about a subject you know very little if anything at all about. I am only trying to correct your mistaken view points on the subject.
xris;130796 wrote:
So what was Buddha trying to achieve by his teaching?
Well he would actually respond by saying, he has no teaching. But I realize that is incredibly confusing to hear that statement. If he teaches anything it would be called common sense. It is the reality stripped of unnecessary fanatcy and trying to get to the core understanding of why we cause problems for ourselves and others.
That would be the definition of Buddhism. People don't like it put that way though, because it sounds like a living autapsy of the self. People love their self even if they hate themselves. Everyone has one ambition in life, to be content. They want nothing else. All goals and aspirations have as the reward, contentment at their end. Some are just more convoluted, but contentment is what everyone runs after. The method, is where the problems lurk. How you go about obtaining happiness will ultimately determine how much suffering you must endure or cause for others.
Everything you do, say, or think will cause problems. Although thoughts don't cause as many problems initially, but all actions start as thoughts, so even thoughts are something to analyze and crtisize within your own mind before they surface as actions or sayings. The whole purpose, the whole practice is to try and minimize the amount of problems we create for ourselves and for others unnecessarily. The Buddha revealed the tools to do this. He said he can't give you wisdom, but he can give you the tools for you to uproot the afflictions that restrict wisdom from arising.
When you utilize these tools, you will not completely rid yourself of suffering completely but you will minize it and at the same time, you will understand ways to avoid future problems. You will begin to understand how problems come about, and how the choices you make impact others, thus giving you the ability to consider your actions more realistically if you have the goal of reducing problems for others. This is what he called compassion. When you can consider all beings, not just humans into consideration for solving problems or preventing problems.
xris;130796 wrote:
I can understand certain education being relevant but telling me not do something that might hurt others is pretty basic stuff.
Yeah it is basic stuff, yet having just a general understanding of it is one thing, but perfecting it, is a whole nother thing. You might understand the concept, but do you know the impact of every thought, saying and action that you do on others? You might have a vague idea, but I bet you do things that you are not even aware of that create problems, and this is why as you put it; "Priests dont lock themselves away for others benefit."
That is exactly why they do it. If you can not comprehend the impact of your actions, then by all means avoiding them until you understand them is the wisest thing to do. Just like sometimes it is better to not speak than to speak just to speak.
xris;130796 wrote:
Excuse me but I thought the followers had found purpose by stopping the endless cycle of life and death by means of certain examples.
Some of these things are crude exagerations of the teachings. When they say ending the cycle of life and death, really what they mean is reducing the cycle of causing problems. They stop the drama train. They no longer chase after the phantom called contentment. They realize it alludes us because contentment is something that can not be quenched fully and completely through chasing after mental or material things. To say it is one thing, but to put it into practice is far more difficult and not everyone can do it. There are a LOT of inborn pyschological baggage that you have to deal with first, or you will never be able to fully release yourself from the chase. For the most part, secular life does not allow for the full release very well because secular living requires that you keep chasing after contentment just to survive. This is why those who are truely dedicated to it will become monks and nuns. But it is far from a selfish persuit as you like to refer to it as. They point out the things they discover to those who remain in their secular lives. Simple tid bits of wisdoms that help people deal with the problems in secular living. They are far from being selfish.
xris;130796 wrote:
It gives fine examples of making life a lot less stressful but it is self serving in its intentions. , they are finding enlightenment for themselves.
They are finding it for themselves so they can become the true teachers of wisdom. If you don't know math, you don't make a very good math teacher.
