The Good Citizen said:
It has to be applied love though really doesn't it?
No problem about causing offence it clear you mean none. I have a friend I haven’t seen a while who became heavily into Buddhist thought. So I've read a bit of Buddhist writing here and there and its sort of appealing in a fluffy "there are no answers only questions sort of way". I found some interest in topics on materialism, how aspiring to the acquisition of wealth and material objects provides only a short term relief from our more fundamental problems. It made me realise I spent more time just looking at my DVD collection than actually watching it and I sold it all!
I think half way though the book though I just thought "oh shut up you damned hippy!"
Seriously though I just found it too... just sit down ...relax, don’t stress... don't go looking for answers to the big questions... you're just energy and part of universe". It tries to continually deconstruct the concept of the self and I just thought "I don't have the time to be Buddhist; I have too much honeysuckle to deal with!" Ultimately I couldn't resolve the conflicting message that on the one hand nothing really matters and that we are all just energy with on the other it going to describe a correct, healthy and worthy way to live. What value is a concept of good an evil in a universe of just energy?
I think at its core, like any religion it has some fundamental truths and wisdom, but how do you apply it? Life is going on around you and you only get one shot, it’s good to feel frustration, people need self drive to achieve happiness. Better than just sitting around not caring as its all meaningless anyway, it just seems to prescribe letting go and giving up (I know thats only my interpretation and it isn't actually suggesting that but thats how it left me feeling). Even if that’s true I'd rather sustain the illusion.
So how do you apply it? How do you apply the love that you have for everyone? Without trying to offend, I read a few of your posts about how you love all people equally and I find them well meaning but ultimately empty and just words which is how I find a lot of Buddhist thought, well meaning but empty. I'd rather love my family, with all my heart and in a real sense, not just with empty words and then afterwards see what I have left for everyone else because you tend to find there’s still plenty of love to go round. I see true happiness in an elderly couple with a family around them at Christmas, a reflection of many years of hard work and love toward those that matter most; I believe that is true definition of love and something to aspire to. There’s no happiness in reacting against your natural tendencies or sexual desires, it’s about taking them and channelling them in a positive way to a positive end, rather than running from them and working at convincing yourself its better that way.
Well that’s my view anyway; I hope we can agree to disagree.
You've taken quite the offensive stance towards my character, regardless of your intention to do so. Well, my empty words, can be only that. It's actions that prove character, and show love, but there aren't many actions I can do over a virtual landscape to assist people in their lives. I volunteer at a local soup kitchen, give all the change I have in my pockets to homeless people, visit an old folks home frequently, and try to help people with addiction.
We can agree to disagree, but before you discredit Buddhism so greatly, without understanding it. I just want to explain a few things..
Any idea that you got that life is meaningless from Buddhism, was written or told to you by someone who knows nothing about Buddhism, not one single thing about it. The entire point of Buddhism, is to understand the meaning of everything, rather than just a handful of things that make you happy or sad.
The next point, would be that Buddhism, is a combination of learning to love all the worlds inhabitants by following a strict moral code that you eventually follow regardless through meditation, as well as it is learning to understand that nothing is permanent. The very moment we are born, we have already died, time is not real, identity is not real, everything becomes, and withers away. It's learning to accept that, and see the beauty in it rather than the negativity, that Buddhism tries to teach. People are so afraid of being sad, that they avoid sad feelings at all costs and desire so greatly to be happy, that they clutch to happy thoughts and actions with dear life, pretending to themselves that happiness can last forever, that it's a permanent state one can obtain through hard work. True it's very possible to make yourself happy by doing things you love, or learning to love the things you do, but happiness fades, as does sadness they are only emotions and should not be held in such high regard.
We fail to see what's actually happening in the moment, because we spend time focusing on the past which is no longer real, and has nothing to do with reality, it is misleading and brings pain or aversion to our lives, the future, which has not even been real, where we live in a world that does not and will not exist, and we fail to live in reality, in the present moment. The moment something becomes, it is destroyed so that it might become anew, cells in your body change constantly, you are a new person before you even know who you are.
Buddhism is about being joyful and full of love, not running after something that we can never own (happiness), not about being lazy do-nothings, not about being a hippie, it's about experiencing your life before it's gone, and learning to love every moment of it.
If Buddhism does nothing for people, I would wonder how it allowed me to kick a severe amphetamine habit, ended my alcoholism, allowed me to quit chain-smoking both tobacco and marijuana, drinking caffeine, watching pornography and lying, all within the course of a two week period, as well as working heavily on my education, and forcing me to get a job and start doing volunteer work. I would think if Buddhism was what you believed it to be, I would still be doing drugs, and laying on my couch all day.
I'm not overly hurt by your deconstruction of my religion or my character, as I know it wasn't solely your intent to hurt my feelings, but you did come into this assuming yourself to be of greater value and intelligence than me, that is indisputable, and I would caution you to avoid that, there is enough of it in the world.
