it's Not supernatural. Instead the focus is on mastering our emotions.
The original teachings of the Buddha included supernatural elements; most noticeably reincarnation, karma and the cycle of birth and death. Buddhists believe that the human life is one of suffering, and that meditation, spiritual and physical labour, and good behaviour are the ways to achieve enlightenment, or nirvana. In his first sermon, the Buddha said, “I teach one thing and one thing only: suffering and the end of suffering,” which is the ultimate goal of Buddhism. Beliefs found in Buddhism that could be called supernatural are rebirth, the working of karma over multiple lifetimes, heavens and hells, devas and Māras, miracles, merit and merit transfer, and many of the psychic powers mentioned in Buddhist texts (e.g., walking through walls, flying, and talking with gods.).
On the other hand, Christianity insists that Homosexuals go to Hell to be tortured forever. Is that what you meant by "dark"?
There's a persistent and widespread belief that Buddhist societies really are peaceful and harmonious. This presumption is evident in the reactions of astonishment many people have to events like those that took place in Myanmar. How could a Buddhist society, especially Buddhist monks!, have anything to do with something so monstrously violent as the ethnic cleansing being perpetrated on Myanmar’s Rohingya minority? Aren’t Buddhists supposed to be compassionate and pacifist?.
There is no shortage of historical examples of violence in Buddhist societies. Sri Lanka’s long and tragic civil war for example, involved a great deal of specifically Buddhist nationalism on the part of a Sinhalese majority resentful of the presence of Tamil Hindus in what the former took to be the last bastion of true Buddhism (the “island of dharma”). Political violence in modern Thailand, too, has often been inflected by Buddhist involvement, and there is a growing body of scholarly literature on the martial complicity of Buddhist institutions in World War II era Japanese nationalism. Even the history of the Dalai Lama’s own sect of Tibetan Buddhism includes events like the razing of rival monasteries, and recent decades have seen a controversy centred on a wrathful protector deity believed by some of the Dalai Lama’s fellow religionists to heap destruction on the false teachers of rival sects.
I recently visited China and spoke with Han Buddhists who's views on people that belong to one of the dozens of officially recognized minority ethnic groups, are horrific.
Should we talk about the prevalent attitude of ascetic misogyny which sees the female as signifying desire per se and posing a continuous threat to male monastics wishing to preserve their celibacy. It typically expresses itself in vilifying women for their presumed ability to prey on innocent males to satisfy their sexual desires.
I was raised a Catholic, I ran away from home as a teen and lived in an ashram with Sikhs and Jains, I spent time in India training to teach yoga and hung with Buddhists and Hindus, I've sung and danced with Jesuits and Sufi's along the Mediterranean coast and I've loved a few pagan witches and an Eastern Orthodox gypsy. I realised, very quickly, all religion is about manipulation and control.
If you really want to know the effect organised religion of any kind has had on the world grab a passport and a pair of hiking boots and go take a look, it's a bloody revelation sunshine.
