Who is your God? (Buddhism, doctrine, worship, Lord, religion)

[Don Penguinoini]

Thanks for posting here dopp!

[Pariah]

Honestly, I have always had a deep connection to Shiva simply because of the serenity that he seems to exhume - Shiva is also my father's tutelary deity.

However, I know very little about Shiva in terms of hard doctrine (I have heard many stories, but I can't back them up spiritually) but Krishna is certainly quite near and dear to my heart and I know the Bhagavad Gita well enough to use it in debates as scriptural proof for certain dharmic ideas.

To me, even if you strip him of his divinity, is one of the most amazing people one could possibly know, moreso than the other Prophets. Was he an ascetic? No. Did he ever take up asceticism as an answer to the world's problems? No. Did he love (as a friend and sexually)? Of course. Krishna was a philosopher, warrior, statesman, architect, friend, father, husband, and brother - absolutely amazing.

Buddha didn't interest me until I meditated on his methodology, rather than his teachings. Let me explain why I think he's so revolutionary.

Think about this. Here's a guy who was essentially a spoiled brat, and that too, taught to consider that a virtue by his father who kept him in exile from the tragedies of the world - this, however, only planted the seeds of his future enlightenment.

Siddhartha rejected it all, even food, and then came to the realization that it was all useless and then did his own thing. To me, it just seems revolutionary and because he was Indian, the cultural aspect resonates with me more than Jesus, who is described similarly. Buddha, however, did not have to endure physical pain, because Hinduism had no such idea of apostasy.

@ Penguino:
It should be mentioned that Buddha denied the divinity of the Vedas and thus, technically that qualifies Buddhism as a nastik (unorthodox) philosophy. However, many Hindus see Buddha as reinterpreting and reaffirming ideas in the Vedas (such as you), removing the bad ideas (animal sacrifice), and re-affirming good ideas (vegetarianism).

Theologically, I've had Buddhists reject Hinduism quite vehemantly, but applicably, we are quite similar (i.e. saffron robes).

Plus, the Dalai Lama has said "Buddhism and Hinduism are sons of the same mother".

[GabrielWithoutWings]

*raises hand*

I thought a person picked one deity from the school they follow and then stuck with it. Or have I been reading the intarwebz too much?

I thought it was Vishnu folks, Goddess folks, Shiva folks, or Smartists... they have a little pantheon don't they?

[Don Penguinoini]

That is sort of correct. Hinduism is based on flexebility, if you ant more, then its ok, as long as you are a good person and worhsio with love and devotion, its not hte details hinduism asks of a person, its the bigger picture. Thanks for the post GWW!

[Pariah]

Originally Posted by GabrielWithoutWings

*raises hand*

I thought a person picked one deity from the school they follow and then stuck with it. Or have I been reading the intarwebz too much?

I thought it was Vishnu folks, Goddess folks, Shiva folks, or Smartists... they have a little pantheon don't they?

That is... unless you don't belong to one

Hinduism is not institutionalized and "salvation" is not based on deity worship but on enlightenment as prescribed in the Upanishads and Vedas. This salvation is (generally) not based on any particular deity, but principles detailing the relationship between the soul and the body.

Indeed, a Vaishnavite believes that Vishnu is the Supreme deity but that generally does not stop them from worshipping other deities, such as Ganesha who is quite literally a pan-Hindu deity.

Generally, Hindus do not identify with one school of thought - it's simply whatever mode of worship is transferred from parents to children throughout the generations. More religious folks would be more knowledgeable on the subject than others.

As Penguino mentioned, most people don't really distinguish between one deity and the other, as long as its with devotion, it's all good with the Lords (and Lordesses).

[michaelm]

"However, many Hindus see Buddha as reinterpreting and reaffirming ideas in the Vedas (such as you), removing the bad ideas (animal sacrifice), and re-affirming good ideas (vegetarianism)."

But the Buddha rejected vegetarianism. One of the causes of the friction between himself and one of his cousins (cant recall the name) was his cousin was wanting to be more strict...vegetarianism, not living inside buildings etc.

The Buddha rejected vegetarianism since it would prevent poor people from donating food freely. As renunciants they had to accept whatever food was offered to them. interestingly, and somewhat puzzling to me, is the fact that Theravadan Buddhist monks follow the same view, encouraging vegetarianism but accepting meat if given to them, but, they do not accept certain meats, such as game. This was told to me by the Abbot of Amavarati, Laung Por Sumedho. I forgot to ask why the exception.

[Moses the God Archetype*]

Lord Shri Krsna The Supreme Personality Of The Godhead.

[Troublemane]

I have always revered the idea of Shiva Nataraja, the idea of God as dancing among creation, that events come and go and the dancer still continues. Also the concept of the world as just a dream of Shiva has always appealed to me. Like the world is just a dream, so all the bad things that happen now and then are not something to get all worked up over. I find it very inspirational.

[K.Venugopal]

Talking of deity and worship, may I mention there is an ashram in Kerala, called Siddha Ashram, where its inmates, both men and women, stay together in the nude and have free sex? This ashram was founded by Swami Sivananda in the 1920s. Before that Swamiji had roamed all over India and even reached peninsula Malaya. Then he returned to a town called Badagara in North Kerala and set up an ashram. He said something like you have to first live like the birds do before you can live like the Gods do. Whatever. The ashram is today self-sufficient, has 3 branches in Kerala and 1 in Tamil Nadu. One branch ashram sits on more than 100 acres of land. They make the highest quality Auyervedic products; have their own outlets for sale. The peculiarities of their lifestyle are that they all eat from one plate, would eat only after all the visitors have eaten (visitors are not subject to any of inmates rules). They do not crop their hair. It is total community living in the sense that no one owns anything, even the piece of cloth they wear when they come outside the inner chambers to meet the visitors to the ashram. Babies born are suckled by the mother till the baby is 3 years old. Then the baby and mother are separated and the baby is brought up in another side of the ashram where the grown-ups (except the caretakers of the children) do not have access. Only after the child is 15 years old does it come back to the main ashram and by then neither child nor mother would recognise each other. But what is primary about them is that they practise a rare form of pranayamam. Pranayamam is in fact the mainstay of their spiritual practice and they do it 8 hours daily, in 4 periods of 2 hours each. The inmates are invariably healthy, lead long lives and have nary a problem in the world.

[Don Penguinoini]

Originally Posted by Troublemane

I have always revered the idea of Shiva Nataraja, the idea of God as dancing among creation, that events come and go and the dancer still continues. Also the concept of the world as just a dream of Shiva has always appealed to me. Like the world is just a dream, so all the bad things that happen now and then are not something to get all worked up over. I find it very inspirational.

Hinduism is "It's going to happen any way, so dont be upset "