Does Realistic = Depressing? (Buddhism, hell, verse, religions, Buddhism)

[methylatedghosts]

Originally Posted by Willamena

Depends on what you consider to be eternity.

The time it takes for the ambulance to get there is an eternity.

[gnostic]

Originally Posted by willamena

Depends on what you consider to be eternity.

Hell! One week of boredom would feel like eternity to me.

[kaat]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

Would you say that it is true that the more a religion is based in reality, the more people see it as being depressing or bland?

Yes, because I think the lure of mainstream religion is mostly the relief of some of the depression that can result from real life - real, meaning based on what we know empirically, which of course is very little. If I reject God as imaginary, I am a lost soul. To me, lost souls are those trying to live with reality as it is observed, although science does also represent seeking. And the believers are those who don't accept life without answers (science mostly gives us questions, not answers, and nothing so far that makes us feel any better about anything). So I think spiritual seekers are by definition expecting to be elevated from the muck.

[ThePhoenixSisters]

I would say it's better to construct or choose a set of beliefs (or not) that increases your sense of fulfillment right NOW in the present moment of this lifetime. Beliefs that draw out the best in you right now, since the now moment is all you will ever really know*have*own anyway.

I personally love what is whimsical, mythical, magical, muzeical... These things are what I *believe* in. And so my world *becomes* (in) these *things*.
So I become, and re-become in this *type* of existence.

What comes in the next life? Who knows what (wonder/challange) even the next moment will hold.

I am not Buddhist. Does Buddhism believe in living life vividly AWAKENED in each and every moment?

Depressing and boring is always waiting for another moment, another tomorrow, another lifetime to be wide awake creative alive, truly and deeply. If we can't find*touch eternity now, what makes us think we will ever find it anywhere else?

musing...
*Nixxie*

[misanthropic_clown]

I think that the entire point of religion is to say "Good news everyone... there is more to life than meets the eye".

The two main 'non-realistic' elements of belief I can think of are an afterlife system, and an ultimate justice system. The afterlife caters to the need to address sad events such as death by telling the adherent that they will go to some better and comfortable place.

The concept of ultimate justice helps adherents believe that when a person does a wrong against them, they will be punished and that the adherent will gain reward by being good. This produces the attitude that even though life is unfair, things will be made fair in the end.

Without those, you are left with the belief that life is ultimately unfair and that unfairness will never be corrected, and that this unfair life is the end. That could be quite depressing, but I think the magnitude of that depression is softened if you never really adhered to the beliefs in the first place.

In any respect, I don't think those two principles can in themselves make any individual happy, it very much depends on how they apply them. I think the happiest option is to have those principles deeply rooted into applications within reality, so that you are not overlooking the here and now.

[Willamena]

Originally Posted by ThePhoenixSisters

I am not Buddhist. Does Buddhism believe in living life vividly AWAKENED in each and every moment?

Actually, yes, just that, though they may refer to a different thing when they say "awakened" than you do.