Questions about Buddhism (tradition, soul, mission, doctrine, experience)

[Vfr]

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Many contradictions with religions. Religion was created by man and as such every religion is imperfect, since their creators were imperfect themselves. But, just as each religion contains imperfection they also contain many perfection's within them. It is up to the practitioner or end user to use the tools in the right way. Accepting what is beyond our control is the way to peace as long as we have done our foot wok in the area of the eightfold path as our foundation to peace. It is a common fault with humans that they look for an enemy to blame their problems on whether it be karma, God or a golden calf. We must always remember that all problems are created in the mind and our problems are individual as well. Sometimes there is someone to blame for these problems which is usually us. Other times it is just how things are and no one is to blame. When you stop looking for an enemy to blame for your problems on you have made a big breakthrough with finding acceptance and peace. The universe does not discriminate against us...we do the discriminating. My earlier post 'Enemy God' discusses this topic in detail

Some Buddhists say we have no self since you cannot point to it or upon dissection of a body you cannot find it. You cannot find the mind as well. But neither can you dissect and point to gravity, the wind or magnetism but they exist as well. You can't point to smells and odors, hot or cold yet they exist. So it also goes with the self and mind. Humans are not fungible commodities for the most part. We all have our natures and personalties. Can you point to a personality? Can you dissect a human and find their personality? Does this mean personalities do not exist? If this was not the case, no one would bother dating before marrying and you could substitute one person for another without issue and get the same result in marriage.

Throughout history man has needed an escape to concentrate his or her mind on. As I told you above, over thinking and the endless speculation over religious fervor makes a great escape from thoughts of death or to pull us out of the ugly lives we have created for ourselves. Just work to change or readily accept what cannot be changed and you can circumvent all the needless concentrations to be at peace in the present. One day your life, just as mine, will be spent. And the defining characteristic of our lives will not be not be much money we grabbed, or how many posts we sent in. But a very important component that will define whether a life flourished or not will be if we 'really lived' our lives in the present and in an authentic manner. Or was our life spent empty and devoid of real expedience, a life in a haze of delusion, always fixated on speculation of the past or the future, but seldom living in the now...the now of actually experiencing life first hand for OURSELVES.

I know many of you have problems you wish to escape from. If you wish to change things, then take that first step in the 'opposite direction' from where you have been headed in for so long. Walk in the path of right living and peace and as you as you make this change you will see your problems starting to diminish. As they diminish, your capacity for rational thought and clear thinking well increase. And then you can start thinking about balanced living instead of useless speculations as way to tie up your mind. Remember...a constantly busy mind cannot heal itself.

You see, while pondering such unanswerable questions as the immortality of the soul and trying to decide if I exist ultimately or temporally or not at all, I can still do great damage to other sentient beings with my actions that 'do exist' in the present moment. As such, I prefer to spend my time being mindful of my actions and am wary not over concentrate in theory and debate. I'd like to point out that my views are not the orthodox or traditional vies on these subjects. So, please do not think I speak for anyone other than 'myself' with whatever I write. Of course, as this topic discusses, traditional Buddhists also believe there is no 'my' or 'self' so, I guess it really doesn't matter in that case since 'V' is empty and 'V' does not exist. In addition, belief of self is also one of the ten fetters that binds a being to samsara, so if you wish to escape samsara, then do not believe in self. But also realize you need to get off the computer this instant, as a 'being' that is attached to such electronic passions will not be escaping anything.


Good luck,



V (Male)

Agnostic Freethinker
Practical Philosopher

[zenzero]

Anon,
Responding to the post after a gap of a few months.
The question of NO self or NOT self
it is NOT self as because if it is NO self then from what point is the sayer, where is he saying this statement from?
NOT self implies that the ENERGY [whatever one calls it] which is in the individual body is not a sepearate identity it is only a part of the universal energy. NOT self [individual] They are not TWo but ONE and finally even the One is no more there.
Intersting?
Love & rgds