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  • Generally, it's easier if you post on their wall since we know when you've replied to us - but it's up to you. :)
    Hey Revoltingest, right back at ya. It definitely seems so on the surface, but once you get them talking about the things they don't like about the free-market I find myself questioning why they don't support it because everything they don't like has NOTHING to do with the free-market! It's crazy.

    I just considered something. Is it proper for me to reply on my page to your comment on my page or should I comment on your page to your comment on my page?
    Thanx for the frubie! Btw, it's a relief to see an other fan of free markets...we seem a minority here.
    It's really more or less just a small meeting of friends. I seen an ad that had been put up in my location for it saying that it was a meditation group so I went one night and kept going for a good while until just recently. The nearest Buddhist temple is a couple cities over so I can't exactly get there, and it is the state capital and has sooo much traffic.
    Nice, that's really awesome :)

    Was it just friends in the saṃgha or was it an actual temple or anything? How did you meet your friends who were Buddhist? Did you just meet one day, or did they convert, too? If you don't mind me asking, of course.
    That's what I like about the sangha I went to. Pretty much any opinion was welcome even if some one disagreed with it. It was seen as an opportunity for us all to understand the ideas of one another.
    That's definitely true, many do tend to focus on God - in particular, Abrahamic conceptions of God - far too frequently.

    A nice and diverse group is great - however, it seems people prefer to be in groups where there is less arguing. I feel if I sat in the vihāra here, then I would feel as though I had to keep my opinions to myself because there would be so much disagreement. Consequently, I would not grow. If I did not keep my opinions to myself, I expect I would risk being shunned as a wrong-thinker, due to the local vihāra's school of thought.
    @Odion, Yeah It'll be either this tuesday or wednesday. I'm excited, it's been so long that I've been able to sit down with a group of like-minded people and discuss the way of things. Some times I feel as if I am just insane because everyone I come into contact with on a daily basis either don't care about the way of things or believe in a different way of things and can consider no other.

    I think that it is important to have a diverse Sangha, people which are fairly like-minded, pretty much on the basis of Buddhism, however may follow different schools of belief and have different interpretations. This allows for you to keep your mind open to other things you know? I like that idea. I could see where a sangha full of atheists could be... problematic. Atheists, I think, tend to stress the idea of God too much around Christianity.
    No problem nooc. It was nice to see someone that had some knowledge on what capitalism really is. It's so frightening how many people are detesting capitalism and 'evil capitalists' for causing the economic peril we're in; then suggesting social intervention theories to fix the problem when it is the very thing causing much of the problem! It's baffling. Peoples entire politico-economic compass has been distorted. It's insane. And it is not something exclusive to this discussion forum either. I know well educated people of all walks of life who believe these same things. The evil capitalist and the selfless socialist.
    I don't consider the God many Christian people worship to be an asura, but I do the way they are described in those texts - if taken literally anyway.

    Sounds like you have got a saṃgha on the way! I don't have a Buddhist saṃgha at the moment; the majority of Buddhists here are hardcore atheists, and I don't feel I share the same, well, views as them because of my unorthodox views, even though my views are pretty much in line with the Tibetan Buddhist Jonang school. :shrug:

    So, I visit mandir and gurdwārās instead for my spiritual saṃgha, but even then I sometimes feel out of place as these are usually full of one particular ethnic group and often using a language I don't quite grasp. So, usually I'm pretty solitary in my practice I guess. :)
    Sadly I have been practicing alone as of late. I am in my senior year and at the beginning of the year my dad told me it would 'be in my best interest' to get a job and despite my protest, I got a job. I began to uncontrollably fall asleep during school every day and before I knew it I had slept half the year away and hadn't been to my Sangha in almost 4 months! I went to a doctor and was diagnosed with sleep apnea and narcolepsy =/ which I have yet to discover what this means for me. I've actually made plans and contacted my friend whom I met with (just a group of us meeting at his house really, nothing official but a sangha none the less) and told him I'll be seeing him next week. So hopefully I can get back into my sangha =)
    I can't bring myself to accept that, merely because I feel that Christians doing the same thing is elementary. I rather believe that the Abrahamic God is a projection of what we call AUM/OM which is still tainted by the Ego. Yeah I know what you mean with combining it with other things. I've recently been looking into Hinduism and have found it to be expounding on much of my belief.
    It's my firm opinion that the Abrahamic entities that are described are asuras.

    Thanks for sharing a bit of your history. I got into Buddhism from about 14 myself. I was reading about it and so on at 13, though. I wasn't really raised with religious beliefs, and just bumped into some stuff one day. It's been a part of my life ever since, save an 8 month gap when I tried Christianity (tried it for about 18 months ish - but 8 months or so as a "Christian only", and then the rest trying stuff out with it, but it was doomed to fail, lol.)

    Ended up combing Buddhist practise with everything. I can't help it. :D
    So do you have a saṃgha, or do you practise alone/mostly alone?
    Also, at the same time of studying other world religions I was reading a lot into history of the ancient world and human psychology. This is all outside of school as well. It wasn't until Highschool that I put it all together and found myself to be a Buddhist. So pretty much 15-16 was when I began to consider my self 'Buddhist'
    I have a terrible memory really. The most I can give is general estimation. When I was 14 I decided that I could no longer lie and say I was Christian so I decided to study other faiths. Buddhism was the one which caught my eye more than any other one and even though I did start practicing at 14 I retained a desire to practice meditation and always seen something powerful in the religion of Buddhism, something true. I didn't come across the book by Thich Naht Hanh until 15 or so, maybe 15 and a half but I don't think 16. I read that book and it was like an eye opener, I began to allow a strong association towards Buddhist philosophy build up, and it is not that it was that I was reading the books and finding new beliefs but rather reading Buddhist texts and confirming past beliefs.
    I found cases where God commanded the Jews to commit acts of genocide and murder and rape. I found parts of the bible where God's divine and all-knowing decision was "kill them" I considered things of the bible to contradict the fundamental principles of God. Such as his omniscience. I found, ultimately, that the God of Abraham either had to be a sadist or not God.
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