Just a short info

[MrMystery]

To those who knows about Buddhism, let me tell you something interesting... It's NOT a religion. 

[Muerte]

  You know, I have never considered wither or not it was a religion.  I think per chance I shall study up on it for a bit.

[MrMystery]

Lol. I read a lot of the books and research about it since i am a Buddhist. Actually, it's just a normal study. Like a subject(History, English, Science...). It's suppose to teach us the concept of universe. And the Buddha is the original teacher. Not a god.

[Dreamer]

Buddhism is not a religion and so is Taoism and Confoolwitianism.

I think I already know that info  

[MrMystery]

Confoolwitianism?? What's that? Lol.

[jordyn]

confoolwitius says...

[jordyn]

confoolwitius says...

hopefully it's a bug that won't let you spell c o n f u c i u s

[rave phillaphia]

I would disagree. Buddhism is a way of life, yes, but all religions are. It wasn't until later with academic study when we started to label different 'ways of life' as religions. But what do I know I am only a religious studies major about to graduate and study these traditions and interact with the people who practice them who also say that they are religions. I just hate when people say that traditions are not religions because they assume that religion is suppose to be typical western religion that engulfs itself in worshipping one God, an afterlife, and human moral laws. But hey that can't be right and not be a religion because the Buddhists who practice it and say it is a religion are wrong? Just because a person or community lives their entire life by the tradition can't be a religion. Hello people stop trying to separate everything. Religion is not bad, people are bad, they misuse the traditions for their benefits, so take a step back and realize that religion is not a negative term, humans are the negative part of the equation.

[rave phillaphia]

Actually the definition of religion is still being debated by scholars because it is hard to define, but the 'old' definition of religion does say that there is a belief in a higher power, but isn't what religion defined today is. It has been redefined because in the past 'Christians' said that all other religions were not religions and christianity was the only religion. Buddhism does have higher powers, but isn't the main point. The main point is to transcend reality and remove oneself from the limits of the the cycle of rebirth, life and death.

And yes I do know he is Buddhist but I know a lot of Buddhists (both scholars and lay people) who say otherwise that Buddhism is a religion. From Zen to Tibetian Buddhism the majority claim that Buddhism is a religion. It is a western concept to call it 'religion' because we seem to have to divide all portions of our culture and society in order to see how they work in order to explain it to outsiders. We call it religion, but we shouldn't give it the negative conotations of what we typically think of religion. We say religion in order to describe what we are discussing, but religion is a way of life, and it can be within culture and society so deeply that it is not recognized or it can be separated so it is a distinctive identity. We say religion is separate because of Western traditions but look at Africa or anywhere else and they wouldn't have called it religion until westernization hit. But even Western religions didn't call it religion until there were ethnic discriminations and the enlightenment period. The real question is should we even bother debating if it is a religion because it has been placed into a category originally brought on by discrimination. We call it religion in order to describe it and to explain it by compairing similarities and differences across cultures.

[rave phillaphia]

that is where we get into problems. Not just Karl Marx writings and theories could be a religion but sports like football could be too. lol, but it is an issue that is a huge debate today.

[oldbill4823]

I guess this is another example of the continual shifting of words intent and association, a bit like how geographic borders move according to who you ask and in what period of history they are from.

Buddhism is simply what it is. Even though we are speaking a somewhat common language here on the forum there are specialists and subsets of this languages users who use individual words in slightly different ways. As a result of this over time the meaning attached to this sound and glyph can shift.

Buddhism is a religion and yet it is not a religion. Both are true, both are false. It is the word religion that is slippery in its meaning here. This is also why its good to talk to people.

om mani padme hum

[rave phillaphia]

I wish there was a like button on monstrous, I would totally put like on oldbills post

[Nina]

I said the same thing not so long ago. So, asides of library, we need a like button too. Hey, maybe even the one that can show on FB what we liked, would help promote Monstrous