Right now, I'm engrossed in the study of the Satipatthana Sutta (MN 10), particularly, the cemetery contemplations. It's not for the faint of heart, or the fearful.
It's a difference in underlying philosophy. Hindus believe in an eternal soul that transmigrates, Buddhists don't. I have seen some Buddhists use the term reincarnation, but with the Buddhist understanding of rebirth. However, I do think some Tibetan Buddhists believe in something closer to...
No. Buddhism teaches what we call 'rebirth'. It's different from reincarnation in that reincarnation teaches that it's an etenal soul that transmigrates from life to life, but Buddhists don't believe in an eternal soul. In Buddhist rebirth, it's ones karma that goes from one life to the next.
Can we really know anything objectively, or can we know with certainty anything outside our own subjective thought and experience?
Is there really a difference between 'real' and 'exist'?
We can go even further, to the limitations of language itself. Language is symbols with meanings, that not everyone can agree upon. Language is an outward expression of subjective thought. I'm not even sure that we can really understand language from one person to the next. Now when you add...
Hm...
1. Religion requires belief in a god
2. Religion requires belief in an afterlife of reward for actions
3. Religion requires strict adherence to a scripture or code of conduct
4. Religion requires formal meetings/ceremonies/prayers/rituals
Here's a few about Buddhism:
1. Buddhists worship Buddha as a god
2. Hotei (the 'fat' Buddha) is the Buddha
3. Buddhism teaches and promotes it's own martial arts
4. Buddhists are idol worshippers
5. Buddhism teaches reincarnation
6. Karma is like a law of return, or worse, karma is fatalistic...
I'd have to agree with Orontes. Any similarities between Buddhism and ancient Greek philosophy are only superficial. One could say that some ideas of Plato, the Stoics, Diogenes, etc., share a resemblance to Buddhism, but the underlying philosophy is remarkedly different. The closest one could...
First off, I would hesitate to call any martial art 'Buddhist'. While there are many martial arts that either took from Buddhist philosophy or incorporates some of it's practices, there's nothing I would call an actual Buddhist martial art. With that being said, the popularity of both Buddhism...
It all depends on how you view it. If it becomes a hindrance, I would say it's time to drop it. If it helps spur one in their practice, then there would be no issue with it. Buddhism is about practice, not beliefs, and there's certainly room in Buddhism for the veneration of ancestor spirits. I...
Suffering is caused by clinging, which is itself caused by ignorance. Ignorance of what? The constituents of right view. These constituents are the four noble truths, the three marks of existence, and karma. So what does this mean? Anything else is just concepts, with no real existence...