Existential Buddhism versus Theravada Buddhism

[Shantanu]

I do not reject them, i just not follow their teaching

How would you know God's teaching if you have no idea of who God is?

 

[Shantanu]

Where is the scriptures?

You believe in scriptures, I believe in using my own judgment based on studies of humanity myself. As my guruji would say 'Be your own guru'.

 

[Shantanu]

What a bummer. More clutter.

Hmmm.

 

[Spirit of Light]

How would you know God's teaching if you have no idea of who God is?

Buddha did teach that there are beings called gods or devas, this way i know
I was born as christian but converted to buddhism when i was 20 so yes have read the bible many times

 

[Spirit of Light]

You believe in scriptures, I believe in using my own judgment based on studies of humanity myself. As my guruji would say 'Be your own guru'.

I study the teaching and seeing the teaching within my daily life, i used the wisdom from the teaching every day.

 

[Shantanu]

I study the teaching and seeing the teaching within my daily life, i used the wisdom from the teaching every day.

So you like your Holy Book to teach you how to live?

 

[Spirit of Light]

So you like your Holy Book to teach you how to live?

We do not call it holy book
I use the teaching as a guidline to live my life accoding to the buddhist teaching to end the attachment to suffering.

 

[Shantanu]

We do not call it holy book
I use the teaching as a guidline to live my life accoding to the buddhist teaching to end the attachment to suffering.

As an Existential Buddhist I care greatly that I do not follow anyone elses teaching but my own learnings from life events and studies of science; because who asked the Buddha for his opinion on how humans should live: my experience of God tells me that there is no God-imposed morality like sanatan dharma. So why was the Buddha telling people not to kill animals to eat their meat?

 

[Spirit of Light]

As an Existential Buddhist I care greatly that I do not follow anyone elses teaching but my own learnings from life events and studies of science; because who asked the Buddha for his opinion on how humans should live: my experience of God tells me that there is no God-imposed morality like sanatan dharma. So why was the Buddha telling people not to kill animals to eat their meat?

First of all because killing make a huge amount of karma and we would not want that. Second of all it is morally wrong to take life, if we kill how could we continue live a wholesome life?

 

[Shantanu]

First of all because killing make a huge amount of karma and we would not want that. Second of all it is morally wrong to take life, if we kill how could we continue live a wholesome life?

Why would you not want karma? what is morality? Food like animals are available in great abundance and we can cultivate our own in order that we get enough protein and live wholesome lives.

 

[Spirit of Light]

Why would you not want karma? what is morality? Food like animals are available in great abundance and we can cultivate our own in order that we get enough protein and live wholesome lives.

If i kill an animal since we believe the reincarntion syste is true i could kill someone who was human in the last life and it would make it impossible for my self to even try to reach enlightenment.

Karma in the sense of when killing someone is an negative energy that make our life more suffering, as a buddhist i would want suffering to end and doing so by following the teaching.

Moral is the way Gods and Buddhas see if human beings are good or less good. With poor moral a person would do many wrong doings in life, like stealing, killing, lying, bully others and so on,
Good morality is important to gain the inner wisdom from the teaching and being able to follow it

 

[Shantanu]

If i kill an animal since we believe the reincarntion syste is true i could kill someone who was human in the last life and it would make it impossible for my self to even try to reach enlightenment.

Karma in the sense of when killing someone is an negative energy that make our life more suffering, as a buddhist i would want suffering to end and doing so by following the teaching.

Moral is the way Gods and Buddhas see if human beings are good or less good. With poor moral a person would do many wrong doings in life, like stealing, killing, lying, bully others and so on,
Good morality is important to gain the inner wisdom from the teaching and being able to follow it

In Existential Buddhism, the aim is not to reach enlightenment at all, for that is an attachment that will finish off a good decent human being.

 

[Spirit of Light]

In Existential Buddhism, the aim is not to reach enlightenment at all, for that is an attachment that will finish off a good decent human being.

Even for me as a buddhist i must let go of it in the very end, but we know that to attain enlightenment is not done over night, it is like peeling of an onion, layer by layer, and when the inner most layer is peeled off, then the enlightenment arise. But to to say that a buddhist is seeking enlightenment is not an attachments, it is only when one think of it all the time it become an attachment

 

[LuisDantas]

What do you understand by the philosophical provisions of Annatta?

Anatta does not really involve god-concepts.

 

[Shantanu]

Even for me as a buddhist i must let go of it in the very end, but we know that to attain enlightenment is not done over night, it is like peeling of an onion, layer by layer, and when the inner most layer is peeled off, then the enlightenment arise. But to to say that a buddhist is seeking enlightenment is not an attachments, it is only when one think of it all the time it become an attachment

Desires are really bad things, the first rule of Existentialist Buddhist is to curb ones desires for anything. Even food is taken only because it is essential for survival. Nothing more is necessary but the bare necessities of life.

 

[Shantanu]

Anatta does not really involve god-concepts.

Anatta means there is no self and everything internally is ever changing, am I right?

 

[Spirit of Light]

Anatta does not really involve god-concepts.

Desires are really bad things, the first rule of Existentialist Buddhist is to curb ones desires for anything. Even food is taken only because it is essential for survival. Nothing more is necessary but the bare necessities of life.

So you have nothing in life you look forward to or like to eat or do?

 

[Shantanu]

So you have nothing in life you look forward to or like to eat or do?

I look forward to my wife and daughter coming home from work and us enjoying each others company, cook food and engage in small talk performing our dharma for each other. Apart from that Iook forward to nothing, and least of all enlightenment, even truth is not necessary.

 

[Spirit of Light]

Anatta means there is no self and everything internally is ever changing, am I right?

Anattā (no-self, without soul, no essence) is the nature of living beings, and this is one of the three marks of existence in Buddhism, along with Anicca (impermanence, nothing lasts) and Dukkha (suffering, unsatisfactoriness is innate in birth, aging, death, rebirth, redeath – the Saṃsāra cycle of existence).[30][31] It is found in many texts of different Buddhist traditions, such as the Dhammapada – a canonical Buddhist text

 

[crossfire]

Here is a Reference for Buddha as incarnation of God:


In Vaishnava Hinduism, the historic Buddha or Gautama Buddha, is considered to be an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu.[1] Of the ten major avatars of Vishnu, Vaishnavites believe Gautama Buddha to be the ninth and most recent incarnation.[2][3]

Buddha's portrayal in Hinduism varies. In some texts such as the Puranas, he is portrayed as an avatar born to mislead those who deny the Vedic knowledge.[3][4][note 1] In others, such as the 13th-century Gitagovinda of Vaishnava poet Jayadeva, Vishnu incarnates as the Buddha to teach and to end animal slaughter.[2] In contemporary Hinduism, state Constance Jones and James D. Ryan, Buddha is revered by Hindus who usually consider "Buddhism to be another form of Hinduism".[4]

Gautama Buddha in Hinduism - Wikipedia

I believe, Buddha was a Messiah that Vaishnavites were expecting, but not all accepted Him, just as Jesus was a Messiah of the Jews, but not all accepted Him.

Actually, it was a rather sinister way of hijacking Buddhism, to first declare Buddha to be an avatar of Vishnu and then teach Vaishnavism under the guise of Buddhism. This is where the Four Dharma Seals came in handy--to discern Buddhadharma from "sorta-looks-like-Buddhism in drag."