hey guys. recently i have been fascinated with buddhism and have started to incorporate some of the ideas into my own life. i was just wondering what you like the best about buddhism?
Try the "e-Sangha" Forum. It's real cool and a lot like this one. (I dropped out just so I could concentrate on this one, though.) Buddhism is real close to existentialism, so I have studied it extensively. The Trikaya of "annicca, annatta, and dukkha" are very hip! Also, read Herman Hesse's "Siddhartha."
IMHO, I don't think it is. But then, this a perception that I identify with, an idea that I identify with, arising from the mind which I identify with. If Christianity weren't a religion, then I would think that Christianity would be real close to Buddhism. Buddhism sprang up from Hinduism, so it's close to the Hinduistic thought as well. Existentialism believes in an individualistic self. Buddhism does not. Buddhism does not "emphasize uniqueness and isolation of individual experience". In Buddhism this idea of "a hostile or indifferent universe" is all self-motivated. It is self-identification which promotes suffering, therefore self-identification that perpetuates ideas of "a hostile and indifferent universe". In Buddhism "Human existence is considered untimately unexplainable" is an incorrect statement, as all human experiences based on contact with objects associated with the senses are the basis for existence and as such "Human existence" cannot be considered "unexplainable". Buddhism is about training an untrained mind in perceiving, or viewing reality correctly. Through Mindfulness to become aware of ones Intentions of conduct through mind, speech, and actions. Ultimately one comes to a realization that Mind itself doesn't even exist outside of conditions for Mind to arise. That ultimately self does not exist outside the conditions for self to arise. This does not mean that Buddhism teaches or holds views of nihilism, rather that self, ego, I, me, mine, identification with a self are based on conditions arising from clinging to forms, clinging to feelings, clinging to perceptions, clinging to mental fabrications, clinging to consciousness. That when consciousness and various mental factors arise continually then Mind itself arises as a result. Mind occurs in a continuous stream that consists of an unbroken succession of discrete cognitive events. These events are a complex unit comprising Consciousness itself, that is, the basic awareness of an object, and a group of mental factors that have more specialized tasks in the act of cognition. HTML:
