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It is a religion that does not subscribe to a belief in God. Thus the appeal. It is all about you, not about God. A religion that the World can be happy with.
The World does not want God. Messes things up. So a nontheistic religion fits the bill, so to speak.
Well, the world doesn't want the Biblical/Christian god, sure. It doesn't want Kim Yung Il or Hitler, either.
And Buddhism is hardly "all about you". I'd say Buddhists are far less self centered and self serving than Christians any day.
And Buddhism is hardly "all about you". I'd say Buddhists are far less self centered and self serving than Christians any day.
To clairfy: Buddhism is about the self. It is an inward focused religion. As to self serving, there are tons of Catholic and Christian Organization based hospitals all over the place. How many Buddhist based hospitals does one find?
I think an issue is it's seen as peaceful and mostly/largely about self-help. Also many people I think don't really understand it, other than meditation and peace, so see Buddhism as whatever they want it to be. Related to that people in the West know the ills of Christian history, they're often comparatively ignorant of the ills in the history of other cultures. So Japanese Buddhists that preached "Hell" for non-believers or the Sri Lankan Buddhist extremist-elements of today who are very pro-violence are not what they know. They know, or think they know, Coptics killing Hypatia or whatever. Movies have been done on that kind of thing.
Although I would think it's trendiness is largely among academics, who want a religion that allows for non-theism, and rich people who want a religion that they feel is about calming their stressed minds. The genuinely "trendy religions", in terms of population numbers, I think are those that offer charity, structure, and self-improvement. Because more people need those. So as I recall the genuinely trendy religions in the world are Pentecostalism, Islam, and such. Although Baha'i and Neo-Paganism are fast growing too without really fitting either notion. Neither is precisely appealing because it's "calming or non-theistic" nor because it's "structured and charitable."
Good points, Thomas.
Buddha (Sidartha) taught to stick with one's childhood religious roots since that is how we tend to best resonate - so it seems that Buddhism embraces all religions, in a way.
I also agree that Buddhism is more about psychological health & self-improvement... exploring truth... more than other religions.
Yoga is also an awesome way of incorporating mind-body & spiritual health. Yoga's considered to have originated before Buddhism... maybe it branched off from Hinduism, like Buddhism did.
There is no big GOD in Buddhism, so I don't know how Buddhists can be theists.
As the religion spread, it absorbed local customs, so some local "gods" are sometimes worshiped, if that is what you are talking about . . .
It also absorbs other meaningless local customs, such as monotheism. so yes, according to the overwhelming amount of Buddhist doctrines, you can be a Buddhist and a monotheist at the same time. In the eyes of most Buddhist followers, whether you are monothiest, polythiest, atheist, or what ever other concept means as much as what sports team you support and how you like your rice cooked. unless ofcourse, you yourself, as a Buddhist, think that what you believe about conceptual things is important.
I'm genuinely wondering about this. Why is buddhism such a "trendy" religion? Yoga, "free tibet" and its tremendous celebrity support? As far as I know Paris Hilton has never been concerned about the plight of Coptic or Iraqi Christians, but many celebrities are quite vocal about the plight of Tibetan buddhists?
I don't mean to underscore the very real suffering monks and nuns have suffered at the hands of chinese authorities, but I am puzzled why it has become a cause celebre, compared to the persecution of other religious groups. Buddhism is a very strict religion for those who study it seriously, in terms of sexual morality, avoiding alcohol & drugs, exercising self control and practicing meditation, so it's not necessarily an "easy" religion (so I don't think that is the appeal?).
Is there something special or different about buddhism that attracts the concern and attention of the secular & western world? If so, what?
It's a wonderful source of guidance and compassion. I believe Tebetan Buddhism and Christianity belongs married together along with a lot of other far east phylosophy. Buddhism is a wonderful tool as far as it's terminology when explaining the spiritual world. They can speak openly about the spirit without getting killed for it. Jesus would never have been crucified in Tibet.
You don't think that having "Catholic and Christian Organization based hospitals all over the place" is in any way self-serving? You're joking, right?
From my PoV, these are the modern equivalent of the "missionary work" of earlier centuries (or, in some cases, this century also, but arguably less-so). They also frequently claimed that they were doing their work solely for altruistic reasons, when in fact they also had a primary self-serving motivation of spreading the influence of their specific religious belief. No different with Catholic/Christian charity work today.
There are enough Christian charities that reject proselytism, or even any evangelism, it's obvious this is unfair. Yet it's an unfairness that is very persistent and common among certain groups. Just as the person you responded to went for the persistent, and incorrect I believe, idea that Buddhists don't have charities or aid. They do.
On the anti-theist side, I'm starting to think calling the one side here just "atheist" is a disservice to regular atheists who aren't so agenda-prone, I imagine it's due to distrust. Either they had bad childhoods due to Christian parents or they have had other kinds of bad experiences with Christianity. So they distrust anything Christians do no matter how beneficial. (People who are merely atheist, in my experience, don't really do that. They're able to judge religions pragmatically, more or less, while rejecting their claims)
On the Christian side, with regard to Buddhism, I think it might be based on only having partial understanding of Buddhism. The original notion of Buddhism does seem to suggest that it's about the individual, alone, letting go of the ego and earthly attachments. That helping others leads to attachment and therefore they wouldn't do it. However I believe most Buddhists are Mahayana and Mahayana is more about a "Greater Vehicle." Although Buddhism generally appears to least giving and generosity as a high virtue. Flaws like this are common as I remember Pope John Paul II's book, which I mostly liked, seemed to make some misleading statements on Buddhism based on what I'd guess was a middling understanding. (I don't think his book counts as an official statement of faith or morals)
I believe it's practioners purport themselves to be more "enlightend."
I am a Buddhist (I follow the Theravada school of Buddhism) and I certainly do not believe or purport to be more "Enlightened" than anyone else of any religious belief. The only Supremely Enlightened One was the Tathagata himself (the Buddha).
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