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Excuse me. That's not what I meant.
I mean you need to differentiate when you are speaking for your own view of things and when you are posting about "standard christian thought".
It gets confusing.
There is no such thing as standard Christian thought as any perusal of the myriad demonimnations will attest and it is getting more diverse, not less as time moves on. I can agree with you about the errors in mainstream dogma by providing my interpretation of what I believe they should be based on my view of Christianity.
I can already see that we are not going to agree on this.
But yes, I think there is a difference.
When the suffering is caused by some cosmic cause, there's not much we can do about it.
When the suffering is caused by our own errors, we can change the way we behave.
You can change the behavior but the karma effect may still be the same. You can stop smoking and still die from lung disease. You may never smoke or drink and still die from lung disease. It is ALL cosmic cause. There is no way to predict the future. That is why religion exists. it exists to create an illusion of a cosmic order. an order does exist but it may not be what we think it is.
You can change the behavior but the karma effect may still be the same. You can stop smoking and still die from lung disease. You may never smoke or drink and still die from lung disease. It is ALL cosmic cause. There is no way to predict the future. That is why religion exists. it exists to create an illusion of a cosmic order. an order does exist but it may not be what we think it is.
You're entitled to that viewpoint; that's what Buddhism is about...finding your own path. I do agree with your last sentence, perhaps even the last two.
What makes Buddhism not religion?
Agree root of religion is fear, but not of death. We all know the only thing we can be absolutely sure of is death. and taxes. It is fear of uncertainty, the sheer uncertainty of life.
Buddha’s focus was happiness, removing dukkha. I am not sure he believed in immortality.
Buddhism is not a religion. That is it's basic axiom.
A bad consequence is different than punishment to me.
If I hurt my self because I was foolish is different than being hurt by a deity for my foolishness.
You didn't hurt yourself, because you were foolish.
You "hurt" your, likely, body (you can't hurt immaterial Self) as the result, of previous thoughts. At the time of "hurt", circumstances were ripe, to resolve one of those thoughts, in form of, say, accident, that happened to you. That is "karma".
Everything that happens to you, is your education. Pain happens to be very educative.
Your point i think is that karma somehow differs from punishment. Both cause pain, that is the end result. Karma will punish you with pain and suffering. God will punish you with hell fire. Is there really a material difference?
Obviously Buddhism has text, like all religion. How it gets interpreted becomes religion.
No. Pain is not end result. End result is experience and education, resulting from it. Unfortunately, that education is not clearly explained to a human or, clearly correlated to a certain previous event. Only those, who can see from the above, train of one's existences, followed by a comet like trail of thoughts to be resolved, can see cause and effect.
That desperate desire to rid of this continuous school school of hard knocks, slowly grows in Self until it reaches point of no return and makes the FINAL decision. To stop it. Then, that Self steps The Great Way to conscious immortality.
You didn't hurt yourself, because you were foolish.
You "hurt" your, likely, body (you can't hurt immaterial Self) as the result, of previous thoughts. At the time of "hurt", circumstances were ripe, to resolve one of those thoughts, in form of, say, accident, that happened to you. That is "karma".
Everything that happens to you, is your education. Pain happens to be very educative.
negative reinforcement if is the finest tool known to man. Just look at our schools and out society now that it is being removed. They suck. We now have proof that the leaders of our schools through the 90's and early 2K's were dead wrong.
Buddhism is not a religion. That is it's basic axiom.
I am curious. What exactly do you mean when you say Buddhism is not a religion? That it does not have a deity? Is it merely western christian measure of what is and is not a religion? Hinduism too is considered a “way of life” not a religion by western experts. Maybe it has to do with the word and meaning.
Buddhists all over have stupas and gumpas with frescos on the walls, an alter with Buddha, and worship. TheY respond Buddhism to the question what is your religion. Are you saying they are all wrong?
I honestly think that you need to do a Google search and read a few of the articles you will find under the question of: Is Buddhism a religion or a philosophy.
This is a topic that, in Buddhist circles, is frequently and sometimes even hotly debated. I'm not sure there is AN answer, particularly because the answer is based on the perspective of different individuals.
It's not the text of the religion, it's the corrupt people who use religious textual interpretation for their own personal advantage to astray the masses and create divisions.
Lots and lots of politics is played all over the world, based on religion. Such religious political leaders almost never have any belief in God or religion. The simply use religion to misinterpret the text and misguide the people.
And such people will face justice.
Politics and religion the worst bedfellows.
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