[quote=Continuum;40838276]I posted this somewhere,
//www.city-data.com/forum/40376488-post7.html
Hi Contunuum
I do not agree there was an actual historical Buddha as a real person. The Buddha Story is appropriately a myth to convey the essence of Buddhism and one need to understand the Substance and not be attached to the Form of it. Whether there is a real Buddha or not, it is not the most critical*. What is most critical is the core principles and substance that are conveyed within the Buddha Story, the philosophy and the practices that inspire every individual to progress spiritually.
----If Buddha does not exist. Who created that core principles and substance in Buddism?
Many years ago some Norwegian soldier had discovered the oldest scripture in one of Afghanistan cave. That's a good evidence of Buddha's existence.
* For some Buddhists, the Buddha per se is not critical, that is to the extent of;
‘If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill the Buddha…in this way, you attain liberation.’
-Lin Chi
----It makes me feel like some game of words, puzzle which can not create any harmony or peace on earth.
Just like many human values are conveyed to young children through fairy tales, myths, fiction, supernatural, cartoons and other "childish" materials, Buddhism does the same for those Buddhists with lower spiritual and rational competency [SQ].
----There are two kinds of error in any scripture, by the prophet or someone after the prophet. The latter is mostly found in Islam. The first Quran was destroyed by someone who want to add the evil idea to the scripture.
For fairy tales, myths, fiction, supernatural, cartoons, you have to distinguish them. I will not go into detail for this by now.
I can prove that dragon does exist.
Thus for materials and teachings that cater for say SQ up to 1 to 50-60, one will note the Buddhist Sutras contain a whole load of supernatural, mystical, fables, etc. elements which some are irrational, stupid, absurd, etc, when compared to those with a higher sense of rationality and SQ. Nonetheless within these super-irrational elements and forms there are the hidden core principles of Buddhism.
----I don't know what is that SQ. I read text book only when neccessary. Those topics you mentioned can be 10-70% true in my opinion. And this should be related to
At the higher levels of SQ, say, 75-95 the Buddhist sutras deal with the higher level philosophies, e.g. with Koans like the above. ‘If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill the Buddha' and very sophisticated philosophies, teachings and practices.
----I have no interest in any philosophies but only pay attention to what one has done to others.
The fact that you jumped in to critique in a way of a 'put-down' indicate your ignorance of the full fledge teachings of Buddhism and also spirituality & human nature in general.
---- Do you know that about 5% of Thai monk are in the abbot level. But about 80% of monk immoral and illegal cases were conducted by those monks of abbot level or above. Do one need to know the full fledge teachings of Buddhism to judge Buddism? I don't have to pass Harvard, Oxford, Stamford, MIT etc. to know the quality of teaching in those university. But I can judge those university by the achievement among the majority of their students.
I want to indicate Buddha's error, and his idea to fool people about ascension. Buddha got ascension doesn't mean that his teaching will make others to get ascension too. But his teaching indeed turned monk into beggar behaviour, because Buddha doesn't tell them to sacrifiy for other after they have reduced their passion and karma.
Btw, I am not a Buddhist per se, but I have quite an extensive knowledge of the religion, I have great respect for its teachings and has adopted some of it personally. I don't agree with the religiosity of Buddhism [as with others] which manifest all sort of scandals, abuses, etc. but fortunately Buddhism do not condone violent and evils like [we know which religion].
----If you feed the super beggar very well, there will be no complaint from them. There are at least 3 religions which ofter cause violent to other in a different way, Jew, Christian and Islam, in my opinion.
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It becomes obvious when you accept the sense of grace. 
