this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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3 . Buddhism has no problem. Buddhism measures success in joy and lack of suffering. You measure success in material possessions. Those people living in poverty live happier than you living in abject luxury, for if they lose everything, they will still lose nothing. To me it seems pretty successful. To understand why they are happy, even though they don't have a perfectly insulated and heated home, a Tesla car, they don't eat Ribeye every week and make 100k a year while working on their corporate insurance job, is a journey that you yourself will have to take to understand. I can understand that being a western citizen and always measuring things in profits can make this journey quite confusing, but Buddha himself was the wealthiest man of his kingdom and his teachings show us that he was no more special than any of us.
Eastern religions, like Taoism and Buddhism, teach that in this life, taking more than what you need is pointless. When you die, you take nothing. It's like buying a street legal car with the engine of a Ferrari. If everyone has the same amount to spend on a car, why spend it on an engine that is more than you need for the task ? Instead, followers of these religions spend their time not in obtaining more wealth that will be irrelevant once they die, but in developing themselves, mentally and spiritually, which is what they believe is what you take with you once you die.
Your first point is a rehashing the claim every religion makes. The religion is perfect and blameless, it is the people who are wrong.
Your second point was just a load of crap. First off for a people so happy I wonder why they work so hard to leave. Secondly I don't know where you got the idea that South East Asians don't eat well, certainly not from experience. Best freaken food on earth. Third I have you know I don't work for an insurance company and drive a Honda Civic.
Your third point is also crap. The Bible says the exact same thing and you act like you invented it. How many times does Jesus complain about people making money? A freaken lot. Your argue for self improvement was also not great since you don't exactly produce any metrics for it.
Well then i have nothing else to explain to you. You asked for me to explain, so i did. You say everything is crap and clearly miss the forest for the trees. I never said asians don't eat well, the point wasn't about your specific car and job, Buddhism is older than the bible (like way, way, way older) and you still try to apply metrics to spiritual self development.
You're either not ready to understand or I'm not the one with the ability to explain Buddhism to your specific person. Either way, I'm not forcing Buddhism on you, nor i have any intentions to convert you. My point is merely that governmental rule is not covered by Buddhist teachings. What Myanmar and Tibet do are not Buddhism because Buddhism has zero guidelines about governance of a country. Buddhism is about self development. Buddhism calls for the exact opposite of genocide and there is no inconsistency about this. That is all.
A. It isn't really that much older than the Bible. Jesus is a fictional character cobbled together from the likes of Jeremiah and Elijah. So while it was fully written down until 800 years after Siddharth it isn't like the ideas it borrowed from didn't come from closer to the his time. Plus the main body of works behind Buddhism date from the 6th century.
B. Forests are made out of trees last I checked. You tried to stereotype me because dealing with a stereotype is easier than dealing with a human. You have zero clue what my profession is, if I enjoy it, how I eat, what I consider important. You built a strawman of me and somehow this is my fault.
C. Government rule isn't in the NT either. That didn't stop Rome.
D. What happened in Tibet is as much Buddhism as the crusades were Christian. It is part of the tradition like it or not. You don't get to claim the good and ignore the bad. Just like you don't get to claim I work for an insurance company and drive a Tesla.
It is much older than the bible from an entirely different culture, which had little contact with Abrahamic religion cultures. Buddha's words weren't even written for hundreds of years, so by your own statement, you're comparing the body of works that were written centuries after Buddha's teachings with something that was just beginning to be written centuries later. Additionally, on the original comment you specifically referred to Jesus. As far as I'm aware, Jesus is only featured in the new testament, so you're comparing two things that are a thousand years apart. I'm not saying one thing influenced other, but if it did, there's only one way this could have gone down.
English is your native language, I'm not going to explain the meaning "missing the forest for the trees". I don't need to know your profession. You know why what i said wasn't a strawman ? Because it wasn't even about you. I did not specifically speak once about you in my statement. I explained why those people can be happy without the things i mentioned, in the context of western luxuries and poverty. You were not a part of it, i did not say it was you, i did not allude to a characterization of your person. You inserted yourself in it and then claimed strawman of your own volition. I'm sorry but that's just not how rhetoric works.
So you ignore the entirety of the Bible and only bring up the new testament, even though Christianity itself endorses the Bible as canon law and doesn't exist without it ? There are clear mentions of God's law on how to rule a government throughout the entirety of the bible. Are we supposed to ignore that ? I guess that does track in regards to Christianity.
The crusades were called upon based on canon law that to enter the kindom of heaven, to kill enemies of Christ was seen as basically the golden ticket, which is why the Crusading armies did it. They didn't do it for France, for Rome, for the Pope or Papal states. They did it in the name of Jesus Christ and the Christian faith. I'm not the one selectively ignoring things here, my dear non insurance, Honda driving gentleman (or lady, or other).
No people's ever took up arms and said "I shall kill these people in the name of Siddhartha Gautama". No monk ever called for action saying "If you wish to escape Samsara and attain Nirvana, pick up arms and kill these people in the name of Siddhartha Gautama." Or "I know while killing these people, Siddhartha Gautama will be with me". Going to war in the name of Buddhism would be complete nonsense, which is why nobody ever did it. I cannot make this any clearer than it is already.