What Is Your Religion?

[Josh_Jpn 0]

I baptized catholic at a child, and brought up as a catholic, but I found as I got older that Catholism was far too polticalized. So I changed to the United Church, which I found to suit my religous views and intperations of the bible better. I admit though I am not the strongest of believers, and my agruements for the extisence god are rather weak. When it comes down to it though proving the existence or non-existence of a creator, event, holy bodies, planes of existences and so forth is nearly impossible.

[adamsgi 0]

kenjvalip Posted Mar 12 2005, 04:10 PM Being a christian is not easy but it is the only way to live...

Well I don't feel isolated by that comment!

I, like MJF, am a Buddhist, however I am a completely different type of Buddhist. Where he is Theravada (or Hinayana, depending on who you are speaking to), the teachings I follow are part of the Mahayana group of Buddhist schools. In particular, the school of Buddhism founded by Nichiren, a 13th century Buddhist monk, who studied all of the sutras (Buddhist teachings) that were available to him and discovered that the Lotus Sutra was the highest of all Buddhist teachings.

Simply put, there is no God in Buddhism. There are stories of several gods, however, these are seen more as metaphors to aid belief - termed "expedient means". The whole of Buddhism is really about enabling people to see the true nature of reality, which includes both life and death. As a Buddhist I take 100% responsibility for all of my actions, believing that in order to change my life, I have to change myself. Nothing happens to you that you cannot deal with, and if anything, everything that happens to you is perfect for you to use as a means to become a better human being.

We chant, like MJF described, however, unlike the Pure Land school, who pray to be reborn in a perfect land in the West, where they will be able to attain enlightenment with no bad distractions, Nichiren Buddhists have realised that if there are no bad distractions in life, you will not be able to see the whole nature of reality and so will be unable to attain enlightenment. Therefore, this life is where we attain Buddhahood.

Buddhahood or enlightenment is (in brief) becoming aware of the essence of life, nature and the universe, being able to see how your actions and reactions ripple out to affect your environment, being in charge of your emotions, and not over-run by them, and all the while having your feet firmly planted in this reality. It's not about becoming some serene person who is completely detached from everything else. It's about becoming a human being full of wisdom, knowledge and compassion.

If you have any further questions, please ask - Buddhism can be quite complicated to explain sometimes - tangents are quite common in conversation.

[chiiyo 0]

I am a Buddhist/Taoist, and no I don't know which sect of Buddhism I come from O_o. In Singapore all people who claim to be Buddhist often end up also being Taoist, because the two religions have mixed and integrated into each other that you can't really tell them apart (often, people don't even know they are not strictly Buddhist).Buddhism has been covered quite thoroughly by the two Buddhists before me, and basically it's the same idea for me, no god, spiritual enlightenment, but the addition of Taoism makes my religion a lot more... colourful. Taoism is a chinese religion that has a myriad of gods and goddesses in it's culture, with the idea of demons and reincarnation. In Singapore, our "temples" are Taoist in nature, we worship a lot of the gods, like the Jade Emperor, the Goddess of Mercy, the God of the Earth, and we usually even have quite a few statues of Buddha, which technically is a Buddhist symbol.Buddhism came from India, technically, and most worshippers know that, so often the Hindus, trying to build their temples, would offer joss sticks in front of their temples to Buddhist worshippers for donations. Quite a few Hindu temples were built from Buddhists' money. Now that's what I call racial harmony.

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

Well I don't feel isolated by that comment! 

 

If you have any further questions, please ask - Buddhism can be quite complicated to explain sometimes - tangents are quite common in conversation.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, you can take responsibility for abreviating my name to MJF instead of what it should be: m*T*f. T as in Tree as in the middle word.

 

Similarly, I can answer questions as well. People who are interested will find a nice selection. I am Theravada, which is about as far away from the nichiren school as one can get. And in the post above mine, there is an ethnic chinese mahayana buddhist of some stripe, which is similarly wildly different.

 

Part of the reason things are so hard to explain in buddhism is that we disagree on almost everything. Outside of the very brief overview given above, none of our answers are likely to be the same. Indeed, there have already been differences.

[dungsport 0]

I believe in Gods, my parents, my ancesters but dont follow any religion. I judge everthing by myself.

[adamsgi 0]

Many apologies, MTF.... (unless I subconsciously meant the J to stand for jnana.... Majestic Jnana Frog. Hmmmm....)

[chiiyo 0]

And in the post above mine, there is an ethnic chinese mahayana buddhist of some stripe, which is similarly wildly different.

Is that what my buddhist sect is? O_o. I can't answer much questions about buddhism, but I can answer any queries on Taoism...

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

Is that what my buddhist sect is? O_o. I can't answer much questions about buddhism, but I can answer any queries on Taoism...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No, that is still sort of vague. It is the actual practices which would place you. Do you chant to Amitabha buddha? This would be pure land, or possibly Nicheren. Zen, or Chan in chinese, is another large sect that is very focused on meditiation. Others would be things like Tien Tai/Tendai or lotus school(which I happen to like in terms of doctrine) which attempts to combine many ideas and schools and reconcile them, though it has few adherents left. Finally there is tibetan buddhism, but that is unlikely to be in your area.

[ill 0]

my religion? hmm... i would say christianity cause that is what my family is and how i was brought up. however, i really dont go to sunday church and i really don't worship God. but I guess it is christianity cause thats what people associate me with here.

[thermoid 0]

I call myself a catholic but only really because thats what my parents call themselves. I only believe about half of the things the church preach and I only go to church at Easter and Christmas.

I always thought that it was classified as a religion not because you worship a god, but simply because you have a kind of a guiding figure who you pray to, along with all the other stuff like a book and a set of rules etc. (very sorry if you don't actually pray to him and I'm just making stuff up)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A Creaster eh? Please realize everything that the Catholic Church teaches is based on Scripture, aka god's word. If there is a canon then there is scripture to back it up. go tlk to a preist man, they can be some cool and devout people.

 

Catholic= Universal

Apostolic=Teaching

[adamsgi 0]

People who chant to Amitabha Buddha are Pure Land Buddhists. They believe in rebirth in a western land where there will be no suffering, and so they will be able to attain Buddhahood (enlightenment) without hindrance. They chant the phrase Nam-amida-butsu (Devotion to Amitabha Buddha)Nichiren Buddhists chant "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo" (Devotion to the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra) which enables one to experience Buddhahood in this existance through dealing with life as it is - real life.Nichiren was initially a monk in the Tendai (T'ien T'ai) sect in Japan, and this is where he studied all the available teachings and arrived at the same conclusion as the other Tendai priests - that the Lotus Sutra was the highest Buddhist teaching and all the others were provisional teachings, expounded according to the capacity of the people who were listening. One of the differences about the Lotus Sutra compared to the other sutras (teachings) is that most of the others were in response to a specific question e.g. How do I lessen my karma? How should I sit? etc. In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha starts by revealing that he has never taught the Great Law. The people gathered beg him to teach it and so he responds. The Lotus Sutra is one of the most influential of Buddhist Sutras.There is also the Ritsu and Shingon (apologies for only knowing the Japanese names) schools which are more esoteric and believe in secret and almost magical mantras and mudras (hand signs), as well as several schools of Zen (Chan in China). Then as Majestic Tree Frog said, there is Tibetan Buddhism (4 different schools), and several different forms of Theravada Buddhism.Buddhism is as "fractured" as Christianity, however, there is one big different between Buddhism and other religions. The Buddha distinctly refuted the fact that he was "divine". He told people not to worship him (although people being people, some took no notice) and told them not to believe in his teachings until they had tried them out. The proof of Buddhism is in the doing. It's a challenge I took and found that it was correct.

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

Actually, there is only one Theravada Buddhism. However, there are certain subtraditions, but these aren't as different as say, forms of Mahayana buddhism. It is closer to the subschools of Tibetan. Same tradition/views but slightly different focuses or host cultures.

[Obsidian1405241493 0]

My religion is Pagan. It runs in the family. So there ya go. Pagan it is.

[Axis 0]

I chose other because I really don't have a category I fit in. I believe in god, but I do not practice any religion. I used to go to church, but my experiences have made me less willing to call myself a christian.

[vladtepesdrac 0]

i consider myself an atheist. Personally, I think spending time worshipping a god or idol is just a waste of time, for me at least. There is only so much time we have on this Earth and any moment that time can be taken away (by death or disability etc). I figure, that i dont really believe in a god, i believe in myself. I believe in man, the human race. EVen though theres lots of good and bad things going on, its just what people do. To me there is no god, there are people. Now im not trying to substitute people for gods but im just saying that i dont believe in something that really doesnt affect me in any way. It is too far fetched of an idea.