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Name: Keno
E-Mail:
Subject: RE: E: Buddhism...nsc
Date: Monday, December 11, 2017
Time: 1:56:50 AM
Remote Address: 66.36.114.222
Message ID: 312856
Parent ID: 312843
Thread ID: 312816
Yes and no would be my answer. Yes, they study cosmology and they are very much interested in the things you noted, but they don't believe in them, either. Well, at least not in the way believers in Gods believe. Officially, their leaders are all Atheists and my guess would be that 90% (or higher) of their followers are too. But the one thing they teach you is to never worship any one god or Gods even if you do believe, and only worship yourself and the world around you. You are your own god, so yes, take care of your own self and always be at your best and treat others in the way you wish and want to be treated yourself.
Yet I've seen some strange things from Buddhists, too. Some of them do believe in ghosts! My next door neighbor who was raised a Buddhist, very much does! Or one of the Zen Masters here who I know, and who is in charge of the biggest temple and Zen Center here, called the Crestone Mountain Zen Center, he will tell you he's a Atheist and all of what I just noted, yet when the 2 of us went walking around his retreat's grounds one day talking, I noticed how much he reminded me of a Catholic priest in the way he would kneel at all of his Buddha statues on the massive grounds around his temple and home, and give them all kisses, etc. To me it appeared he was worshiping them, and that isn't what Zen is supposed to be about.
Then there was this Buddhist monk who wasn't at all connected to any of the 3 different Zen Centers here. Her name was Yashee, she was 2 years older than me, and had her own mini retreat center here. I built her web site for her and the 2 of us became close enough friends. But there was something about her that I could never figure out, and she was different for sure, but did follow the teachings that you learn in this lifestyle and way of living. She had a bunch of animals on her land that she cared for. She had chickens that would lay eggs and she would often share with me some extra eggs when she had them. Now most but not all Buddhist, including the monks, are vegetarians, but not all of them are. Yashee would eat chicken and turkey, but never red meat. But the Buddhist have a teaching that you can never kill any animal that you raise and care for, and to follow this, when her chickens got too old and stopped laying eggs, she would, as she put it, bring them up into the mountains and set them free. So I tried to explain to her that she was actually, really just killing them by doing this, since they couldn't take care of themselves up there and they would soon be eaten by wildlife if they did survive, or would freeze to death come winter. I tried to tell her that, that she was still responsible for their deaths in releasing them. Yet she disagreed with me on this.
Anyway, and talk about something shocking, Yashee on Dec 1, 2015 killed herself - by hanging by a rope in her home! My daughter had seen her the day before she took her life and she had told her that she was just in a lot of pain everyday from running her operation alone; it was just too much work for her to bare.... But a Buddist Monk killing herself just seemed to go against what they would teach others about how you should treat yourself. Plus hanging is really a violent act and not the greatest way to die or to kill yourself.
So that's the thing, lots connected to this lifestyle that I don't totally understand, even if it is the only religion (or nonreligion) that I could almost follow. But still, it's a very interesting way to live your life and something I found very interesting to study.
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