I figured that if I'm going to visit two countries where I'll see a bunch of Buddhist stuff it would be nice to know something about Buddhism other than that Buddha was a fat, happy, Chinese guy (oh, guess it is good I read a book, since he was actually a skinny Indian guy who thought that life is suffering).
Well I'm not claiming to be an expert, or really know much at all about it since I read Buddha, A Very Short Introduction and well it was very short. What I did pick up is that Buddhism assumes reincarnation and a lot of the religion is instruction in how to meditate and what you should be searching for when meditating. At least how the author presented it, unlike Western religions that are mostly about god and the instructions he hands down by talking to people, Buddhism developed more like philosophy. Buddha worked with many teachers of different religions and methods of meditation and using reasoning he developed a new set of views. While there was some divine intervention, the teachings are presented as Buddha's thoughts and findings.
3 comments:
When do you embark on these travels? And what two countries are you visiting?
I'd read up on Shintoism, too, if you want to be prepared for the temples... and maybe the evolution of Shinto-Buddhism or whatever it's called.
Oh, and baths are single-sex! (Not immature)
Yeah, I thought so too (that the article wasn't very heavy on the science)- hence the web research madness that ensued. There're some cool ideas out there like dreaming as an alternative form of consciousness, and what you said, but it's all really speculative
Here is the one sentence I know in Japanese besides the usual "hello, thank you, etc.":
"Tski no yoo ni marui des"
I think it will come in handy when you go to Japan. I've already tested it on Jess, and she said it makes sense. Oh yeah, it means "A face as round as the moon"
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