A few things on Buddhism I could use some clarification on...

[djaio]

Now my first question is, why would we want this? I mean life is full of suffering, but I'd preferre it to disappearing from existence. Or am I wrong about disapppearing from existence, do we pull some Obi-Wan-Kenobi going into the force thing?

something like that. you only "unexist" on a physical level. if youve played ff7, think of it as going into the lifestream.

but i don't believe in ends there. life goes in cycles. day to night to day, seasons change, it never stops. even if we "go into the force" as you said, i think there's a time when we decide to go back to the physical world. maybe for no other reason than boredom. after all, endless bliss forever and ever and ever would get pretty old.

Also, is there any explanation as to what force is involved in causing reincarnation? or is it just assumption from buddha's Hindu background?

ive never thought about this. but the more i think about it, the more im thinking that some things buddhism say are metaphorical. or, we just dont understand the language since its so colloquial. we "die and are reborn", that is, we change, many many times in our life. death is merely change, and change is death. maybe whenever buddhist scriptures mention reincarnation, that's what they mean. the ever-changing flow of life. hell, one could say we die every night and are reborn the next morning. i dont know, just my thoughts...

as for what force propels reincarnation... i guess its just ourselves. no one can make you change but yourself.

one more thing, the whole detachment issue. As a buddhist, would I be expected to just eliminate most craving and be detached from negative influence, or does that go with everything and I can't even listen to my heavy metal and have a good adrenaline rush and headbanging once in a while? I know buddhism doesn't have strict doctrine, I'm just looking for clarification on what "detachment" means, and if it's a universal definition.

i dont think you'd be expected to just snap your fingers and boom, your attachments are gone. thats just forcing it. instead you'd be required to abstain from something until you realized you never needed it in the first place.

its difficult to explain, but... for example, some developed buddhists abstain from food. food is the energy of the earth. so it is believed that eating is sort of like expressing our desire to be one with the earth. our constant eating is an attachment to that belief. buddhist x realizes this and decides to work himself away from food, to detach from it, so he can tap directly into the energies of the earth.

that was probably a shitty example, but oh well. i might be on dxm later tonight so ill probably be able to help you more then

djaio Reviewed by djaio on 05-18-2005. A few things on Buddhism I could use some clarification on... I've read about buddhism a lot in the past year, but I'm still not totally clear of their views on the after life and devine (I do know they don't have a god). anywhoo, the way things work is that ignorance and craving are the cause of suffering, which is the cause of continuous rebirth. When one reaches enlightenment, you're freed of suffering, ignorance, craving, and apparently have the "final extinction" at which point the cycle of rebirth is stopped. Now my first question is, why Rating: 5