Quote Originally Posted by Ignatius
Let me clarify what I mean by laziness. I mean the kind of person who simply declares his or her self to be a Buddhist simply because they imagine it to be a cool thing to be into. As I said earlier, a bit like Yoga, or Feng Shui maybe. There is no need to meditate for four hours a day in order to follow Buddhist thought. A moment spent in serene contemplation is all that is needed. The very act of meditating in an attempt to reach enlightenment is going against the philosophy of Buddhism. It shouldn't be a task, you shouldn't need to sit down and actively prepare yourself for enlightenment, it should arrive naturally. That is the way of Zen. Please don't anyone else tell me they are a Buddhist. You cannnot be a Buddhist, you are always in the process of becoming, never actually being anything. The very act of declaring oneself to be a Buddhist is a declaration that you are not one. There is no such thing as "a Buddhist".
I didn't mean meditating was a necessity, I mean it is the biggest step of accomplishment in meditation. The dalai lama, lama's before him, and the Buddha said that when you can maintain a serene and controlled meditation for 4 hours, we've transcended all mental barriers to it.

and yes, people can be buddhist. You're making a very common mistake in interpreting the Buddha's concept of "nothingness", "non self", and the inherent emptiness to existence and the illusion of self. It is not that the self and existence do not exist, it's that everything (including us) is nothing but an ever-changing field of matter, no part of us being the same as it was a second ago, an illusionary form yet an existent one nontheless. There is no permanent self, but there is one that exists temporarily in one form which is comprised of the 5 aggregates that bind us to this illusionary existence. For all existence is illusionary, but the illusion is the non-physical reality we exist in. And within the illusion, there can lie a buddhist; in all his empty, temporary, ever changing at every level form.
mrdevious Reviewed by mrdevious on . Is Buddhism a religion for lazy people? Is Buddhism a religion for lazy people? Here's my take. Most Buddhists I know aren't really Buddhists. My understanding is that one cannot be a Buddhist anyway, because in each moment we are "becoming" we are never one thing or another. We just "are" and we have no name. I think for the greater numbe of adherents to this religion, particularly in the west, Buddhism is almost a lifestyle choice, along with Yoga and vegatarianism. Mainstream religion is too much like hard work. All that Rating: 5