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Are you a Buddhist?

MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
edited September 2011 in Faith & Religion
I'm just wondering. ;)

Comments

  • YishaiYishai Veteran
    [Typed a bunch. Mashed backspace.]

    Yes.
  • GuiGui Veteran
    who?
  • YishaiYishai Veteran
    Your ego.
  • zenffzenff Veteran
    What is the distinguishing feature of a Buddhist?
  • GuiGui Veteran
    my ego is a disgruntled existentialist today
  • YishaiYishai Veteran
    Mine changes all the time too.
  • BloodyCactusBloodyCactus New
    my answer would be a nonsensical one liner that wants a cup of tea in return for answering.
  • GuiGui Veteran
    What is the distinguishing feature of a Buddhist?
    I give up. What IS the distiguishing feature of a Buddhist?
  • ToshTosh Veteran
    Someone who holds the Four Seals, or is it someone who has taken refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha?

  • ShutokuShutoku Veteran
    If the question is a practical pragmatic one my answer is "yes".
    If it is a set up for an "out-zen each other" contest I choose to respectfully pass.
  • MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
    If the question is a practical pragmatic one my answer is "yes".
    If it is a set up for an "out-zen each other" contest I choose to respectfully pass.
    I was just curious about the answers I was going to get. :lol:
  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    Someone who holds the Four Seals, or is it someone who has taken refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha?
    Someone who knows the secret handshake, I keep telling you guys!
  • riverflowriverflow Veteran
    To respond in E-prime, to at least provide a somewhat more accurate answer: I practice the Buddhadharma to my present best capacity.

    That's not merely a matter semantics-- I give that response bearing impermanence in mind: What I "am" changes from one moment to the next along with the world around me. It's bad enough to resort to the grammatical fiction, "I"? Why compound the confusion with the grammatical fiction "am" too?

    Better at least to understand what we do rather than identify our selves with what we "are." If you really examine the matter of impermanence, "I am a Buddhist," "I am a Christian," "I am a bad person," "I am a patriot," "I am an atheist," "I am a ______" all become illusory cages that only cause all kinds of unnecessary suffering.

    Of course in real life, we don't go around speaking in E-prime. But if we do resort to the word "am," we should use it lightly and provisionally. We "are" not any one unchanging thing. Nothing "is." Everything flows.
  • I_AM_THATI_AM_THAT Veteran
    Just another label to overcome... IMO
  • jupitermadcatjupitermadcat
    I am.
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    I leave the "Religion" box blank on medical, etc. forms, basically because, not knowing the answer myself, I can't expect others to know for me. For that very reason, I belong to no church, mosque, temple, affiliation. This seems to me a specific way in which 'institutional Buddhism' differentiates itself from, for example, most the Christian churches which demand ceremonies such as baptism and confirmation or their equivalents as pre-requisites to membership or from political parties which want our subscriptions up front.
  • ToshTosh Veteran
    I've a Buddhist book somewhere of a story about a British lady's involvement with Buddhism and she says she officially became 'Buddhist' when she had to fill in a medical form, just prior to a dangerous operation, which asked for her religion.

    She wrote 'Buddhist' since if she died, she'd want a Buddhist Monk speaking at her funeral.

    But, my teacher says, to be Buddhist, you have to hold the Four Seals, since this is in all Buddhist teachings. And because I don't understand the Four Seals in any great depth, for that reason, I'm not a Buddhist.
  • GuyCGuyC Veteran
    my answer would be a nonsensical one liner that wants a cup of tea in return for answering.
    You Win the Internet!
  • SpacelessSpaceless
    Let him not destroy, or cause to be destroyed, any life at all, nor sanction the acts of those who do so. Let him refrain from even hurting any creature, both those that are strong and those that tremble in the world. - Sutta-Nipata
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    Yes.
    Among other things.

    I tire of pedantry, sometimes.
    I grow weary of discussions regarding labels, not-self, compartmentalising and specifics.
    If it ever becomes relevant to mention it, or people ask, then yes, I am Buddhist.

    So what?

    Big deal.... :rolleyes: :grumble:
  • IronRabbitIronRabbit Veteran
    yeah, but no, but yeah, but no.........
  • vixthenomadvixthenomad
    I like to think so, yes.
  • YoungBuddhistYoungBuddhist
    I am. And so is everyone else. And no one else. And everything that is, was, or never will be. Hooray for contradictions!
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