I love the Buddha!

betaboy

I love the Buddha. That's all I know. I suck at meditation, empathy, and pretty much everything. But I love the Buddha. That's all I know.

zenff

And what is Buddha?

taiyaki

Path of devotion. Love until you are the thing you love. Then all is obvious.

Yishai

What is Buddha to you? Do you want to become like the Buddha, or are you merely placing it on a pedestal?

Our lives don't change until we change.

MrsWigs

Betaboy, can you embellish on your statement? To which Buddha do you refer, and why do you love him?

I wonder if you've not been adhering to the 5th precept today?

Hubris

I am going to be rather honest here, and perhaps a tad bit blunt.

Sounds like you love the *idea* of Buddha, and what you perceive he stood for, as for the rest you're simply not trying. Anything worth having takes work, and unfortunately today's teens and 20 somethings have been used to instant gratification because their parents just give them everything.

That in and of itself is a sign of the times, most families have two working parents, and they haven't the time to properly parent - they leave it up to the schools who are just not up to the task. No ones fault indeed, however you owe it to yourself to learn every single day.

If you truly want to love Buddha, or perhaps in this case Buddhism, get on(literally) your butt and learn something about it. Read, attend sangha, find a teacher if you can (much easier said than done), and meditate.

Empathy, well, if you have ever felt bad about someone else's misfortune you have the capacity to empathize, just look around you...that homeless guy, the old lady who lives alone, a friend with an illness, they are all worthy of compassion, so are the beings who do not appear to be suffering, for they fight their own battles in some way.

I can see by the responses you've gotten thus far that you have touched a nerve in some people...my feeling is that they are feeling protective of what Buddhism means to them, and the investment they have made to be Buddhist. It's FAR more than just "loving the Buddha". I could go on and on, however it'd probably be easier to tell you what Buddhism is not rather than what it is.

Enthusiasm is great! Now to put it in motion...

riverflow

"If you love somebody, set them free."

genkaku

I think we all begin with what we love.

Then we set about finding out what we love.

And finally we love ... and just go about our business.

Mountains

The first thing that went through my mind when I read the OP was the bumper stickers I see every day that say "I (heart) Jesus". Let's be clear - the Buddha lived over 2600 years ago, and he's stone cold dead (just like Jesus). You and I never met the man, and are many generations and many centuries removed from the possibility of ever having done so. So do you love the Buddha? Or do you love the idea of the Buddha (which is a mental construct in your mind)?

Certainly we can 'love' the teachings and the beauty of Buddhism. We can love what Buddhism does for us and for the world. I'm not sure loving the Buddha (or a little statue) is really accomplishing anything except clouding the mind with things that don't exist.

Just my $.03 (inflation, y'know)

Cloud

I love what the Buddha taught (metaphorically speaking), because until I heard the Four Noble Truths I really didn't see any way to come to an accord with this temporary life. Afterward, I was like "oh, of COURSE, duh!". We usually don't think about the actual causes... we think superficially, like "oh suffering is the opposite of happiness", and then we spend our lives trying to find happiness and avoid suffering to no avail (it's not possible to avoid suffering that way, and even the avoidance and the clinging to happiness is suffering).