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@techie said:
Do you have to believe in karma or rebirth in order to be considered Buddhist?
Just wondering.
From what I gather they are part & parcel of the Buddha Dharma...But in saying this, anyone can call/consider themselves a Buddhist...
Buddhism is not really about 'belief' it's more about experiential understanding, and this is what makes it different from god-centric Abrahamic religions, which for the most part belief without proof is their somewhat shaky foundation
Yes I agree with @Bunks. Many people choose that metaphor as their belief about rebirth, which is fine of course. It's not untrue, after all. But actual rebirth or continuation of the karmic stream is an actual thing in many 'brands' of Buddhism. That doesn't mean you have to accept it, or focus on it.
^^. Phew!
I am awaiting the delivery of my free Dharma Pup - I have the Buddhist decoder ring and T-shirt. So glad I can still call myself a Buddhist heretic.
Yours in the Dharma, for one lifetime only,
C.S. Lobster (bad Buddhist)
I think we Westerners sometimes need to get our heads out of our arses and stop believing the hype that our way is better.
I personally find it really demeaning when I've read posts where people label parts of practise from different paths as superstition, like it's a primitive quirk. You're following the other 98% of the path remember, so maybe the quirk is with you. (And I'm using"you" collectively here so keep calm folks). I don't believe you can cherry pick your path like an all you can eat buffet. Yes the Buddha said to test his teachings for ourselves and leave what doesn't work, but I don't think he meant it as a way to avoid everything we don't find convenient.
I think our refusal (almost all of civilized humanity) to face our discomforts is behind a whole lot of the problems we all face. When we don't like something, whether it's an idea in our belief system, another person's lifestyle or whatever, we try to do whatever we can to think or act our way out of that discomfort rather than to look at it. At higher levels, large groups of people work on the behalf of the discomforts of others to make changes that impact the whole world. It's quite a mess, especially when so much of it could be resolved by people being willing to look at themselves.
Really, civilization has been nothing more but always looking at others and determining we have more (or do things better) and therefore are "more civilized" yet those comparisons of civilized people to country folk people (pagans back in the day), savages, etc has done nothing but divide people for eternity and make us less civilized towards each other all in an attempt to hold ourselves up individually and collectively (as a country or the entire "western world").
Comments
From what I gather they are part & parcel of the Buddha Dharma...But in saying this, anyone can call/consider themselves a Buddhist...
Buddhism is not really about 'belief' it's more about experiential understanding, and this is what makes it different from god-centric Abrahamic religions, which for the most part belief without proof is their somewhat shaky foundation
Yes I agree with @Bunks. Many people choose that metaphor as their belief about rebirth, which is fine of course. It's not untrue, after all. But actual rebirth or continuation of the karmic stream is an actual thing in many 'brands' of Buddhism. That doesn't mean you have to accept it, or focus on it.
^^. Phew!
I am awaiting the delivery of my free Dharma Pup - I have the Buddhist decoder ring and T-shirt. So glad I can still call myself a Buddhist heretic.
Yours in the Dharma, for one lifetime only,
C.S. Lobster (bad Buddhist)
^^^
I think we Westerners sometimes need to get our heads out of our arses and stop believing the hype that our way is better.
I personally find it really demeaning when I've read posts where people label parts of practise from different paths as superstition, like it's a primitive quirk. You're following the other 98% of the path remember, so maybe the quirk is with you. (And I'm using"you" collectively here so keep calm folks). I don't believe you can cherry pick your path like an all you can eat buffet. Yes the Buddha said to test his teachings for ourselves and leave what doesn't work, but I don't think he meant it as a way to avoid everything we don't find convenient.
YMMV as I'm sure you'll let me know
_ /\ _
I think our refusal (almost all of civilized humanity) to face our discomforts is behind a whole lot of the problems we all face. When we don't like something, whether it's an idea in our belief system, another person's lifestyle or whatever, we try to do whatever we can to think or act our way out of that discomfort rather than to look at it. At higher levels, large groups of people work on the behalf of the discomforts of others to make changes that impact the whole world. It's quite a mess, especially when so much of it could be resolved by people being willing to look at themselves.
Really, civilization has been nothing more but always looking at others and determining we have more (or do things better) and therefore are "more civilized" yet those comparisons of civilized people to country folk people (pagans back in the day), savages, etc has done nothing but divide people for eternity and make us less civilized towards each other all in an attempt to hold ourselves up individually and collectively (as a country or the entire "western world").