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If Buddha were alive today

zidanguszidangus Veteran
edited September 2011 in General Banter
This is a totally hypothetical question, but if Buddha were alive today, what do you think he would make of the world ?
What would he make of the split in the sangha and the creation of the mahayana and theravada schools ?

Please add your own points that you think Buddha would like/dislike about todays world and the way Buddhism is practiced today.

Comments

  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    I appreciate your thought, but my take is, it's just a mental exercise. The fact is that the Buddha isn't alive today, he was alive 2600 years ago. It's up to us to make something of the world we live in...
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    @Mountains I like mental exercises, a lot of good science has been tested on thought experiments, so maybe look at this as a mental exercise on peoples perception of todays world and how Buddha would react to it. So I was just seeing what impression (from the literature) that people have of what Buddha was like, how they think he would react to todays world, what he would think about it.


    Plus its fun to ask what ifs, for these types of question :D (well I think it is anyway :P )

  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    if Buddha were alive today, what do you think he would make of the world ?
    I think he would make of it a better place. I don't expect that he would have much of an opinion at all, he would simply act to relieve the suffering of the world.
  • taiyakitaiyaki Veteran
    he would probably just tell you and all of us to meditate. just meditate. see for yourself. realize for yourself.
  • vixthenomadvixthenomad
    I reckon he'd have a Facebook profile... :D
  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
    @Zidangus -- Plus its fun to ask what ifs ...

    Yes, what-if's are lots of fun.

    Buddhism is no fun at all.

    Buddhism asks, "what is?"

    Damned spoilsport! :)

    PS. If what you refer to as "Buddha" were alive today ... it would still cost you a couple of bucks for a bus ride.
  • CinorjerCinorjer Veteran
    You mean if he were transported through time? Depends what part of the world he was looking at. If he was brought to a modern city and shown technological marvels, he might think he'd stumbled into some god-realm due to the magical technology, but know from the first hungry beggar he saw that it was still the same old Samsara. For much of the world, including India, not much has changed.

  • MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
    I reckon he'd have a Facebook profile... :D
    Win! A nominate this 'comment of the day.'
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    I reckon he'd have a Facebook profile... :D
    Win! A nominate this 'comment of the day.'
    Even the suggestion that Buddha would have a facebook page makes me cringe

    :thumbdown:
  • CloudCloud Veteran
    He'd have one, but he wouldn't be the one who set it up or that ran it. Someone would think he should have one, and would make one for him (regardless of the fact that he wouldn't have asked!).
  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    If Buddha were alive today
    ... he'd be *way* old.
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    Well if he would have a facebook page then I reckon he'd be on this forum also. Wouldn't that be great we could ask him loads of questions.


    Ok so if you had the chance to ask Buddha one question what would it be ?

  • CinorjerCinorjer Veteran
    "Would you like something to eat or drink?"
  • vixthenomadvixthenomad
    Even the suggestion that Buddha would have a facebook page makes me cringe

    :thumbdown:
    Why? If he could help more people to become enlightened by making contacts via social networking, then that would a be a skillful action.

  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    edited September 2011
    Even the suggestion that Buddha would have a facebook page makes me cringe

    :thumbdown:
    Why? If he could help more people to become enlightened by making contacts via social networking, then that would a be a skillful action.


    Yes and he could also have a twitter account and an expensive iphone or blackberry so he could tell us every time he breaths in and out, in and out, and he could add us all as friends and .....

    Ok I'll stop as I reckon he would spend his time more wisely than updating his status on social networking sites all day. In fact I would be a little let down if Buddha was like this. Though of course I may be wrong he may have loved facebook.

    p.s I am biased as I don't like facebook :D
  • vixthenomadvixthenomad
    Ok I'll stop as I reckon he would spend his time more wisely than updating his status on social networking sites all day.
    He wouldn't necessarily 'update his status all day'. But he might use social networking to reach more people. Your ideal of Buddha, that would be so offended by the idea of him using Facebook and Twitter, belongs to two and a half thousand years ago. Buddha was a man of his time and if this was his time, I think he'd embrace modern technology if he thought he could help to ease the suffering of other sentient beings by so doing.

    Heck, he might even be a moderator on this forum. How's that for heresy? :p
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    edited September 2011
    Does the Dali lama have a facebook page / twitter account where they actually update it themselves?? Does any current Buddhist master have these ?
  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    Yes he does:

    http://www.facebook.com/DalaiLama
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    edited September 2011
    Yes he does:

    http://www.facebook.com/DalaiLama
    Is he actually writing anything in this facebook page or is it one of his representatives ?
  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    I have no way to know that, but *he* has a FB page, whether he sits at the computer and updates it or not.
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    Still I am not convinced that Buddha would have been into all this social networking rubbish.

    :coffee:
  • vixthenomadvixthenomad
    Still I am not convinced that Buddha would have been into all this social networking rubbish.

    :coffee:
    That's OK, because neither your opinion nor mine changes whether he would be or not, does it?

  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    @vixthenomad, very true, but there is no harm thinking about what ifs, I mean what if we lived in a world without what ifs (pardon the pun), the world would be seriously lacking in creativity and imagination.

  • vixthenomadvixthenomad
    That is why I participated in the discussion in the first place! But there is no point in us going on and on about this particular 'what if' - we've established that we disagree and I'm running out of ways to rephrase my standpoint...

    :banghead: ;)
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    I agree @vixthenomad so how about this, "what if" we end this discussion. :thumbsup:
  • MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
    "If the Buddha were alive today" he'd scream and claw at the top of his coffin. (Or was he cremated or what?)
  • vixthenomadvixthenomad
    "If the Buddha were alive today" he'd scream and claw at the top of his coffin. (Or was he cremated or what?)
    Doesn't screaming require vocal chords, and wouldn't these have decomposed by now? However, skeletal fingers could, I imagine, accomplish some quality clawing.

    :D:p
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    edited September 2011
    "If the Buddha were alive today" he'd scream and claw at the top of his coffin. (Or was he cremated or what?)
    Unless of course he was frozen in some mountain in the himalayas after he died. If that is the case then all we have to do is wait for the ice age to finish, find him and dethaw him, (assuming were still here and we have the capabilities to bring him back to life.)

    :rolleyes:
  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    edited September 2011
    If we dethawed him he'd still be frozen :) Now if we *thawed* him, on the other hand...


    This conversation is becoming silly!
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    edited September 2011
    If we dethawed him he'd still be frozen :) Now if we *thawed* him, on the other hand...


    This conversation is becoming silly!
    Not according to the thefreedictionary.com, the only trusted source of information on the net :D :thumbsup:


    http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dethaw
    :coffee:
  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    I prefer "deliquesce" :)
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    yeah it does have a nice ring to it deliquesce :rolleyes:
  • vixthenomadvixthenomad
    If we dethawed him he'd still be frozen :) Now if we *thawed* him, on the other hand...


    This conversation is becoming silly!
    Not according to the thefreedictionary.com, the only trusted source of information on the net :D :thumbsup:


    http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dethaw
    :coffee:
    Having looked up both terms I believe 'dethaw' is the correct term, for it implies something or someone causing something or someone else to 'thaw'. Although I would probably have said 'defrost' instead.

    :D
  • MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
    Melt?
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    I'm gonna go with deliquesce, because it sounds cool :rockon:

    (sorry I couldn't resist ) :D
  • ArnArn
    No one has mentioned TV evangelist yet - or whatever the Buddhist equivalent would be. Perhaps he'd chose to become a rock or sports star to maximise his TV appeal and then fail at something to demonstrate impermanence and only quietly mention buddhism because he didnt want scare away non believers...

    = tiger woods? :confused:

    :D
  • zidanguszidangus Veteran
    edited September 2011
    Yes Tiger Woods is the new Buddha :bowdown: how did it take so long for me to realize this ?? all those wins, only a Buddha could have done this ! :P

    I guess Colin Montgomerie is a Zen master also he just does not know it yet. Someone should let him know :p:p:p
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