Buddhism
Hi hi!
About to go on a long rant about religion and my confusing thoughts on it!
My parents have gotten extremely religious this past year and because of that fact, I now know a little bit more about Buddhism.
When my mom explains it, it makes all the sense in the world. I could actually picture the bigger scheme of things and the questions of "why did this happen to me?" and "why are people the way they are?" and "why is there so much suffering?", all of those questions that we turn into anger because we find life to be unfair, completely and utterly make sense. But then I take a step back and I look at it through an atheist perspective, and it all sounds so insane. That's how all religions are, it all seems and sounds so crazy! In the end, all that matters is your faith in it.
Reincarnation is a huge factor in Buddhism; it's the "heaven or hell" of Christianity. I can accept the theory of reincarnation better than I can accept "eternal damnation".
When the word "reincarnation" is brought up, people immediately think, "Does that mean I could have been a dog in my last life?" and they are extremely sarcastic about the thought, but isn't having another chance at life better than doing something wrong and going to hell for all eternity? Whether it be you're an animal or a human or a microorganism?
Think of your life as being recorded by a huge cassette. You are Big Brothered your entire life, but it's not by any God, it's solely based on you and how you live this one that will determine how your next life might be. You are in absolute control of how your life turns out, how you live it, why bad things happen and why good things happen to you in your following life. All the bad things that happen to you is result of something wrong that you did in your last life, so you have to pay for it in this life.
So lets say this cassette records everything-- every thought, every lie, every action, everything. You lie in this life, you're going to pay it back someway in your next and it might be something big or it might be something small. You picture something bad happen to someone else, you're going to repay for that even if it was just a passing thought. The point of it is, you had a negative, harmful thought. You must pay.
Say you help someone out of generosity, you will get paid back something good in your next life. It's karma, but it's a never ending cycle. You hurt anything, whether it be a bug by stepping on it, or words meant to hurt someone's feelings, you're going to pay back.
Why are some people prettier than others? More handsome than others? There's a reason for that. You could have picked fun at less fortunate looking people, you could have been an angry person in your last life so in the following your facial features is off-putting and you seem unapproachable...
There is a reason for everything.
To me, it makes so much more sense than other religions... and true, I might be biased just because I was raised up in a "Buddhist" household, but the fact of the matter is, we never talked about it. I hardly knew/know anything about it, but it still makes so much more sense to me.
And the other great thing? Buddha is the name you give to a person who has reached enlightenment, so if you have reached it, you too are a Buddha. There is not just one.
There are tiers of heaven and hell in Buddhism. Anyone can make it to heaven, they have many chances, endless amounts to live their life right. People will say, "What's the point then if you continuously are reborn?" The point is if you don't strive to be a better person, you're always going to suffer. The point is, is that you can make it to heaven but it's not going to be easy. The point is, be happy with what you have, who you have in your life, and that you're living this life.
Everyone you see, even if it's just a glance, was somehow attached to you in your previous one. It's all fate.
There's no point in ever blaming anyone, because when it comes down to it, it's all on you.
No one has already set your path for you, you set your own path.
That's empowering to know, and it's scary and it's a little strange and crazy. But it makes sense to me.
I may not believe entirely just yet, and I may just like it because it answers a lot of questions. Yes, it all still sounds crazy to me, but at least it makes sense. And right now, that's all I really care about.
I know there are a lot of people that think religion is just a way for people to have something to look forward to after they die, and I believe that too. But I also believe that we don't just die and that is the end of it. There has to be something greater, otherwise, what are we doing here?
But yes. That's my rant! I'm not sure if it made any sense (and I've used that word a lot in this post), but I just needed to write it! =D
About to go on a long rant about religion and my confusing thoughts on it!
My parents have gotten extremely religious this past year and because of that fact, I now know a little bit more about Buddhism.
When my mom explains it, it makes all the sense in the world. I could actually picture the bigger scheme of things and the questions of "why did this happen to me?" and "why are people the way they are?" and "why is there so much suffering?", all of those questions that we turn into anger because we find life to be unfair, completely and utterly make sense. But then I take a step back and I look at it through an atheist perspective, and it all sounds so insane. That's how all religions are, it all seems and sounds so crazy! In the end, all that matters is your faith in it.
Reincarnation is a huge factor in Buddhism; it's the "heaven or hell" of Christianity. I can accept the theory of reincarnation better than I can accept "eternal damnation".
When the word "reincarnation" is brought up, people immediately think, "Does that mean I could have been a dog in my last life?" and they are extremely sarcastic about the thought, but isn't having another chance at life better than doing something wrong and going to hell for all eternity? Whether it be you're an animal or a human or a microorganism?
Think of your life as being recorded by a huge cassette. You are Big Brothered your entire life, but it's not by any God, it's solely based on you and how you live this one that will determine how your next life might be. You are in absolute control of how your life turns out, how you live it, why bad things happen and why good things happen to you in your following life. All the bad things that happen to you is result of something wrong that you did in your last life, so you have to pay for it in this life.
So lets say this cassette records everything-- every thought, every lie, every action, everything. You lie in this life, you're going to pay it back someway in your next and it might be something big or it might be something small. You picture something bad happen to someone else, you're going to repay for that even if it was just a passing thought. The point of it is, you had a negative, harmful thought. You must pay.
Say you help someone out of generosity, you will get paid back something good in your next life. It's karma, but it's a never ending cycle. You hurt anything, whether it be a bug by stepping on it, or words meant to hurt someone's feelings, you're going to pay back.
Why are some people prettier than others? More handsome than others? There's a reason for that. You could have picked fun at less fortunate looking people, you could have been an angry person in your last life so in the following your facial features is off-putting and you seem unapproachable...
There is a reason for everything.
To me, it makes so much more sense than other religions... and true, I might be biased just because I was raised up in a "Buddhist" household, but the fact of the matter is, we never talked about it. I hardly knew/know anything about it, but it still makes so much more sense to me.
And the other great thing? Buddha is the name you give to a person who has reached enlightenment, so if you have reached it, you too are a Buddha. There is not just one.
There are tiers of heaven and hell in Buddhism. Anyone can make it to heaven, they have many chances, endless amounts to live their life right. People will say, "What's the point then if you continuously are reborn?" The point is if you don't strive to be a better person, you're always going to suffer. The point is, is that you can make it to heaven but it's not going to be easy. The point is, be happy with what you have, who you have in your life, and that you're living this life.
Everyone you see, even if it's just a glance, was somehow attached to you in your previous one. It's all fate.
There's no point in ever blaming anyone, because when it comes down to it, it's all on you.
No one has already set your path for you, you set your own path.
That's empowering to know, and it's scary and it's a little strange and crazy. But it makes sense to me.
I may not believe entirely just yet, and I may just like it because it answers a lot of questions. Yes, it all still sounds crazy to me, but at least it makes sense. And right now, that's all I really care about.
I know there are a lot of people that think religion is just a way for people to have something to look forward to after they die, and I believe that too. But I also believe that we don't just die and that is the end of it. There has to be something greater, otherwise, what are we doing here?
But yes. That's my rant! I'm not sure if it made any sense (and I've used that word a lot in this post), but I just needed to write it! =D