I'm wondering if Buddhism in the West is a pop culture myth. The more I read on the origins of Buddhism the more unatheistic it looks. There's also quite a bit of degradation of the feminine in its origins.

The Tibetan Buddhists believe in this place called Shambhala so Buddhism doesn't seem atheistic (though it might be even though there are theist Buddhists):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala

The Trimondis in their book The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part I – 1. Buddhism and misogyny – an historical overview state "The mystery of Tantric Buddhism consists in the sacrifice of the feminine principle and the manipulation of erotic love in order to attain universal androcentric power."

More details here: http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Part-1-01.htm

Atheism is the lack of a belief in any gods, not the lack of a belief in mystical cities. If you meant to write 'supernaturalistic' rather than 'unatheistic' then yes, you are correct. Buddhism contains supernatural beliefs.

I don't care about atheism itt.

I'm interested in the origins of Buddhism which nobody in the West seems to know much about except what Hollywood has popularized.

Quote from Trimondis' work:

The practice and philosophy of Buddhism has spread so rapidly throughout the Western world in the past 30 years and has so often been a topic in the media that by now anybody who is interested in cultural affairs has formed some sort of concept of Buddhism. In the conventional “Western” notion of Buddhism, the teachings of Buddha Gautama are regarded as a positive Eastern countermodel to the decadent civilization and culture of the West: where the Western world has introduced war and exploitation into world history, Buddhism stands for peace and freedom; whilst Western rationalism is destructive of life and the environment, the Eastern teachings of wisdom preserve and safeguard them. The meditation, compassion, composure, understanding, nonviolence, modesty, and spirituality of Asia stand in contrast to the actionism, egomania, unrest, indoctrination, violence, arrogance, and materialism of Europe and North America. Ex oriente lux—“light comes from the East”; in occidente nox—“darkness prevails in the West”.


Guru Shoko Asahara who tried to poison the Japanese subway system was a Buddhist who claimed enlightened status yet he wasn't non-violent.

We know very well how buddhism spread. Not all buddhist believe in supernatural fairy stories. Tiger Woods claimed to be buddhist and had sex with a bunch of women, therefore all buddhist must have sex with a bunch of women after becoming famous golfers.

Slendour, please please quit reading stuff from crazy people's writing and taking dribble for fact. Find out what syllogistic reasoning is and quit doing it. I sincerely think you are a nice person who is so gullible that you might be able to be robbed by mail. : )

Have a great day!

There are both "atheistic" and "theistic" variants of Buddhism. It is not a single belief, but a category of many different beliefs with some common traits.

Regardless, it is not uncommon for language barriers to pop into existence when we try to shoehorn eastern philosophy and/or religion into western philosophy and/or religion.

The most glaring one here is that the word "god" does not carry over well. Suffice to say that almost all Buddhist teachings reject a "first creator", which is usually the key aspect of Abrahamic religion.

You can always find some exceptions...buddhism as a philosophy has after all crept across many regions and cultures and fused with local religion.

Buddhism originated when an indian prince named siddhartha struggled to understand suffering in life and started meditating about life. He grew up as a hindu and so you'll notice many hindu concepts like reincarnation and karma. But buddhism he founded has no god. It was merely a set of guidelines to free man from his suffering. How the tibeteans later modified buddhism has nothing to do with the origins of buddhism

You need to direct this to Hopey not me. He thinks all Christians are Andrea Yates.

It may have escaped your attention but I drew no comparisons to Tiger Woods. Tiger didn't even cross my mind.

What really caught my attention was this quote:

"Just as we have introduced the whole text with a core hypothesis, we would also like to preface the description of the four stages of historical Buddhism to which we devote the following pages with four corresponding variations upon our basic statement about the “female sacrifice”, the “manipulation of erotic love”, and the “development of androcentric power”:


1. The “sacrifice of the feminine principle” is from the outset a fundamental event in the teachings of Buddha . It corresponds to the Buddhist rejection of life, nature and the soul. In this original phase, the bearer of androcentric power is the historical Buddha himself.

2. In Hinayana Buddhism, the “Low Vehicle”, the “sacrifice of the feminine” is carried out with the help of meditation. The Hinayana monk fears and dreads women, and attempts to escape them. He also makes use of meditative exercises to destroy and transcend life, nature and the soul. In this phase the bearer of androcentric power is the is the ascetic holy man or Arhat.

3. In Mahayana, the “Great Vehicle”, flight from women is succeeded by compassion for them. The woman is to be freed from her physical body, and the Mahayana monk selflessly helps her to prepare for the necessary transformation, so that she can become a man in her next reincarnation. The feminine is thus still considered inferior and despicable, as that which must be sacrificed in order to be transformed into something purely masculine. In both founding philosophical schools of Mahayana Buddhism (Madhyamika and Yogachara), life, nature, the body and the soul are accordingly sacrificed to the absolute spirit (citta). The bearer of androcentric power in this phase is the “Savior” or Bodhisattva.

4. In Tantrism or Vajrayana, the tantric master (yogi) exchanges compassion with the woman for absolute control over the feminine. With sexual magic rites he elevates the woman to the status of a goddess in order to subsequently offer her up as a real or symbolic sacrifice. The beneficiary of this sacrifice is not some god, but the yogi himself, since he absorbs within himself the complete life energy of the sacrifice. This radical Vajrayana method ends in an apocalyptic firestorm which consumes the entire universe within its flames. In this phase the bearer of androcentric power is the “Grand Master” or Maha Siddha." - end quote

Some how I don't think Westerners are aware of these Buddhist beliefs.

I find it fascinating that people blame discrimination against women on Christianity alone (like it only happens in the Western Hemisphere) and go out and adopt Buddhism without knowing the original ideas behind their new beliefs.

Most of my friends and family are Christians. None of them have drowned their children in their bathtubs.

Yet.

That's hot.

Well I think you need to independently examine why you keep bringing her up on this board every chance you get.

Her story is a cautionary tale.

You shouldn't find it fascinating since people dont do that.

Really some people do it quite a bit.

I'm a woman and never even knew I should be aggreived against Christianity until I read several threads and posts by atheists accusing Christianity of bigotry against women.

My most recent experience of a Christian was a nice little old gentleman coming out to my car with an umbrella for me. It was raining like crazy. If he's a bigot I hope there are more of them.

Does my bolding help make his point clearer?

No they dont. They criticize some of Christainty for its treatment of women and you turn that into them saying Christianity alone treats women badly.

If you can show one post where "people blame discrimination against women on Christianity alone.." then i will stand corrected.


Try being a wife of a Christian who thinks women should be submissive in all things to the man and you will see it. They will probably even break out some bible quotes for you to follow if you disagree.

If he was an atheist he would have obviously raped and killed you in the rain. That's how us non-Christians roll.

What's funny is that Splendour was arguing for this interpretation of certain bible verses a few months ago.

Yeah i know. Its so confusing.

No ma'am. I was addressing you not anyone else. If he truly believed that, and he claims not to, that is still firmly under the admonishment to remove the log from one's own eye before attending to the speck in another person's eye.

If you re-read my post you will find I brought up Tiger Woods myself. He was used as a vehicle to illustrate what syllogism is to you which is an important thing to understand. It is also important to realize how deflection can prevent one from seeing how ridiculous one's position is.

Basically instead of learning, you opt to say a bunch of things that do not remotely correlate to facts and when you get called on it you just quote more mistakes. If I thought it would make you happier/healthier to do I would not say anything. But, delusion does not make one better ma'am. So it is purely in loving-kindness that I tried to point it out.

I don't have a position.

I'm exploring if a lot of people in the West have nothing but an impression about Buddhism yet engage in it anyway off the impression.

Where did I use the word "treat".

I told the truth. I was never aware of any Christian discrimination against women before dialoguing with atheists in SMP several years back. They impressed the notion on me.

I don't think you can speak for them as they will hold a spectrum of opinions on this.

Well you have 2 schools of thought on this and I'm undecided between them at this time. I may have argued one position in the past but I think my opinions are shifting.

But I'm not sure why we aren't looking at Buddhism.