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AbstraKt_I_Am said:
How different is Hinduism and Buddhism? Are they tied together at all?

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towagh_wayhut said:
A young seeker could do worse than consider the thoughts of J. Krishnamurti, whose books can be rounded up in any used bookstore. His is a pathless path, without external spiritual authority.

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porcupine said:
I am not a fan of J. Krishnamurti. He uses so very  many words to say so very little.
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So you can pray to a silly little statue?

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I just want an Om Mani Padme Hum tattoo! It's looks so... FOREIGN!

Different is good when you're trying to escape.

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teknix said:


What made you want to be a buddhist? So you can pray to a silly little statue?

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teknix said:
Buddhism is harder to understand in western thinking/language. A lot of it is BS just as any other religion, and they all have their own version of dogma.

What made you want to be a buddhist? So you can pray to a silly little statue?

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if you read my post properly, which you obviously didn't, you would have noticed that a stepped outside the box... do you posses reading skills? i think someone can gain something from buddhist writing... alan watts sure the hell did and he wasn't a buddhist...

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cateyes said:
it seemed the cool thing to do but after joining a temple and participating in all the ceremonies i lost interest... the chanting drove me nuts... so i'm on my own right now and i'm very content... i read what i want to read and accept what i want to accept... thinking back to some of the things watts proposed was that "you are God", which is beginning to really ring true to me lately... and not only am i God but the deer that run through my woods are God and the trees they hide behind are God... the force that binds the atoms that make up our bodies is God... that everything is God... everything...

try not to get too wrapped up into the culture too deeply, try to stand outside it...

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learn to read and think critically before you speak...

Kensho

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cateyes said:

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teknix said:
Buddhism is harder to understand in western thinking/language. A lot of it is BS just as any other religion, and they all have their own version of dogma.

What made you want to be a buddhist? So you can pray to a silly little statue?

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if you read my post properly, which you obviously didn't, you would have noticed that a stepped outside the box... do you posses reading skills? i think someone can gain something from buddhist writing... alan watts sure the hell did and he wasn't a buddhist...

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cateyes said:
it seemed the cool thing to do but after joining a temple and participating in all the ceremonies i lost interest... the chanting drove me nuts... so i'm on my own right now and i'm very content... i read what i want to read and accept what i want to accept... thinking back to some of the things watts proposed was that "you are God", which is beginning to really ring true to me lately... and not only am i God but the deer that run through my woods are God and the trees they hide behind are God... the force that binds the atoms that make up our bodies is God... that everything is God... everything...

try not to get too wrapped up into the culture too deeply, try to stand outside it...

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learn to read and think critically before you speak...

Kensho

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i read the most Badva Gita while in advanced school... i put it down when it began to sink in that one of the fundamental principles of hinduism is its caste system which served to maintain very rigid social boundaries... that there were no opportunities for mobility across social lines during one's lifetime... in other words, if your poor, you were meant to be poor and you are to live your life accordingly and be happy... that turned my stomach... hinduism, like most other religions was developed in order to control... it cracks me up that some hollywood stars are embracing hinduism... they visit india for a couple of months and come back converted... i bet they didn't spend anytime in hindu ghettos...

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Starting, as in just formally starting.

Ive always been interested in Buddhism. I also am very intrigued by Hindu gods, philosophy and practice. But I am a complete beginner with both. How different is Hinduism and Buddhism? Are they tied together at all?

I bought the Badva Gita last year and read alot of it, taking excerpts here and there and focusing on weaving those concepts and sayings' in my personal perspectives, outlook and every day behavior in life. I lost my book a long time ago, and remember little of it. I have disconnected from spirituality over the past year and feel its instrumental in my life at this point to keep me not only sane but continuing on through my Life's voyage. Yet even last year, I felt like I was not really understanding the practice and what it was about as a whole. I was really butchering it up to be honest.

So Ill be picking up some books on Buddhism and Meditation soon, but I feel confused and overwhelmed in starting as Im so unfamiliar to the culture.

Any input on some must read books, links, and answers to my questions are tremendously appreciated.

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soldatheero said:

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i read the most Badva Gita while in advanced school... i put it down when it began to sink in that one of the fundamental principles of hinduism is its caste system which served to maintain very rigid social boundaries... that there were no opportunities for mobility across social lines during one's lifetime... in other words, if your poor, you were meant to be poor and you are to live your life accordingly and be happy... that turned my stomach... hinduism, like most other religions was developed in order to control... it cracks me up that some hollywood stars are embracing hinduism... they visit india for a couple of months and come back converted... i bet they didn't spend anytime in hindu ghettos...

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You shouldn't ignore\abandon real Hinduism because of the outer husk of the religion. Hindu philosophy is some of the greatest metaphysics on the planet and IMO Advaita Vedanta may be the greatest. Buddhist philosophy and Hindu philosophy should both be heavily studied and digested, they are both slightly different points of view upon the same truth, although they do clash somewhat superficially. I believe Advaita Vedanta leaves more room for the personal God where as Buddhism focus' on the impersonal.

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Starting, as in just formally starting.

Ive always been interested in Buddhism. I also am very intrigued by Hindu gods, philosophy and practice. But I am a complete beginner with both. How different is Hinduism and Buddhism? Are they tied together at all?

I bought the Badva Gita last year and read alot of it, taking excerpts here and there and focusing on weaving those concepts and sayings' in my personal perspectives, outlook and every day behavior in life. I lost my book a long time ago, and remember little of it. I have disconnected from spirituality over the past year and feel its instrumental in my life at this point to keep me not only sane but continuing on through my Life's voyage. Yet even last year, I felt like I was not really understanding the practice and what it was about as a whole. I was really butchering it up to be honest.

So Ill be picking up some books on Buddhism and Meditation soon, but I feel confused and overwhelmed in starting as Im so unfamiliar to the culture.

Any input on some must read books, links, and answers to my questions are tremendously appreciated.

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You should become familiar with the metaphysics and discourses of Meher Baba as his has elements from Vedanta, Buddhist, Sufi and christain mysticism.

"Meher Baba's metaphysical views are most notably described in God Speaks. His cosmology incorporates concepts and terms from Vedanta, Sufism, and Christianity.[99][100] Baba upheld the concept of nonduality, the view that diverse creation, or duality, is an illusion and that the goal of life is conscious realization of the absolute Oneness of God inherent in all animate and inanimate beings and things. Meher Baba compares God's original state to an infinite, shoreless ocean that has only unconscious divinity — unaware of itself because this original unconscious state has no means for any self-knowledge. From this state, God had the "whim" to know Himself,[101] and asked "Who am I?"[102] In response to this question, creation came into existence. In this analogy, what was previously a still, shoreless Ocean now stirred,[103] forming innumerable "drops" of itself or souls. Baba often remarked "You will find all the answers to your questions in God Speaks. Study the book thoroughly and absorb it.".[104]
wiki


Read 'The evolution of perception' found here: http://www.meherbabadnyana.net/article_percpt.html

This book breaks everything down in simple terms and provides the logical intellectual conviction necessary "to believe in this stuff".

Read it along with Meher's 'God Speaks'
http://www.ambppct.org/meherbaba/BooksByMeherBaba.php

Understanding these two books should be a long term goal but do not ignore Buddhist philosophy in the meantime. Make sure you are familiar with and fully grasp Buddhist concepts such as The 5 aggregates, impermanence, non-self, the heart sutra, etcetera.


"God Speaks is Meher Baba's most significant published book. Kenneth Lux writes: "God Speaks is Meher Baba's major book and it is famously difficult. But not only is it Baba's major book, it is his only book. All other books by Meher Baba, such as the Discourses and Listen Humanity, are not written as books, as God Speaks is, but are collections of essays and messages."[2]

While Meher Baba does not emphasize intellect alone as a path to perfection, in God Speaks Meher Baba goes deeper into the subject of metaphysics than most other Indian masters. In his book Mastery of Consciousness, Allan Y. Cohen, Ph.D. writes that Meher Baba's "explanations of the creation, purpose, and evolution of the universe may be the most explicit ever written."[3] In a review of God Speaks, oriental scholar Walter Evans-Wentz, the original English translator of The Tibetan book of the dead, wrote: "No other Teacher in our own time or in any known past time has so minutely analyzed consciousness as Meher Baba has in God Speaks."[4]

God Speaks takes a strictly nondualist approach in explaining the universe and its purpose, carefully clarifying and syncretising terms as it takes the reader through the spiritual journey of the atma (soul) through its imagined evolution, reincarnation, and involution, to its goal, its origin, of Paramatma (Over-soul). The journey winds up being one from God-unconscious ("Beyond Beyond State of God") to God-conscious ("Beyond State of God"). Cohen summarizes, "In elaborate detail he explains the universe is an arena where infinite existence, identifying with the apparently limited soul, becomes more and more conscious of its oneness with itself as the Over-Soul."[5]

-wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Speaks

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teknix said:
Buddhism is harder to understand in western thinking/language. A lot of it is BS just as any other religion, and they all have their own version of dogma.

What made you want to be a buddhist? So you can pray to a silly little statue?

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I have no plans to pray to or worship anything. How ever I love the philosophies, and when practiced rigorously my attitude and mindset changes, or so It has started to. It makes me a lot more tolerable of other people can helps me find my "peace" in this existence. Im not looking for nirvana, just a path to help me live a better life.

And thanks for the incredible amount of input and information in this this thread everyone!

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AbstraKt_I_Am said:

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teknix said:
Buddhism is harder to understand in western thinking/language. A lot of it is BS just as any other religion, and they all have their own version of dogma.

What made you want to be a buddhist? So you can pray to a silly little statue?

---

I have no plans to pray to or worship anything. How ever I love the philosophies, and when practiced rigorously my attitude and mindset changes, or so It has started to. It makes me a lot more tolerable of other people can helps me find my "peace" in this existence. Im not looking for nirvana, just a path to help me live a better life.

And thanks for the incredible amount of input and information in this this thread everyone!

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Ped said:
>> In short Im an asshole. Practicing meditative thought and Buddhist philosophies is helping me get over my ego, helping me stop being so self centered and giving me something to think about before I impulsively treat the people who mean the most to me like shit. Im just trying to learn some self control through meditation and thought.

If you want to stop being so self-centred, and if you want to stop impulsively treating people badly, you don't need to read a bunch of books about loving-kindness, and you don't need to meditate.  Please, whatever you do, don't meditate.  Meditation turns people into completely self-involved, self-important buffoons who think they can give other people spiritual advice.  Trust me, you don't want that.  You'll end up feeling really silly.  <Looks around sheepishly>

If anything, reading books about Buddhism and practicing Buddhist meditation with the intent of "overcoming the asshole within" is probably just going to endow that imaginary asshole with imaginary garments of fine silk and imaginary ornaments of gold and ruby.  You'd be amazed how quickly that happens.  It's like trying to defeat a samurai by throwing swords at his feet.

If you want to stop being so self-centred, and if you want to stop impulsively treating people badly, all you have to do is pause for a moment and ask yourself why you're doing those things.  Don't have any designs on coming up with some kind of clear and definite answer to that question, but do pay attention to all the clever answers your mind comes up with.  Just watch these things bubble up and disappear. 

As you move throughout your days, you'll probably notice from time to time that you've become especially self-centred in a given moment, or that you've treated someone badly.  When that happens, inquire a bit: how does it feel?  What does your chest feel like?  Is there a heaviness or a tightness there?  How does your abdomen feel?  Is it contracted?  Are any other of your body's muscles contracted?  What about your mind?  Is it clear and calm, fractured and agitated, or something in between?

Again, don't bother trying to create a list of answers that you can refer to later.  That's too much like meditating.  Just pay attention to all the observations that come up and watch them disappear.  You'll probably notice some of your tension and self-centredness disappear too, but whatever you do make sure to forget about that as soon as you are able.  That would probably be good time to pick up a video game or check your Facebook.

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This man gets it

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Samurai Drifter said:
IMO, disregard teachings about Gods, heaven, and other mythological elements. Focus on the core elements of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy; atman-brahman in the former and the four noble truths/no-self in the latter. I find Zen to most effectively communicate the basic Buddhist ideals of oneness and selflessness.

Meditation is quite helpful to me, and don't see any good evidence that it makes people "self-involved." It certainly doesn't have to. Most would say it actually does the opposite.

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Samurai Drifter said:
There is no wrong or right way or place to look. If you're attached to "not doing what someone else tells you to do," you're still not free.

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Ped said:
There is no way to clear your mind.  Trying to clear your mind is making it more complicated.  There is no use in understanding what emancipation means.  Trying to understand what emancipation means is making it more complicated.

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