Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The only Buddhist region in Europe

dw.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 195 posts

Re: The only Buddhist region in Europe

#151

Post by vmception »

brink wrote: post #86
qwerty456127 wrote: post #59

It seems weird Buddhism is such a minor religion in Europe while it is so rational, based on individual experience (rather than belief) gained through reproducible applied self-regulation techniques, backed by neuroscience and explained with consistent philosophical logic.

As a child I had a subconscious assumption that Christianity wasn't rational, and maintained that view into my mid-twenties. Thankfully, I had the drive to do research on it, and an open enough mind to accept it, because I was ready to reject Christianity completely for a short period. I know this view isn't popular, but today, I see Christianity as the most rational philosophy/religion out there. I think it's been w…

It is rational to say that creature won. It is not rational to worship it out of love, which Christians began doing. Whatever it is, it does not act in the interest of mankind.

Re: The only Buddhist region in Europe

#152

Post by slakrems »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #51
trainsplanes wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I see this man mentioned, I always see a comment saying, "This man travels AND has sex!" It's about as surprising as someone visiting Amsterdam and having the audacity to smoke weed or single guys doing what single guys do when they visit SE Asia.

Gross, man -- he actually brags about raping/coercing girls. "Oh, you'd like a taster? Well how about the time when Vorkuta boasts of forcing a young hitchhiker to give him a blowjob in exchange for $6. On the threat that if she did not comply he might leave her in the middle of nowhere as they were travelling alone in a car on some deserted highway somewhere in the FSU. You can only imagine how scared she must have…

I have a different definition of “rape” seeing it thrown around so often. If a man can talk a woman into sex without blackmail, that’s fair game and to be honest I respect him for it. It’s the main thing I want o do in life, sleep with as many women as possible.

Re: The only Buddhist region in Europe

#153

Post by slakrems »

dragonwriter wrote: post #115
trainsplanes wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People post a lot of wild stories on forums and places like reddit. Oftentimes they exaggerate or make up crazy events. It's not enough to push me to go after them.

There’s two possibilities: (1) He’s a proud rapist who is actively legitimizing and normalizing rape. (2) He thinks its cool to pretend to be a rapist and normalize rape, even though he isn’t himself a rapist. While there’s a big difference if you are, say, prosecuting rape, both are reasonable grounds on which someone might decide not to support a creator’s output.

Neither if your scenarios are accurate. He is a sweet taker that convinces women to sleep with him, there is no coercion or force. Honestly, I respect how much of a good time he is having.

Re: The only Buddhist region in Europe

#154

Post by asdff »

rthomas6 wrote: post #130
qwerty456127 wrote: post #59

It seems weird Buddhism is such a minor religion in Europe while it is so rational, based on individual experience (rather than belief) gained through reproducible applied self-regulation techniques, backed by neuroscience and explained with consistent philosophical logic.

Western/secular Buddhism popularized in the west is generally not the same as Buddhism practiced in Buddhist countries. The actual Buddhist religion teachings can include, depending on the branch: - Hell and heaven realms where you can get reincarnated into if you've lived an especially bad or good life - Various gods and demons - A timeline spanning trillions of years and hundreds of Buddhas - "Celestial Buddhas" th…

In reading the pali cannon I was struck by how the society the buddha lived in seemed so tolerant of different religions and thought. he was a bramin, he was an ascetic, he was able to leave and join these groups freely without suffering any consequences, and it didn't seem like others particularly cared if he were a bramin or an ascetic or following the teachings of some other holy man. Everyone he studied under basically levels with him that they are on the same quest, looking for a decent philosophy to subscribe to, sampling the field in the process and trying different things, engaging in discussions with people of different ideas. It read almost like the situation in western countries today, where people might try out different churches or take classes covering different religions freely, without societal judgement, or even have no strong religious convictions at all. The teachings described are basically cognitive behavioral therapy, but framed in the philosophical language they were using back then which was theological. It almost reads like the budhha was a depressed person in existential crisis until he had his moment of enlightenment, and the other teachers and followers he met along the way were similarly depressed people looking for a treatment in a world where there wasn't one.

Re: The only Buddhist region in Europe

#155

Post by andredz »

tengbretson wrote: post #108
boxed wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to know much about it. Christians believe in a god. That's open and shut right there.

I don't think the belief in creation by God requires any more leaps of faith than a belief in other cosmologies, such as the big bang, etc.

What do you mean by other cosmologies?

"Belief in creation by God" is not mutually exclusive with believing that the Big Bang model correctly describes the structure and evolution of the universe. Belief in creation by God is not another option among an array of cosmological models, since it is not even a scientific model.

Anyway, I'm trying to understand what you mean my there not being a difference in leaps of faith required…

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. […] By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible."

Perhaps there are scientists that depend on a certain model not being proven incorrect for their own research to be viable, then, they might hope for something that they do not see. If (In any case, I don't think that believing that a certain cosmological model is correct requires someone to be confident with regards to it. The currently predominant model might not be 100% right and that's perfectly fine. Thus, "belief in other cosmologies" might not require one to have faith while the verse quoted above states that it is through faith that someone understands that God is behind the creation.

(Unless you want to say that confidence in the scientific method is required for belief in a scientific model, but then, confidence in history (or God!) might be required on the other side as well, and so on).

Then, at least 1 more leap of faith is required, wouldn't you say? I'm not sure, tbh. :-)

But then, faith being involved in a process is not necessarily wrong (nor necessarily good).

Re: The only Buddhist region in Europe

#156

Post by bnralt »

cyberbanjo wrote: post #104
tomcooks wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you explain what's rational about Christianity? Moreover, do you refer to a specific branch or Christianity as a whole?

On that subject the blog undivided looking touches on using applied history and theology to rationalize Christianity. It appeals to my sense of mrationality at least. http://www.wall.org/~aron/blog/

I took a look at that blog, but it doesn't seem historical at all to me (for example, I can't think of any historian that dates the synoptics to before 70 AD). I also can't say I'm a fan of the way he treats other denominations of Christianity as non-Christian religions.

For a good historical look at Christianity, I'd recommend people look into the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean podcast, the NT Pod podcast, or, for the old testament, the writings of Mark S. Smith (you can also find lectures of his on Youtube).

Re: The only Buddhist region in Europe

#157

Post by pradn »

rthomas6 wrote: post #130
qwerty456127 wrote: post #59

It seems weird Buddhism is such a minor religion in Europe while it is so rational, based on individual experience (rather than belief) gained through reproducible applied self-regulation techniques, backed by neuroscience and explained with consistent philosophical logic.

Western/secular Buddhism popularized in the west is generally not the same as Buddhism practiced in Buddhist countries. The actual Buddhist religion teachings can include, depending on the branch: - Hell and heaven realms where you can get reincarnated into if you've lived an especially bad or good life - Various gods and demons - A timeline spanning trillions of years and hundreds of Buddhas - "Celestial Buddhas" th…

In addition, Buddhism monasticism in at least the first millennium and a half of its life was simultaneously cloistered off from the laypeople, but also very much of it - individual monks owned and invested property and so did the monasteries themselves. Buddhism did not glorify poverty for laypeople - instead the idea was to be wealthy and support the monastics. That's why Buddhism was so popular among merchants, who spread it from India into Afghanistan, and through the Silk Road on to China. (A sea route south-east was also taken at the same time.)

In first millennium China, Buddhist monasteries owned up to 20% of the country's land. Enormous tracts of forest were cut down to supply the wood to build monasteries, temples, towers, and more. Buddhist monasteries even owned slaves to work their lands.

For much of this period, certificates of Buddhist monk-hood were sold by the state or sub-state actors like dukes and princesses to quickly raise money. These certificates got one out of forced labor, which was often used to build Buddhist structures. (Forced labor was a common state inducement for all sorts of reasons in this time.) The explosion of "monks" led to crackdowns, stripping those who couldn't recite sutras or hadn't shaved their head of their privilege. Those with certificates were often exempt from certain taxes, though this privilege was only certain for those at imperial monasteries.

Sources:

"Buddhism in Chinese Society: An Economic History From the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries" By Jacques Gernet

"The Buddha's Footprint: An Environmental History of Asia" By Johan Elverskog

Re: The only Buddhist region in Europe

#158

Post by rthomas6 »

tralarpa wrote: post #146
rthomas6 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Western/secular Buddhism popularized in the west is generally not the same as Buddhism practiced in Buddhist countries. The actual Buddhist religion teachings can include, depending on the branch: - Hell and heaven realms where you can get reincarnated into if you've lived an especially bad or good life - Various gods and demons - A timeline spanning trillions of years and hundreds of Buddhas - "Celestial Buddhas" th…

The same also happened with Daoism. The West took the philosophical part and ignored for many years the cultural aspects, belief system, and worshipping rituals (i.e., the religion) behind it. Until some scientists pointed out (quite recently actually, if I remember correctly) that you cannot just do that. I don't know much about Daoism and Buddhism, but I know a guy who compliments people in the West who claim to be…

I am not super familiar with Zen, but my understanding is "yes, sort of". Zen come from Mahayana path and I believe it retains those teachings and cosmology, but it's not as central. Looking at it on Wikipedia, it looks like Zen is all about teaching enlightenment with very little importance placed on much else, so in that regard, yes.

Re: The only Buddhist region in Europe

#159

Post by ksec »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #59

It seems weird Buddhism is such a minor religion in Europe while it is so rational, based on individual experience (rather than belief) gained through reproducible applied self-regulation techniques, backed by neuroscience and explained with consistent philosophical logic.

>Buddhism is such a minor religion

I guess there are group of people who believe in Buddhism as philosophy rather than religion. Although comparatively speaking still very minor.

Re: The only Buddhist region in Europe

#160

Post by dang »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #77
est wrote: post #50

Fun fact: Lenin's grandma is from Kalmykia and have Mongol origin

Well that explains the death tolls

If you continue to post unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments like this one and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27285538, we're going to have to ban you.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and sticking to the rules when posting here, we'd be grateful.

Post reply on HN