OK I know this is going to come across sounding biased and politically incorrect but I have to say it. I entered a class this semester called Buddhism East and West. I didn't enter it because I wanted to but because it is a required course in order for me to obtain my degree. So at the end of my first class I thought "Man this is stupid... or maybe I just don't get it ... but I can not imagine spending my life staring at my belly button trying to convince myself I don't exsist. It is a lifestyle that just doesn't appeal to me." But I came to terms with the fact that this is what the religion is and I have to study it. But today I realized something ieven worse then a wasted life... In pure land buddhism they deem the normal road to hard so they put their faith in a savior . At first I though YAY finally something is going to make sense ... Boy was I wrong... They put all they're faith and trust in this guy so the can get to the pure land (which by some Buddhists is compared to heaven)so that they can stare at their bellybuttons convincing themselves they don't exsist so they can leave the most wonderful place for .... Nothing. I don't understand why anyone would create a religion where, when you get to heaven you leave so that you can rest in HELL for eternity... I just doesn't make sense to me. Forget the fact that do to the fact that they don't know Jesus they are already going to Hell and think about it this way ... that's where they want to be ... that is their aim! I think it is so stupid and to put it blutly Buddhism Sucks!!!!!
If you have any comments or what to make this make sense for me please leave a message
3 comments:
Hello Stephanie,
sounds like you had a hard time in that class. Congratulations on passing! I am a pureland buddhist living in England. I was raised Church of England, and since becoming a buddhist I have come to have a greater respect for my christian heritage. Ultimately I see religions as being about how we can live life fully, with compassion and love. I do not think any religion has the monopoly on the truth and any path that lead us to live a little more selflessly and care a little more about our friends neighbours citizens,,, and even enemies is to be valued.
This is a talk given by my teacher, Dharmavidya David Brazier, which will give you the flavour of just one form of pureland buddhism. As you will read, "Faith" is very important to this path.
II: Taking Refuge in Other Power
“Amidism or Pureland is that form of Buddhism that centres upon Amida or Amitabha, the Buddha of limitless light. An Amidist is one who lives in the light of the Buddha. This form of Buddhism is called Pureland, since Amida's light reveals a realm called the Pure Land where all who enter will be enlightened. Entering, however, does not require any degree of achievement. It is simply a matter of entrusting oneself.
One could say that Pureland is a religion for people who have already failed at other spiritual practices. Where most forms of Buddhism exhort us to practice hard and attain a supreme state called enlightenment that is characterised by a range of superlative virtues, Pureland speaks to those who have discovered through experience that they are actually deluded to the point where a salvation of that kind is not in the offing. It is when one realises that despite unremitting sincere effort, one has not actually managed to keep even one of the Buddha's precepts purely nor even once attained to the state of samadhi without blemish that one may find that the Pureland Gateway begins to speak to one's condition.
To take refuge in the Buddha means to depend upon something outside of oneself for one's safety. The refugee does not know what the future holds. Buddhists are those who see that their spiritual safety in this spiritually dangerous world depends upon the Buddha. To take refuge is to entrust oneself completely. We talk also of taking refuge in the Dharma and the Sangha - the Buddhist teachings and community - as extensions of the Buddha, these being the manifestations of his work in this world. So there is, especially in Pureland Buddhism, an extended sense of the Buddha - Buddha here in our world, manifesting as Dharma and Sangha and engaging with the real world of our time. The Amidist does not look for the goal of the spiritual life within himself so much as in the world around him.
One of the great enigmas of life is the separation of self and other. I am not you. We meet as others to each other. Yet we are not indifferent to one another. Our lives are influenced. We are dependent in a multitude of ways. There is nothing in us that is not dependent upon things that are other. Time, otherness and dependency present a matrix of parameters that bound our life and the Buddha referred to this as "dependent origination" or "co-arising through conditions". We are what we are because of others. We are what we are now because of the past. Yet neither others nor the past are completely determining of what we are. We could not be what we are without them, yet they do not entirely determine us either. Thus, our responsibility in life is complex. We are not free to do anything, yet we do have to choose to do something, and often in circumstances we would not have chosen had we been able to do so.
In Western philosophy, these conundrums have given rise to much thought on the question of personal will. In Eastern thought they have been provocative of questions about the source of the impulse toward the spiritual life. Thus, where the West has argued about free-will versus determinism, the East has been concerned with self-power versus other-power. One is not a Buddhist because one invented Buddhism. One is a Buddhist because one has been inspired by the Buddha. Parallel statements could be made about any other affiliation. The Amidist believes that his spirituality is not primarily a function of his own effort, but a function of having encountered the Buddha. The fact of placing the source of one's spirituality outside of one's self is characteristic of all Pureland Buddhist schools.
The pre-eminent practice of Pureland is, therefore, mindfulness of Buddha. Buddha-mindfulness celebrates the fact that there is an intimate connection between oneself and the Buddha. We can call this connection faith, but it is not exactly what is meant by the word faith in theistic religions. "Amida" means "The Measureless". What this indicates is the Buddha's willingness to accept all beings just as they are, rather than, for instance, to measure their worth and decide accordingly. The Buddha is not the creator of the world, nor does he interfere in natural laws nor does he administer some kind of cosmic retribution. The profound mysticism of Amidism lies in the knowledge that one is already accepted completely and unconditionally. Buddha-mindfulness, therefore, is not a means to attaining something. It is a form of gratitude and wonderment.
Human life involves much affliction. We are dependent upon conditions that are frequently adverse. Along with the exquisite beauty and the noble truth of this life there comes much tribulation. The Buddha was not exempt from this. He too had enemies, suffered from disease, coped with dissension among his friends, and so on. His mother died when he was born. Several attempts were made upon his life. His teachings did not always meet with approving audiences. Sometimes life was hard. At the same time, he attained to a peace of mind that was unusually profound. How so? He trusted the Amida. He lived his life in a bigger light. By trusting him, we trust that light too. Our lives become bigger hearted. A big life can contain more without losing its stability. Buddha was a big person. He was big because he had faith. He recommended that faith to others, and some of them took it on and passed it down to us. They are an other-power for us.
The sort of faith that we are talking about that is the hallmark of Pureland is something that arises in us when we despair of our little selves. While we are still trying to achieve salvation by efforts that originate in our own life project, we will never have faith in anything other than self. Such a self-power orientation, however, is ultimately self-defeating. Our whole life experience is experience of what is other. Even the things we think of as self are other when we think of them. My ideas, my body, by feelings and so on are not me at the point where I hold them in my regard.
Pureland, therefore, provides a philosophical space wherein we may address some of the deep and intransigent dilemmas of our existential being. We exist, so we must act. However the real sources of our acts are never fully known. We want to be perfect in many ways yet find ourselves to be far, far, short of our ideals. We want the world to be pleasant and find it full of sufferings that cannot be eradicated. Thus we live poised between the ideal and the actual. To hold this position of poise is an act of faith. With the ideal comes the actual. With the dark comes the light. With the present comes the shadow of the past and the uncertainty of the future. With samsara comes the Pure Land”.
All the best to you in this New Year!
Peace
THank you very much for your comment! Your explanation was helpful and appreciated. I wish my prof would have explained it in this way then maybe I would have understood a little more of what he was talking about. Even if I don't fully agree on the beliefs it is still good to understand them and study them. So once again I thank you for you explanation and the time you took to type it for me.
Sincerely,
Stephanie
You are welcome!
"Preach the word of God wherever you go, even use words, if necessary"
Francis of Assisi
:-)
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