Originally posted by mahawarrior:
Buddhism preaches against blind-faith. The Buddha told us that we
should just try out his teachings, if we feel that it works, then
we follow it. We should not believe him just because he's the
Buddha.
But there seem to be so many things in Buddhism that requires
'blind-faith'. Take 'Karma', or 'Samsara' for example...we really
cannot be certain that it exist. Talks about 'getting out of
Samsara' or 'purifying one's negative Karma' is of no different
from talking about 'going to heaven to be with God', or 'atoning
for one's original sins' to me.
Going to heaven in Buddhism is still part of the 6 realms of
Samsara. One who does good deeds, accumulate wholesome karma by
practising the 5 precepts, 10 virtuous deeds, generosity, filial
piety, etc, all these can accumulate the good karma to be reborn in
the Sensual plane's heavens (the first 6 heavens).
One who furthermore practises meditative absorptions and then
enters into the various Jhanas from the 1st Jhana upwards all the
way to the 8th Jhana, the plane of the Neither Perception nor
Non-Perception, these people can remain in the form and formless
jhanic planes for a very very long time.
However, Nirvana transcends all 31 planes of existence because all
these planes of existence are still within the 6 realms of Samsara,
where sentient beings there are bound by karmic laws and under
endless cycles of rebirth, until they start practising the
Buddhadharma, and then attain Liberation, Nirvana, and transcends
these samsaric cycle.
Therefore the main difference between other religions is this.
Other religions have valid teachings that encourages people to
avoid evil doings and do all that is good. That will result in
rebirth in the celestial realms. However, they do not emphasize on
the purification of the mind, on the realisations of our true
nature, they do not stress on Liberation or Nirvana.
And this Liberation or Nirvana is not somewhere far away, even
though it is known as 'transcending all planes'. It can realised
here and now in our very life! The Buddha showed us the path, many
people practised it, and uncountable of them have attained
enlightenment, liberation, Nirvana, up till today. Liberation is
not some faraway places, not some afterlife thing, it can be
realised in the here and now. The Buddha has the way. 
It is the way towards complete emancipation and the
highest transcendental bliss.
There are a lot of people who have experienced Liberation in their
very lifetime, there is no reason that it is not possible for any
of us. One needs to have confidence in the triple gems, but only
when you truly practise and see the truths yourself will you be
doubtless.
As Neutral_Onliner said:
Originally posted by neutral_onliner:
for those who do not understand the meaning of ehipassiko , it means [b]come and
see.
The quality of Dhamma is that it's inviting us to check it out.
This is a very strong characteristic of the Buddha's teaching.
There's no heavy-handed demand: "Believe this." The faith element
doesn't have the same role as in some other religions. We're asked,
we're invited,to examine the teachings to see whether they fit.
This is also an expression of the confidence that the Buddha and
arahants had in their Dhamma; they realized it for themselves and
know that we can, too.
[/b]
Does dharma work as it claims? Practise and see for yourself!
Like I said the more you practise, the more you know it's true, the
more confident you are.
Chanting prayers or mantra does not make logical sense to me.
Those who claim that daily chanting of sutras had benefitted them,
how do we know that it's not all in the mind? People of other
religion also claimed that their prayers has got miraculous
effects.
The main purpose of chanting has nothing to do with praying for
mundane benefits. Chanting can be said to be a form of meditation.
Through chanting one eliminates one's discursive thoughts to attain
one-pointedness. This is a very important quality that a
practitioner must cultivate. A non-moving mind. In this way, that
mantra is then effective.
Seriously, I want to get rid of my sufferings. I want to put a
permanent stop to all that I'm going through right now. However, I
feel that selective practising of the Dharma (only practising parts
of the Dharma that I personally believe in) cannot totally remove
my sufferings. But on the other hand, I fear wasting my time and
effort on doing stuff that may not help me in any ways.
Dharma practise is not a waste of time at all, but rather, it is
the only thing that is truly meaningful in the deepest sense!
Because whatever you achieve in this world is transient and
fleeting, and cannot be brought over the the next life. You can
only bring your Wisdom, Blessings, Karma, and Causes and Conditions
to the next life. Other things like your possessions, your family,
your spouse, your fame, all these things cannot be brought
over.
Also, would you agree that Blissful living is the most meaningful?
Buddhism aims to bring a total transformation of everyone so that
everyone will be able to experience joy and bliss in our everyday
living. I think that's what every single being in the world will
ultimately want.
Please read:
http://www.jenchen.org.sg/buddhism.htm
What is blissful culture?
Why does humanity need a blissful culture?
The culture of purifying the human mind is blissful
culture
Humanity is constantly seeking happiness in this world. However, no
matter how hard it tries, it is somehow unable to find happiness.
Instead, it encounters calamities and more calamities. In fact, all
these calamities are the creation of the mind.
In the beginning of this earth, there were only the heavenly and
human realms of existence. The realms of hell, hungry ghost, animal
and asura did not exist. But, as humanity progressed through time,
the human mind began to change. They developed more and more
affinity for evil - greed, anger, ignorance, delusion and foolish
thoughts which gave rise to the acts of killing, stealing and
sexual misconduct. Happiness gradually diminished and the six
realms of cyclic existence evolved out of humanitys evil
mind.
In todays society, the unhappiness of human beings largely results
from the countless evil deeds that he has committed. These evil
deeds stem mainly from three karma - our bodily action, speech and
thought. Thoughts are basically our thinking. If our thoughts are
filled with evil thinkings, these will be manifested in our
actions. For example, our unkind thoughts of someone may translate
into harsh words from our mouth or even into a painful action with
our hands. When we do these, we are creating evil karma.
Our thoughts generate greed, anger and delusions. Through our
speech - in the form of telling lies, frivolous talk, slandering
and rude or harsh speech; and through our bodily actions by way of
killing, stealing and sexual misconduct. This is just a simple
explanation. It would be endless to go into details. These three
karma bring upon ourselves a lot of sufferings and unhappiness.
Therefore, if humanity wants to achieve happiness in life, then he
should try to eradicate all these evil deeds which stem from greed,
anger, ignorance, killing, stealing and sexual misconduct.
Many religions teach us to do good and avoid doing bad. Buddhism,
in particular, besides teaching us to refrain from all evil deeds
and to do all good deeds, also teaches us to purify our minds. Once
we have a healthy mental culture, naturally our minds will not be
filled with greed, anger, ignorance, and other evil thoughts and
actions. We must be aware that the mind controls our speech and
actions, it all arises from our minds. Minds are also our thoughts.
It is because humanity lacks wisdom and awareness that we are
constantly deceived by our minds. We fail to understand the real
meaning of karma, or cause and effect. We do not know if our
actions will hurt ourselves or others; or if they are beneficial or
harmful. Hence, unhappiness and sufferings follow.
