[bmwservis]

Hi, thanks for the replies and links, I will go through them at night time when I am winding down for sleep, I had a read through this article that was stickied in the "What is Buddhism?" thread last night

http://www.dhammasukha.org/Study/Tal...T-MAR03-TS.htm

I will have to read through it again since there was a lot to take in but it was very valuable information, especially the idea of not trying to control emotions but accepting that they are there.


@Aloka

I'm not Buddhist but the few times I read up on Buddhism I tend to come away with something practical, I was raised Roman Catholic and still pray in the traditional Catholic way (which is kinda goofy I guess) but I figure it can't hurt to ask for peace for the people around me.

I don't eat meat and I am pretty calm so I could probably say I was Buddhist and hang out in coffee shops but that would be dishonest

I'm just in a real dilemma about having children or not so I thought it worth asking about to see how others view it. I see children and family as a very positive (though sometimes chaotic) part of life, I'm a guy so it's not like maternal urge I don't think, I just loved being a child and find the idea of not having a family kinda difficult.

At the moment I am thinking to leave it to circumstance, if I enter into a kind relationship that I feel would be good for a child then it's maybe morally okay since the child would be born into a kind environment.


But, if everyone stopped having children, would everyone just reincarnate as whales and frogs and other creatures? Maybe its better to provide human experiences since as humans we can become self aware. On the other hand Bundokji mentioned attachment which is an incredibly painful feeling, I would not want my children to have to feel pain at my eventual death.

I really can't 'logic' this one out, it seems 50\50 either way :\