DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post

**Herimoisige** · 09-05-2011, 11:37 AM

Hello Kaarine,

Thank you kindly for being so generous and sharing your knowledge with me. I already started reading the book and i think its quite impressive. The book seems to be emphasizing on the importance of practicing rather than reading:

You are welcome Bundokji. It is a book I have found really useful. Hope that, going through it, can make easier the understanding of the teachings of Buddha.

However, there is something i ve read in the book and started worrying me which is the methodolgy Buddhism use to obtain knowledge. The buddha has already given us his conclusion regarding the true nature of things (reality) through the four noble truths and the three universal charachterstic and then he showed us the bath to exmine his claims. The problem with this methodolgy is that it puts the cart before the horse!!! The correct way is to make your research and then reach a answer (this is what the Buddha has done), not having the answer and then trying to prove it through research (what his followers have been trying to do). The teachings of Buddha are about ethical conduct, contemplation and meditation. The way to practice its teachings is through understanding, then practice what has been understood and then evaluation of the results given by such understanding and its practice.

The evaluation is quite simple. It is about the achievement of a peaceful state of mind, no craving, no clinging and awareness of the present moment; those will bring you sooner or later to have a peaceful existence within yourself and with the environment and the loosening of the learnt sense of selfhood.

The understanding is the very first step. It gives you confidence in the teachings. You can experience glimpses of peacefulness that can encourage you to further understanding, practice and evaluation.

The teachings are numerous and varied and are given at many levels for the mundane and the supramundane; for monks, lay people, householders, man and women, married and single. Some teachings fits better than others with us. Patience, quietness and contemplation. Do not rush the teaching. Let it do it's proper work within yourself. Give yourself time. It is needed confidence, not blind faith, and confidence comes with evaluation.

A good field for contemplation and investigation is the notion about the ultimate nature of things suggested by Buddha in terms of impermanence. Impermanence will never guarantee satisfactoriness so that clinging to any sort of thing or idea will result sooner or later in an unsatisfactory experience. Buddha encourages us to review our relationship with the mundane reality.

So if i started studying and doing my own research on the true nature of things and then reach a conclusion that differs from the one the Buddha has given us then its ME who has to be wrong!!! have you ever considered that the Buddha himself might be wrong and that everything he experienced was mere hallucinations??!! (no offence or disrespect here but a genuine question)

To be honest with you being a skeptic and my lack of belief in anything did not make my life any easier!!! I am skeptic too. I do not work with blind faith but with understanding, practice and evaluation. A core aspect of the teachings of Buddha is to test them. But to test them through our own research it is needed to proceed under the guidelines that Buddha has given us to practice his teachings. It is like science too. If we have a protocol to do genetic engineering so to come to a result, we need to proceed in the precise way that it is stated. If we have come to the conclusion that the teaching has no sense then we can leave it. Some teachings do not work properly maybe because it is not the proper time to test them until further understandings have been realized.

09-05-2011, 11:37 AM	#18
Herimoisige Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 412 Senior Member	Hello Kaarine, Thank you kindly for being so generous and sharing your knowledge with me. I already started reading the book and i think its quite impressive. The book seems to be emphasizing on the importance of practicing rather than reading: You are welcome Bundokji. It is a book I have found really useful. Hope that, going through it, can make easier the understanding of the teachings of Buddha. However, there is something i ve read in the book and started worrying me which is the methodolgy Buddhism use to obtain knowledge. The buddha has already given us his conclusion regarding the true nature of things (reality) through the four noble truths and the three universal charachterstic and then he showed us the bath to exmine his claims. The problem with this methodolgy is that it puts the cart before the horse!!! The correct way is to make your research and then reach a answer (this is what the Buddha has done), not having the answer and then trying to prove it through research (what his followers have been trying to do). The teachings of Buddha are about ethical conduct, contemplation and meditation. The way to practice its teachings is through understanding, then practice what has been understood and then evaluation of the results given by such understanding and its practice. The evaluation is quite simple. It is about the achievement of a peaceful state of mind, no craving, no clinging and awareness of the present moment; those will bring you sooner or later to have a peaceful existence within yourself and with the environment and the loosening of the learnt sense of selfhood. The understanding is the very first step. It gives you confidence in the teachings. You can experience glimpses of peacefulness that can encourage you to further understanding, practice and evaluation. The teachings are numerous and varied and are given at many levels for the mundane and the supramundane; for monks, lay people, householders, man and women, married and single. Some teachings fits better than others with us. Patience, quietness and contemplation. Do not rush the teaching. Let it do it's proper work within yourself. Give yourself time. It is needed confidence, not blind faith, and confidence comes with evaluation. A good field for contemplation and investigation is the notion about the ultimate nature of things suggested by Buddha in terms of impermanence. Impermanence will never guarantee satisfactoriness so that clinging to any sort of thing or idea will result sooner or later in an unsatisfactory experience. Buddha encourages us to review our relationship with the mundane reality. So if i started studying and doing my own research on the true nature of things and then reach a conclusion that differs from the one the Buddha has given us then its ME who has to be wrong!!! have you ever considered that the Buddha himself might be wrong and that everything he experienced was mere hallucinations??!! (no offence or disrespect here but a genuine question) To be honest with you being a skeptic and my lack of belief in anything did not make my life any easier!!! I am skeptic too. I do not work with blind faith but with understanding, practice and evaluation. A core aspect of the teachings of Buddha is to test them. But to test them through our own research it is needed to proceed under the guidelines that Buddha has given us to practice his teachings. It is like science too. If we have a protocol to do genetic engineering so to come to a result, we need to proceed in the precise way that it is stated. If we have come to the conclusion that the teaching has no sense then we can leave it. Some teachings do not work properly maybe because it is not the proper time to test them until further understandings have been realized.
	Quote