<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Yoshizen&#039;s Blog]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://yoshizen.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[yoshizen]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://yoshizen.wordpress.com/author/yoshizen/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Is Buddhism a Religion&nbsp;?]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://yoshizen.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/img_7148-001.jpg"><img loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="4437" data-permalink="https://yoshizen.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/is-buddhism-a-religion/img_7148-001/" data-orig-file="https://yoshizen.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/img_7148-001.jpg" data-orig-size="800,408" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Picasa&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 5D Mark II&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1332687506&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;70&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;200&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.004&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}" data-image-title="IMG_7148-001" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://yoshizen.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/img_7148-001.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://yoshizen.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/img_7148-001.jpg?w=800" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4437" title="IMG_7148-001" src="https://yoshizen.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/img_7148-001.jpg?w=720&#038;h=367" alt="" width="720" height="367" srcset="https://yoshizen.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/img_7148-001.jpg?w=720&amp;h=367 720w, https://yoshizen.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/img_7148-001.jpg?w=150&amp;h=77 150w, https://yoshizen.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/img_7148-001.jpg?w=300&amp;h=153 300w, https://yoshizen.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/img_7148-001.jpg?w=768&amp;h=392 768w, https://yoshizen.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/img_7148-001.jpg 800w" sizes="(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px" /></a></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>I spent half of my life to find what is Zen. </strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>As my understanding of the Zen deepen and the points what </strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>Lord Buddha taught then became clear, I realized many mix-ups and the confusions </strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>surrounding the Buddhism. </strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><span style="color:#333333;"> (Please read the previous post to see<a href="https://yoshizen.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/what-lord-buddha-originally-taught/"> What was the original teachings ? = Scientific Universal Truth)</a><br />
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong><span style="color:#000080;">Provably the most controversial question I can make </span>is, whether the Buddhism </strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>(in its original teachings) was a religion at all in the first place ?</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#ffffff;">[]</span></p>
<p>The answer to this question must lay in the title what</p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>Lord Syakya-muni Buddha was given = [ BUDDHA] the enlightened one, not a Divine figure</strong></span></p>
<p>even not a reincarnated Divine figure, such as Brahman&#8217;s.</p>
<p>Instead, he was described as a person even the God Brahman came and pay a respect.</p>
<p><strong></strong>Hindu people regarding him as a Guru, the great Teacher.</p>
<p>Not as an imaginary Godly figure but a <span style="color:#000080;"><strong>historical real person.</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#ffffff;">[]</span></p>
<p>Another fact to consider this question is, in his core teaching of  [<span style="color:#000080;"><strong>Four Noble Truth</strong></span>], of which</p>
<p>one of them defined that the [<span style="color:#000080;"><strong>Life is to have suffering, illness, getting old and to die</strong></span>] &#8212;&#8211; what sort</p>
<p>of the person was able to say<strong> such extremely blunt harsh words ?  = sound not very popular.<br />
</strong></p>
<p>In contrast,  moneymaking Guru needs to attract a lots of worshipers hence resorting with soothing sweet</p>
<p>words. = Lords of attractive promises, Salvation, Heaven, Mythical Power, New Opportunities, Love</p>
<p>etc etc, while saying<strong> “Believe me” </strong>and in the same time<strong> “ Otherwise you go to the Hell ”</strong></p>
<p><span style="color:#333333;">The same tactics of  fraudsters = [</span><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong><span style="color:#333333;">Carrot and Whip</span></strong></span>] = with those [Words], Guru mislead the people</p>
<p>=<strong> This is what the Religion is = “If you believe, it is True”.  </strong> ( Sorry to use harsh unreserved</p>
<p>words here, because I don&#8217;t need to be popular nor drive Mercedes neither  😀 )<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<p><span style="color:#ffffff;">[]</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>Lord Buddha didn&#8217;t need to tell this kind of mambo-jumbo at all. Because he was not teaching </strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>a Belief System but just the TRUTH</strong> </span>and that was the reason, on his death bed he gave an order to his</p>
<p>disciples [<span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>Don&#8217;t believe the words, but think yourself</strong></span>] and [<span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>Don&#8217;t worship me</strong></span>].</p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>What Lord Buddha taught was a Technique to live the life in Peace, and the Truth of the Life.</strong></span></p>
<p>Like a teaching of how to ride a bicycle, and the knowledges of the road and its terrain ==&gt; having learned</p>
<p>this technique, anybody can have<span style="color:#000080;"><strong> a freedom to go around by their will.</strong> </span></p>
<p>And knowing the road-map and the condition of the road, by which people can chose the best way to</p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>reach their destination, while avoiding obstacles and dangers.</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#ffffff;">[]</span></p>
<p>So that, the teachings of Lord Buddha can be applicable to anybody, any people in any persuasion.</p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>Since it was not a belief system but the Wisdom = Truth of the life. <span style="color:#000080;"> (How the Mind works,</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong><span style="color:#000080;">and How the existences, include us are operating as a Rational Interactive System)</span><br />
</strong></span></p>
<p>And this is why it is appealing to even to the people of another religion, who is</p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>searching the road-map and the direction.</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#ffffff;">[]</span></p>
<p>But Lord Buddha did know that his teachings itself is not a salvation by its own.</p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>It is not his teachings save, but </strong></span><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>the people themselves</strong></span><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>,</strong></span><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>the rider of the bicycle</strong></span><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>.</strong></span></p>
<p>And in his teachings there is no strong <strong>Carrots or Whip</strong> = no Heaven or Hell = no Get-Rich scheme</p>
<p>or God&#8217;s Punishment of which those illusion can scare and drive the people.</p>
<p><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>Lord Buddha didn&#8217;t use an illusion or fear, nor Placebo effects to fool the people, </strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>but aimed to change their Habit = Habit can be changed only by the willing person.</strong></span></p>
<p>With this reason, he<span style="color:#000080;"><strong> intentionally put a [MUST] in one of [Four Noble Truth] = </strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong>[<span style="color:#0000ff;">The One has to actively cherish and learn this teachings</span>] </strong>&#8212;&#8211;<span style="color:#333333;"> This is a clear indication of<br />
</span></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"> <strong>[How Buddhism was not a religion] = </strong><span style="color:#333333;">All the</span> <span style="color:#333333;">Religion says &#8221; God will give you the benefit, </span></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><span style="color:#333333;">otherwise sends you to the Hell&#8221;. <span style="color:#000080;"><strong> But Buddhism doesn&#8217;t have a God to undertake this.  </strong> </span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>So that, the matter was not a Belief, but the<span style="color:#ff0000;"> Mind-set and the Technique to get it.</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>It was more like to recruit a member for a fancy sports club.</strong></span><span style="color:#000080;"><span style="color:#333333;"><strong><br />
</strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#ffffff;">[]</span></p>
<p>As everybody remember, it was not easy to learn how to ride a bicycle = unless you wished and had</p>
<p>eager will to ride, you couldn&#8217;t master it.  And the way of  learning / practicing  Buddhism is rather laborious</p>
<p>continuous work<strong> = you can&#8217;t master it quick manner, regardless how big the donation was.</strong></p>
<p><span style="color:#ffffff;">[]</span></p>
<p>Yet another difficulty of the Lord Buddha&#8217;s teaching was,  as a nature of learning a practice,</p>
<p><span style="color:#000080;"><strong> it was hard to teach in the words.</strong></span>   (You can not find any written explanation, how to ride a bicycle.)</p>
<p>Even worse, practice itself was not the goal but a process to change a state of Mind, which is invisible.</p>
<p>Who can describe this. ( On top of this, there was no notion of  [SUBCONSCIOUS] then ) = Only the way</p>
<p>was to observe how  Lord Buddha was doing,  and try to do the same.</p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong> Still, the teachings has been kept by the people who actually mastered the practice.</strong></span></p>
<p>If you try again and again, soon or later,  suddenly you become able to ride a bicycle.</p>
<p>Because, as a nature, our body has its sense of balance and dynamic controls.</p>
<p>And once you mastered it,  it is impossible to go back to the state of  [can&#8217;t ride]  😀</p>
<p>Same as riding a bicycle, Lord Buddha&#8217;s teachings are the universal technique applicable to the whole</p>
<p>human, <span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>in</strong></span> <span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>other words,  it is the Universal Truth,  like a Scientific Truth of the Gravity.</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>= Because, how human mind works, and its controls are common to all the human being.</strong></span></p>
<p>Lord Buddha&#8217;s teachings can not be regarded as a kind of religion.</p>
<p>Whether the person chose it, believe it or not, it is there and working. (as Dharma and the Karma IS )</p>
<p>Therefore, classify his teachings as mere religion and try to monopolize it,  is a mistake.</p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>Lord Buddha&#8217;s teachings are the asset of the whole human being = </strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>it is much more than a religion.</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>___/\___</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#ffffff;">[]</span></p>
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