Thread: About Religion
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Old 01-22-2007, 02:05 PM   #13
rkzenrage
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Really, and you think that prayer beads are used for prayer?
Semantics are fun for you, yes?

Many people who follow Buddhism have other beliefs that are unrelated to the Path. Most are hold-overs from the past from that area. Many believe in reincarnation, ancestors, there are Christian Buddhists (my wife is one), Jewish Buddhists, there are a lot of Native Americans that have close bonds with the Tibetan Community, Zen and the Taoist community have their separate beliefs.
It does not matter.
The fact is that the Path is irrelevant to your belief system when it comes to what you believe happens after you die or how the "world"
began.
Tibet's Bon heritage is very rich and their form of Buddhism tends to be taught with that language because that is what those people understand.
However, it is not dogma and they are not told that those are absolutes... it is just taught in that area in those parables... just like in areas of China, America and other regions there are other parables for other peoples.
The true Dharma, in its basic form has nothing to say of the afterlife, origin or anything of that type.
In fact Siddhartha, the first teaching Buddha, states to question all dogma, even his.
Those who treat it as a religion are tolerated by monks, waiting for them to "abandon that boat upon the farther shore of enlightenment".
I am curious, where did you read that His Holiness can choose His honorific?
If you have not read the Pali or, at least, the Dhammapada, I suggest you hold-off on the comparisons to the Bible. There can be none.
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