I didn’t mean that you didn’t get Buddhism, but that those who have no concept of what it actually is and meant to ultimately achieve don’t… but this misunderstanding has worked out well, in you sharing your much-appreciated knowledge on the dissemination of the teachings.
Let me take the intellectual issue first.
People often get it wrong but prophets are the most important parts of the religions, even more than respective Gods itself. That begs a question. Why so?The answer is that it is not the gods but prophets who bring these religions in this world. It were Jesus and Mohammad who founded Christianity and Islam, neither God nor Allah by themselves. So, you have to believe the prophets first before believing the Gods and religions. It cannot be the other way around. There cannot be any Islam without Mohammad and neither any Christianity without Jesus. And, that applies to all religions. You have to believe the massanger first before believing in the dilevered massage. It would be illogical to claim that I believe only in the massage, not in the massanger.
Why are messengers always martyrs? I guess that’s why I probably look to god first, before I look to the messenger to see what they’ve got to say.
[The important thing to remember here is that if you follow this route and believe in the prophets first, you become religious by default. In the same way, if you are believing in karma and Dharma, you are accepting that what Buddha and Mahavira said about Karma is true. That makes you a religious person, whether you like it or not. Because, the concept of Karma has no place in pure western intellectual philosophy, it is an out and out eastern religious doctrine.
I’ll go with the pre-Vedic notion of the karmic/dharmic concept… as passed down by my ancestors, which knows not of religion, but of an ideal.
Not all in the subcontinent follow a religion but local customs and conduct… as I’m sure you know.
[b]Wikipedia says:
The word Hindu is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, many practitioners refer to their religion as Sanātana Dharma, “the eternal way” which refers to the idea that its origins lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts.[/b]
Secondly, other than Buddhism but in all other Indian religions, the concept of Karma goes beyond one life but spreads its jurisdiction to all previous and future incarnations. Now again, how one is supposed to be a irreligious and believing in incarnations?
I have no belief system on the matter…
We release energy when we die… I know that much, but nothing more besides, beyond that point.
MagsJ, unlike west, there is no pure intellectual philosophy or philosophers in the east, especially in india. All philosophers were religious scholars first, though they covered all non religious verticals also. Both of Kamsutra and Ayurveda were written by religious sages, not any medical professional.
Just because the Rishis were revered by many religions, doesn’t mean that they themselves were religious… the Jains, for instance, revered many Thirthankaras that weren’t Jain at all. And just to add to the confusion further… many of the newer religions borrowed historical figures from pasts, and even countries, other than their own.
The ancient concept of Religion actually meant Custom, and in the last few thousand years became Religion, as we know it today… so initially socio-political, not dogmatic… that came later, with the arrival of the newer tribes on the subcontinental-block. ; )
[b]Wikipedia says:
Dravidian folk religion. The early Dravidian religion refers to a broad range of belief systems which existed in South Asia before the arrival of Indo-Aryans. … The worship of tutelary deities and sacred flora and fauna in Hinduism is also recognized as a survival of the pre-Vedic Dravidian religion.[/b]