Hatter wrote

(V) what does the Budda mean by this?

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V:

My atheist and theist friends. NEVER take anything I say on faith.

Always verify by testing.

Everything I tell you can be tested by practical application of the
wisdom I offer to you.

Don't rely on the egos of men...even when it is supposedly from
Buddha
or Jesus.

....My discussion of this topic from an earlier post.

(...) Writes:

"Should I study Buddhism in the East, as I am afraid the Western
Buddhism is just a watered version of real Buddhism?"

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Real Buddhism???

Buddhism has and will always evolve.

It evolves from the egos of men.

99.9%% of the Buddhists are just 'playing at Buddhism' and are so far
off the road to classical Buddhism that their practice holds little
or
no resemblance to what the Buddha taught.

After all, what do monks have to do other than beg, eat, sleep,
excrete, think, not think (meditate) and write.

It is through this constant need to 'think and write' that the Pali
canon grew to 20,000+ pages and nearly 30,000 pages in China.

The canon contains nothing the Buddha wrote down.

It contains a small amount of recitation from his butler Amanda, but
nothing original from the Buddha.

The rest is all from the egos of monks.

So it is natural that Buddhism has evolved into a watered down
version
of itself that the Buddha himself would hardly recognize.

When this classical Buddhism became too hard - Mahayana Buddhism was
invented.

When Mahayana Buddhism became too hard - Pure Land Buddhism was
invented

When Pure Land Buddhism became too hard - Won Buddhism was invented.
(just to name a few)

But for the average folks...meaning 99.9%% of the Buddhists. Pain is
decreased in proportion to your efforts at perfecting the eightfold
path.

I believe the traditional views of Buddhist beliefs of escaping
samsara are dead as far as practical application for the most part of
society. To escape rebirth is impractical for the vast, vast majority
of Buddhists.

I'll give you an example you can all relate to.

If you are reading this you have no chance of escaping rebirth...you
are too full of passion to escape anything.

What you 'should' be doing as a self proclaimed 'serious Buddhist
practitioner' is; instead of reading and writing on the computer you
would be meditating on the three liberation's.

By meditating on emptiness, formlessness and passionlessness, this
will allow you, with a few lifetimes of diligent practice, to
recognize the three liberation's of the ego and the dharma as being
empty, the dharma as formless and this eventually the recognition of
living is an unworthy desire as our existence is characterized by
suffering.

What is the path of classical Buddhism as the Buddha taught?

down to us it was:

To become a renunciate and practice the 4 noble truths

http://www.4truths.com/

and through the perfection of the eightfold path

http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/eightfoldpath.html

to free oneself from the 10 fetters that bind a person to cyclic
existence

http://buddhism.about.com/od/keyconcepts/a/Fetters.htm

and thus become an arhat and enlightened

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arhat

and through a few lifetimes of such practice to extinguish
reincarnation, leave the cycle of samsara

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/samsara.html

and reach nirvana.

http://www.acay.com.au/~silkroad/buddha/p_nirvana.htm

...that is how the pain of life ceases. (finally, as the story goes)

Personally, I draw from many spiritual traditions myself, including
monotheism, Buddhism, Taoism as well as atheism. (secular humanism)

See:

http://jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/index.php?topic=4.0

http://jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/index.php?topic=504.0

My main focus of my Buddhist practice is concentrated on the 3
pillars
of Buddhism that are common to all schools of Buddhist practice: I've
settled on the essence of Buddhism and that is what I work on and
find
much peace with this type of simplified practice.

3 Pillars of Buddhism

1- Practicing mindfulness and meditation to develop peace and self
awareness of our own true nature.

2- Accepting the liberating wisdom of impermanence and practicing
non-
clinging and a lessening of craving and desires.

3- The development of compassion for others.

Buddhists are not required to believe or not believe in god, so
anyone
can make use of this philosophy irrespective of their religious
beliefs or lack thereof. Buddha was not a god and just a man, so not
need to worship him unless you are a 'Pure Land Buddhist.'

In addition to the 3 pillars, we can use the eightfold path to guide
us.

The Eightfold Path

1. Right View
2. Right Intention
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

How can you differentiate right from wrong?

By peace.

You learn what destroys your peace and the peace of others as well as
what promotes you inner peace and the inner peace of others.

Do you need a teacher for that?

Or the Pope to tell you?

Or just listen to peace as the best teacher?

The 5 precepts are the 'commandments' more or less for Buddhists.
Although you are not commanded to do a thing. If you wish to live at
peace, then proceed the best you can - but it is your choice.

No one to boss you other than you...you alone are in control of your
inner peace.

The Five Precepts

1. Refrain from Killing:
2. Refrain from Stealing:
3. Refrain from Sexual Misconduct:
4. Refrain from False Speech:
5. Refrain from the Use of Intoxicants:

Buddhism provides this tool, which is just one out of the many tools
I
use for peace development. For once we have found a contentment
within
and with all and are at peace - we are progressing on the road to
enlightenment.

You can also tell when you have "arrived" by your practice telling
you
so. Does your practice revolve around actually practicing what you
have learned to generate peace within or are you on a never ending
journey of always looking and never finding?

Once I am at peace, I can share with others about finding peace for
themselves, which is the secondary reason I practice.

I have no interest in practicing Buddhism for extinguishing
reincarnation.

These "fear based" reasons for being a Buddhist are not authentic or
natural - the persons actions are based on fear or negative
consequences otherwise they would not do them.

My actions are based on inner peace and if I stray - there goes my
peace - it is my choice.

I enjoy life and realize that due to natural law, suffering comes
about as part of the process.

The Taoists have a saying for this, "fleas come with the dog."

So, I accept there are growth pains as a fair trade off for the
privilege of living and I would enjoy any reincarnation if given the
chance.

Buddhism helps makes this trade off of life and pain more in my favor
by lending me support to live a life at peace. I do not practice
Buddhism to earn merit for the next life - I practice Buddhism for my
own peace generation in THIS LIFE.

I'd like to point out that my views are not the orthodox or
traditional views on these subjects as I am an Agnostic Freethinker.

Also see:

http://jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/index.php?topic=9.0

Take care,

V (Male)

Agnostic Freethinker
Practical Philosopher
AA#2