Anti- Buddhism
Traditions
 

 

Buddhism:

    Gautama Buddha left us a good psychological method to overcome suffering and the problems of life on earth, and to get away of the Caste System in India... he did not tried to start a new religion, he purposely never even mentioned the words religion, god, soul, the after-death...

    Gautama preached not a religion, but a system devoid of "authority", without gods and rituals, devoid of the "supernatural"... "by this you shall know that a man is not my disciple, that he tries to work a miracle", said Buddha... he preached a psychological system of "intense self-effort", "whatever your caste, he told his followers, you can make it in this life-time"... no fatalism like in Hinduism!... man does not have to believe in any god, but in himself.

    In fact,  Gautama was "a rebel" against the complicated way and rituals of Hinduism, he took away the gods, priests, rituals, candles, incense, the caste system... and this is why today in India there is practically no Buddhism...

    Gautama always evaded the task to define the blessed state of Nirvana, always avoided discussing either God or life after death... Gautama Buddha's System

The Anti-Buddhism:

    But after Gautama Buddha, his followers, with the many holy scriptures and rules, have made out of his simple system a "religion" full of "rituals to many gods, making a god even out of Gautama... with intense "authority", and practice of the "occult", with much "supernatural" and magic, and prayer wheel and prayer bids, and candles, and incense, and complicated worship rituals to the gods... and the principle of the "middle way" between the extremes of ascetics and self-indulgence has been converted into the hard way of a most rigid "monasticism"... making a real "Anti-Buddhism" out of Buddhism...

    Yes, men can't live without religion, and many Buddhists have made a religion out of the beautiful and practical teachings of Gautama... in fact, Buddhism as a world religion has been shaped less by the words of its founder than by the requirements of its supporters

    The disciples of Gautama have introduced the "bodhisattvas", the "helpers": They are humans who have worked towards enlightenment and nirvana. But rather than enter nirvana, they come back to earth in re-incarnations and bring their store of wisdom, power and merit to help others along the same path... they are like Saints, worshiped like gods... Gautama Buddha was of course the first bodhisattva, the first god!

    In fact, the Buddha was converted into a Divinity comparable to the God of the monotheistic religions.

   And even some traditions after Gautama have converted the final Nirvana into a Christian Heaven, when Nirvana for Gautama,  after many re-incarnations, is an after-life status, meaning "nothingness", and this is what you will get in Buddhism after your last death... no more the curse of reincarnations, and not Heaven, but the union with an impersonal Brahman, a Nirvana like the Hindu Moksha, without any identity, like a drop of water into the Ocean, "to disappear as a person", unrecognizable by anybody, not even by yourself, because there is no more consciousness of being, no more "self", just Nirvana as "Nothingness"!. Nirvana

  

Traditions after the Buddha... the Anti-Buddhism:

    In a few years after the death of Gautama, Buddhism grew from five persons to over twenty thousand, with 500 missionaries... There are today 324 million Buddhists with several "traditions" after Gautama Buddha, started by his followers, and many of them are actually "Anti-Buddhism":
   
However, there are some basic teachings accepted by almost all. These include: The Three Marks of Existence, The Four Noble Truths, The Five Skandhas (precepts or commandments), The Six Realms, The Eightfold Path, and the Ten Perfections

    Enlightenment and Nirvana for Gautama was very simple, he got it "in a flash" under the Bo tree, after sitting in meditation for 7 weeks, and life's problems were no longer an enigma to him.
    But it is not so simple... the many followers, traditions, branches and sects found out they need years of hard work, and thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns dedicate their whole life with vows of poverty, celibacy, and obedience to obtain it... and, most often, after all that hard work, they reincarnate again and again, the greatest curse for a Buddhist.
       

    1- Hinayana, Lesser Vehicle, (Theravada): Emphasizes the writings of the Buddha, the closest to Buddha's original teachings, in southern Asia, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia.
    2- Mahayana, First and second century after Christ, is the Greater Vehicle: Emphasizes the spirit of Buddha, by far the largest branch of Buddhism, in China, Japan, Tibet, Korea, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand.
    Mahayana introduced the doctrine of "bodhisattva"or "helpers": Enlightened perfect beings who become gods, which is an open rebellion against the teachings of Gautama Buddha.
     3- Vajrayana, Diamond Vehicle, the third Vehicle, fourth century after Christ, Tantrism. It borrows the Hindu belief in the goddess Shakti sexual power and developed a cult devoted to idols, magic and sex. It has been condemned as a degeneration of Buddhism, and indeed it is an anti-Buddhism.
    
4- Tibetan Buddhism: In Tibet and Japan, added to Tantrism the primitive animistic religions of the Tibet, the magic "bon", and some "Mahayana" doctrines to create the most openly occultist of all Eastern religions. On top of it created the super-authority of the "Dalai Lama", a god-on-earth, heading a hierarchy of priests, destroying the "religion without authority" that Gautama the Buddha proposed.  
     5-Nicheren Buddhism: In the 13th century a Japanese, Nichiren, founded a school whose aims are the opposite of Gautama Buddha: To satisfy all desires, because "happy individuals can build a happy world"; with emphasis on acquiring wealth, power, personal happiness, pleasures, political power...
     6- Pure Land
(Sukhavati, Jodo, Ching-tu): One enters the Pure Land through faith in the god Amitabha, or Amida or Buddha,  by repeating the "membutsu", "Namu-Amida-Butsu",  "Have faith in Amida, and you will be saved", they proclaim, imitating Jesus Christ... in a total contradiction of the teachings of the Buddha.
   
 7- Zen Buddhism, from Japan had become in the mid-20th century perhaps the best known of the Buddhists schools in the Western world... "Zen" means "be nothing, think nothing", and "Zazen" "seated meditation"; its adherents claim Zen to be the quintessential of Buddhism... and it may be a real Buddhism, not an anti-Buddhism.
     8- "Folk" Buddhism: Besides the "official" Buddhism, there is the "Folk" Buddhism, very popular. It is "animistic", with magic to spell spirits and devils, with many gods, divination, witchcraft... and it is lived with Taoism, Confucianism or  Shintoism...
     -
Finally, Hinduism: The Buddha, for the Hindus, is the 9th incarnation of Vishnu... of course, openly against the will and teachings of Gautama Buddha himself... The 7th and 8th incarnations of Vishnu for the Hindus are Rama and Krishna... and the 10th incarnation and the last one, will be "Kalkin", still to come. .

    Mahayana "bodhisattva", "helpers":

    Mahayana introduced the doctrine of "bodhisattva", "helpers": Enlightened perfect beings, who choose to help others reincarnating, instead of entering Nirvana (i.e. the Dalai Lama or Amitabha). With this doctrine, Mahayana makes a god out of the Buddha and out of anyone who is enlightened, in open rebellion against the teachings of Gautama Buddha

  All human beings participate in the Buddha's nature; that is to say, all humans have the essence of Buddha within themselves. Thus the goal of Mahayana Buddhism is for everyone to realize their true Buddha nature.

    The Buddha was a bodhisattva, a helper. In contrast to the Hinayana view, Mahayana holds that Gautama Buddha  did not just attain nirvana, but he returned to this world and helped other people to attain nirvana... they make a god out of Gautama Buddha.

    Since humans should imitate the Buddha, the Mahayana ideal is to become a bodhisattva and help others... become another god as the Buddha

    The Buddha-Fields: Kind of Heavens!:
    Bodhisattvas can exist in two different planes, the earthly plane and Buddha-fields:  Those who do not enter nirvana and remain to help others, they remain in the Buddha-fields "between" samsara and nirvana. The Buddha-fields are described in geographical terms; for example, Amitabha's Pure Land is in the west.
    The Buddha-fields contain an uncountable number of bodhisattvas that people can call upon... like gods!

    Avalokiteshvara is an important bodhisattva who appears throughout the Mahayana world. He is the Bodhisattva of Compassion and as such symbolizes that aspect of Buddhahood. He plays numerous roles:
    - In folk belief, Avalokiteshvara protects people from natural disasters and blesses children.
    - In Pure Land Buddhism, he sits at Amitabha Buddha's right hand as his helper.
    - In China, he is known as Kuan Yin and often appears in female form. There she/he is widely popular as the protector of children and childbirth. Chinese Buddhism actually celebrates three annual festivals commemorating aspects of Kuan Yin's life.
    - In Vajrayana in Tibet, Avalokiteshvara is known as Chenrezig, who is the founding father of the Tibetan people. He is believed to be reincarnated as the Dalai Lama.
    - Amitabha Buddha, who established the Pure Land, is another important figure who began as a dedicated monk, became a bodhisattva and finally a Buddha, a god.

    Gautama Buddha did not even mentioned the word God, nor priests, not rituals, nor prayers... but now many Mahayana Buddhists have many gods, many bodhisattvas, and, of course, Gautama Buddha is the first one ("have faith in Buddha an you will be saved", they say after Christ in Pure Land)... they use millions of candles and incense to adore and honor their gods, specially Buddha, and his mother, the goddess Tara...

    Gautama Buddha rejected the "extreme way" of the monks, but now many Buddhists are "monks", practicing a "very extreme way", with vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, some of them for life in monasteries, adoring many gods, dressed in red or saffron robes, with shaved heads, walking clockwise around the temple carrying prayer flags, prayer wheels, or prayer beads, using incense for the gods, and many rituals... in a monastery of the Tibet there were 10,000 monks.


 

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