I'm reading an old fashioned paperback book these days: Buddhism, a Christian exploration and Appraisal by Keith Yandell and Harold Netland.
It's one of these University styled books where there is a very concerted effort by the writers to heap bibliography upon bibliography and quote upon quote in an attempt at intellectualism. However I will not let this prejudice me and I have not read enough to find the book's value.
While I consider myself to be an expert on the Christian history of the actual protagonists of the initial movement: the prostitute Mary Magdalene, her buddy Jesus, his buddy Judas and their various buddies, fellow disciples of Jesus numbering some 120 according to the actual gospels, including Mary, Jesus' mom and his actual siblings from Mary and her husband Joseph (Joseph cum Jesus' dad). I cannot speak to the faith and belief these individuals may have experienced or felt but merely concur that faith can move mountains and these people lived in barbaric, uncivilized times, compared to today's people. I can only assume living in this kind of Roman Jewish world must have been unpleasant compared to living in Australia. But then again, the kingdom of heaven is within so who knows who is happier? I definitely think there's massive misunderstanding amongst today's self described Christians regarding the actual true precepts of their 'religion' so I suppose that's why so few of them perform any miracles.
It's interesting to note that while Israel in those days was under Roman government, many rights to self rule were allowed, so just as people in the British countries have their cricket and rugby, the Jews of those days could manage their own affairs and had the Sadducees and Pharisees. In modern societies we have the media and academics and leading lights from the professional world: billionaires, politicians, some religious leaders, etc.
Does God have room for stupid dumb bastards, ignorant as hell, on this planet and elsewhere? According to the modern science of astronomy and the calculations of scientists analysing the various galaxies with trillions of stars, upon trillions and trillions, very likely billions of planets very similar to Earth. One would venture to guess: yes. The universe we know of is 'roomy' to say the least. Probably plenty of space for dummies:
https://youtu.be/vIJTwYOZrGU
The Koran advises to leave people to their blundering. Eg Christians. It also says that various messengers (like Mohammed and Jesus/Joseph) were sent to warn people. It's extremely reasonable to assume (if you're a Muslim), that Guatama Buddha was one of these guys.
I have to confess, my awareness of Buddhism is weak. I consider my knowledge of Buddhism to be so minimal, as to put me on an even standing with the average American or Australian with regard to religion in general, whether they are religious or not and regardless of which religion they are.
This is what I think I know about Buddhism:
1) Buddha was a real man, he might have been born from a specially/divinely conceived mother, like Jesus, a kind of son of God, in that respect. For a certainty Joseph (later Jesus) was not the only messenger born in this unique way.
2) Buddha was born to nobel parents as some kind of prince. I'm not sure about this but everyone knows his story in that regard.
3) Buddha was a seeker to begin with, probably much moreso than Jesus. While Joseph (later Jesus) visited Egypt, India and possibly also Tibet, Buddha didn't 'visit' India but spent his entire life there. He didn't travel to Egypt notwithstanding their great culture, that I know of. I'm not aware of him travelling to China or Tibet although I suppose it's possible. Like Jesus (when he was Jesus, not Joseph), Guatama (the Buddha, or Christ), recommended poverty for disciples and to search out people who would be friendly to them.
4) Unlike Jesus, I think Buddha was more likely to have his disciples live in a communal atmosphere and altogether. Jesus was more likely to get people to be secret and sly and do things secretly (wise as serpents, gentle as doves), due to the risk of punishment from Jewish or Roman authorities.
5) I think Buddha had some problems with the ruling Brahman caste amongst the Hindus. What's amazing about Buddha is that he is a product of this Hindu society but nobody considers him to be a Hindu, from what I can see. He spawned a massive religion which was embraced by Asians however none of these Asians see themselves as pseudo Hindus.
6) Buddha taught right thinking, right acting, avoidance of suffering through avoidance of ignorance. Achieving the kingdom of heaven or nirvana. Deep peace.
7) apart from both teaching achieving peace, Jesus seemed more likely to suggest radical options like getting killed or self mutilation. Therefore both teachers taught the continuity of life beyond physical death in one particular lifetime.
8) mystical transfiguration: we all know Jesus was a mystical man with his healings and miracles and mystical moments with John the Baptist (after he was murdered) and Moses. Buddha we're not sure if he pulled off miracles but the story of his self mortification and subsequent enlightenment under the Bodhi tree is pretty famous.
I'll need to jog memory on Buddhism as it's not exactly fresh.
Okay another thing I saw on YouTube, not sure if it's accurate but wouldn't surprise me: most countries in the world have less than 1% Buddhists. Approximately over 90% of the actual Buddhists of the world live in Asia. In fact, in India and Nepal, where Buddha was from, there seems to be very few Buddhists. So apparently there are a little under half a billion Buddhists in total and most of these live in Asia. We can say Buddhism is primarily a religion for Asians and has been for centuries. Again it's extremely notable that this is a movement that started essentially in India/Nepal amongst Hindus and basically spread to Asia and strongly influenced Asians for the past 2500 years.
One point that the aforementioned book made was that Christianity is a religion that kind of ceased in Europe and moved to Asia. I would add a few points to that. Prior to the age of enlightenment, which vaguely began in the 15 and 1600s, colonial discoveries of Europe and even during this time, the church was a pivotal part in society, handling most births, deaths and marriages. Even in my parents generation in Spain, this was still the case.
I suppose Nietzsche and other philosophers had a hand in disrupting this kind of thing, along with Francis Bacon's scientific analysis technique. Today in America we find a strong belief in extra terrestrial aliens and even the belief that contacting them could somehow lead to a new era, if only the aliens would land on the White house lawn in Washington DC and cut a ribbon with the president. In fact aliens have made themselves so visible, so many times in Los Angeles and Washington DC and elsewhere, and so many miracles have been recorded in the gospels, one supposes a Buddhist must wonder whether dwelling on these matters would constitute right thinking. Apparently there's an eightfold path that Buddhists must follow. Let's consider an example: your niece is extremely bookish and triumphing at University. As a hobby she likes to ingest the drug ecstasy and dance with glow sticks at large, organised rave parties nearby area 51 coz there might be aliens there. You're an alien aboard a spaceship and see folks with glow sticks in the desert and sense psychically they are on mind altering substances. On your home planet of Quanza, twenty five light years away, which you have never actually seen because of your parents explorations, you know that there is no religion per ce, everybody has an awareness of the cosmic good that implies doing the right thing all the time, so there is no sin or crime. Family units are large, strong and proud and there are few arguments. You are aware of other alien races with only one gender and more if an antlike society however you find it difficult to relate with them, same as with earthlings.
Is your niece's rave party behaviour more Buddhist or more Christian? How many uncles do you have and what planet are they living on?
Ok sorry about that digression, I guess I struggle with these statistical numbers apportioned to the various religions: 1.3 billion Muslims (many of whom are non reincarnation believing cousin marryers), 1.2 billion Catholics, most of whom worship the Pope as a form of deity (irreligious/idolatry), 450 million Buddhists. Now many of these Buddhists are in China, so if I can get out the correct microfishe film and put it in the microfishe reader and read it, what I find are my memories and impressions in China.
What I found in China was the same in Hong Kong and Thailand. The people have pretty similar beliefs. I can't say if the government in China represses Buddhists. I never found the government in China trying to repress or attack my beliefs or opinions about Buddha or da Vinci and if I the name of Jesus came up in a classroom once or twice I could see I wasn't interested to discuss it and it was a well known name amongst the Chinese that many of them were aware of. I mean this book I'm reading says there are all these millions of Buddhists in China and I'm not sure how they are reckoning that. One practice I found in China was burning fake money for ancestral worship. This is an interesting practice. Often business holders will have a kind of generic looking statuette of a wise old looking man alongside an incense burner but I can't tell you exactly what the wise old man represents. Probably not Confucius or anyone like that although possibly yes, possibly related to dao-ism. Definitely the mainland Chinese people to me looked capable of tremendous spirituality. If you were a practicing Muslim I imagine it would not be at all difficult to rack up four wives in China, simultaneously, as there is so much poverty there, relative to the west, all you would need is around $200-$300 American dollars a month to maintain a young Chinese woman. The poor in China are super dignified, they're never out looking to rob you or feel jealous of you or whatever, in the main part. They just get on with their lives. With all the bitching about China, the poor in China have done immense amounts of practically slave labor at very low pay, often in very crowded living conditions, to enrich the lives of countless people around the world with their trinkets and cheap toys and manufacturing in general of all descriptions, like furniture and whatever, paying it forward, as the Americans say. Good on those people. These people are working so hard every day, often just having one day off a week, we're not sure if Bibles seem relevant to them or are needed by them or if they care about Buddhism either. I mean a lot of these people are on super low wages like $200 a month and really just care about they [sic] kid, they [sic] parents, they [sic] bills, they [sic] apartment, they [sic] kid's education. And etc. A lot of them eat pork too (unislamic, unjewish). Now with coronavirus as it stands, a lot of these factories are mothballed so starvation could even foreseeably become an issue in China.
Anyway getting back to Buddhism, told you, not sure about it. Seems like you can achieve nirvana but get sucked back out of it because of desire. That's a core teaching of Buddhism: desire is a cause of suffering. People have to be less go getter and more giving and passive, to feel peace. This is a religion that seems to better suit Asian races and Asian cultures. Democratic or authoritarian. We'll quickly look into YouTube videos on Chinese government repression of Buddhism, to see what kind of a thing we see from the left wing YouTube Google people (what they allow).
Ok here's a video from Vice news:
https://youtu.be/EyxkY5NmzRY
They're talking about Chinese government Buddhist diplomacy in surrounding belt and road countries like Myanmar, Sri Lanka (where they helped the Buddhists there win a long civil war).
Wow who knew there was a Buddhist country in Europe (south of Moscow)..... I bet noone did... Kalmykia....
https://youtu.be/Ys4DqKOjxpE
Ant megalopolis:
https://youtu.be/dECE7285GxU
Covers 50 square metres, eight metres deep, 50 tons of dirt removed by ants carrying four times their individual weight. Critical mass and the power of the collective. More than diddly squat. More than diddly. Mmmmm diddly. Insert salivating Homer Simpson.
