Questioning Buddhism

I like Buddhism, really! Of the world's popular religions, it isn't so bad.

First, is it a religion or is it a philosophy? Well, go to Thailand and then ask that question again. In Thailand it is a religion, no doubt about it. The same is true of Tibet. The Dalai Lama, though espousing philosophy, is the Dalai Lama because a bunch of monks believed that a two year old child is the reincarnation of a teacher of Buddhism (perhaps the Buddha himself). So, one strike against Buddhism is reincarnation.

Let us pause for a moment. The Buddha never addressed reincarnation. The Buddha simply said that we suffer life and that we die. No heaven or hell, and certainly no recycling unless you are referring to compost. Where does reincarnation come from?

Reincarnation comes from Hinduism and other religions. Buddhism by its nature, is about enlightenment and not denial. Thus a lot of buddhist societies embrace their root religions and simply add Buddhist philosophy. This makes a lot of sense because we are our history. It is nearly impossible to ignore or forget our history, habits, ceremony, and especially our superstitions.

Buddhism in fact is never really pure for the simple fact that it does not deny anything. It simply states that life mostly hurts, joy has its own cost, and then we die. You might say that this is all right for Buddhists, but Christians, Jews, and Muslims are pure religions with their specific philosophy... Well... Should I go down that silly path? You can find many places in Texas where there are as many churches, synagogs, and moscks. They are as thick as Starbucks. None of them are pure. They all are colored by their past leaders and history. Yet these are all based on ancient Judaism (influenced of course by all before that).

So, where were we? Oh yeah, e were questioning Buddhism! So, the one thing you hear is that life is hard, but pleasure has a high cost. Well, the cost of pleasure is now really low. Yep, back when Buddha lived, pleasure was very hard.

Enlightenment is also quite good and supposedly you should dedicate your life to this as a Buddhist. But the Buddha did not have the Internet or libraries... Certainly no Kindle. What the Buddha dedicated to enlightenment could be fairly explored by reading a couple dozen books. Enlightenment is at least available in volume.

Any other questions for Buddhism?