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 Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2004 7:21 pm
Pablo Neruda "...We are reminded of the terrible Spanish Christs we inherited wounds and all, pustules and all, scars and all, with that odor given off by churches, of wax candles, of mustiness of a closed room... Those Christs had second thoughts about being men or gods... To make them human beings, to bring them closer to those who suffer, midwives and beheaded men, cripples and avaricious men, the inner circles of churches and those outside the churches, to make them human, the sculptors gave them the most gruesome wounds and all this ended up as the religion of suffering, as sin and you'll suffer, don't sin and you'll suffer, live and you'll suffer, leaving you no possible way out... Not here, here the stone found peace... The sculptors rebelled against the canons of pain, and these colossal Buddhas, with the feat of giant gods, have a smile on their stone faces that is beatifically human, without all that pain... And they give off an odor, not of a dead room, not of sacristies and cobwebs, but an odor of vegetable space, of sudden gusts of wind swooping down in wild swirls of feathers, leaves, pollen from the infinite forest..." In my reading of Pablo Neruda's Memoirs for school, I came across that passage. I just thought I'd post it here. Interesting how the Chilean poet saw one of the same differences between Catholicism and Buddhism that I did. Christianity and it's strong focus on rules and commandments and punishments are just so dismal; at least I find them so. The Bible does have Jesus' Beatitudes, but I never had to memorize them in Sunday school like I did the Ten Commandments. They made us focus so much on the "Thou shalt not..." and so little on the "Blessed are the poor... Blessed are the lonely..." Anyway, pardon my rambling. Just thought I'd provide the quotation. [edit] Oh yeah, if it helps put it into context any, Neruda was spending time in Southeast Asia (not sure exactly where; he seems to be moving around a lot in his narratives) and this section is from sometime in the late 1920's [/edit]
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Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2004 4:02 pm
While I agree with you, a counter-argument can be made that Buddhism has an even more terrifying and bleak view of the world than Christianity or Catholicism does.
In the latter two, Heaven awaits a good Christian.
In the former, there's likely nothing else waiting for you on the other side and, if you want out of this cycle, you've got to work at it for perhaps thousands of years.
The First Noble Truth is, after all, "Life is Suffering".
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Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2004 8:36 pm
An excellent point. I think the view of Chistianity as more dismal comes not from the belief itself, but from how it is taught. Buddhism is typically shown as positive. You gradually work you way towards enlightenment and hopefully eventually achieve it. There really is no punishment aside from taking a longer time to accomplish that goal. On the other hand, while Christianity could be put in the same positive light, it usually isn't. In many cases, the focus is on punishing the bad rather than rewarding the good. Instead of working to be able to go to heaven, the focus is on not going to hell. Christianity tends to run on fear, while Buddhism seeks to rise above it.
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Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2004 1:00 pm
I personally think that Buddhism is just as positive as Christianity was originally meant to be. I mean, think about it, you work for maybe thousands of years (ie, thousands of incarnations) to reach enlightenment, and when you do, you really have two options, join Nirvana and disappear, or reincarnate, becoming a Boddhisattva, and help others attain enlightenment while functioning on a relatively higher plane of existance. Personally that second option seems like heaven to me (existing as an enlightened being in order to help others become enlightened) of course, I've never really been able to understand the idea of "hey, I'm a perfect being (or I've been let into heaven), so I'm gonna lounge around all day, enjoy myself, and laugh at those poor suffering people trapped in Samsara (or on earth)!!" I know this is a bit harsher than the way such things are normally outwardly portrayed, but if you think about human nature, thats gonna be the way most people probably think, "Hey, I've attained perfection, so why not enjoy it!".
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