(November 12, 2017 at 11:40 pm)curiosne Wrote:(November 9, 2017 at 10:50 am)KittyAnn Wrote: Thank u..., but can I ask a quick question?
... is it difficult to growing up as a Buddhist, or rather fun for a child, ....in this period of life?
It was very confusing and a bit depressing. For instance, Buddhists pretty much just focus on dying in a manner that will enable them to reach Nirvana.
The manner of dying that they try to achieve is through meditation throughout their life so that their thoughts can be controlled at the time of death to prevent Samsara (the never ending cycle of birth and death).
So through meditation, this is what they try to control:
- Restrict the want (desire) of pleasure as we will never satisfy our desires.
- Time is fleeting, so recognise that as time progresses onwards, we are dying. We need to attain enlightenment before we die to reach nirvana.
- When we die, we cannot have any emotional attachments to this earthly plane so meditating will enable us to severe our attachments to this world.
With the above ideas, it kind of felt like a death cult. There are other values that Buddhism espouses like compassion, mindfulness which are all great but ultimately the end goal was to achieve dying in a particular way which affected me the most (in a negative way). So yeah, it was a bit difficult to grow up as a Buddhist.
Yeah, all these stuffs... sound a bit gloomy, of course as you said .. the compassion and mindfulness are really a positive value, but anyway thinking still about death, about dying... especially for kids, who are the life in themselves... is not easy.
besides ...thank you for a very full reply
...and nice to meet you
"Alone is what I have. Alone protects me."
“I may be on the side of the angels but don’t think for one second that I am one of them.”
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day."
“I may be on the side of the angels but don’t think for one second that I am one of them.”
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day."