Measles Outbreak at Vaccine-Denying Church

[Mister Agenda]

Drich...Which God do the Zen-Buddhists pray to???

My mother was a Buddhist. Buddhist worship the path of the 'awakened one.' To walk this path and to acheave this 'wakened' state elevates one to an enlightened sense of being, which trancends all of the 'dukkha/pain and suffering' the ignorant suffer from. To acheave this zen elevates these transcended believers to a state of nirvana. From this state some believe one can reach the ultimate state as a budda has and can be 'reborn' and keep coming back in higher states of existence. The end goal for the Buddhist is 'buddahood.' In essence Buddhism is a form of self worship that elevates it's believer too a FORM of godhood. So the Buddist worships the path to enlightment, which deifies the indivisual to a degree.

The definition of a god is not 'a path one admires or an enlightened person'. Someone who does not believe in any gods (superhuman beings with supernatural powers that affect reality and are worshiped) is an atheist because that's what atheist means. Some Buddhists believe in devas, lesser gods, although they usually don't worship them, so those Buddhists would be theists. Buddhists who don't believe in devas are atheists, and this normally and especially includes Zen Buddhists.

To be a Buddhist, and to fight in a war would destroy everything they believed in (That is why so many of them set themselves on fire rather than fight in a war.)

Zen Buddhism was the religion that the vast majority of the Samurai class followed because it offered discipline and focus. When it comes to strict non-violence, you may have confused Buddhism with Jainism (another religion without God, btw). Buddhist countries have fought wars with each other for centuries. Guatuama was not much more successful in instilling compassion among his followers than Jesus was.

For those who fought, and caused suffering and pain knew they could never have the hope to obtain a true state of Zen, thus pushing them to seek other religions, or to simply try and start over.

Or try again on the next incarnations, I suppose.

I love it when new people just jump in the middle of the conversation and just assume the points they bring up have not be discussed yet... Oh wait no I don't. I actually hate that, that is why I am going to tell you to go back and re read what has already been written if you want an answer to your question.

A Drich thread is the perfect place to just jump into the middle of a conversation because you can count on him not having seriously considered any previous point, so it it's no more wasteful to repeat what's already been said than it is to say something new. It's all equally wasted on Drich.