blogmemnoch's Journal

Your views on Buddhism as a religion.
In a previous thread, a poster voiced his opinion on Theravada. Even if I felt it was a bit strong, he is entitled to have it and share it in this community. I wish to start an open discussion on Buddhism as a religion. Do you consider yourself religious? To what branch(es) of Buddhism do you associate yourself with? Do some have more merit than others?

I'll start. I have a general interest in religions and philosophy (which brought me to go study anthropology next semester) and even though I try to incorporate Buddhism philosophy in my life, I guess most of you wouldn't call me a Buddhist. This said, I probably have a preference for Theravada buddhism, as it is considered to be closest to the teachings of Gautama (the historical origin of buddhism, sometimes called 'Early Buddhism'). Mahayana has wonderful teachings of compassion and love of others (and powerfull mergings with other native beliefs), Vajrayana is very colourful and interestingly different from the two other major branches. I also like Zen and how it teaches me to put things in perspective (even if that isn't the goal of Zen which I think is highly misunderstood [me included] since it came to be mainstream in the west).

What about you?

ps : I used to come to this board frequently before, but my interests drifted a bit from Buddhism lately and have only recently continued to read up on it, so back I am.

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