As Suanie Sees It

I sometimes wonder if people just write for the sake of arguing a point that does not really exist.

Or maybe it exists but only in their own warped minds most apt to be taken away to the nearest mental hospital.

For those not in the know, this is about something minishorts linked to, about an introduction to an e-book so devoid of understanding, research, research and more research.

So ludicrous the idea, words and sentences that I am going to de-myth the boldy written ‘facts’.

Throughout the world, but especially in America and Europe, some individuals have been intrigued by Buddhism, spurred on mostly by the superstitious, secret, and awesome qualities they perceive in this religion.

Dude, we are not accountable for Richard Gere. I’m sorry he ended up gay hence crushing your childhood fantasies but really, there is no need to be nasty.

As a belief, Buddhism is contrary to logic and intelligence.

I guess I must be stupid then.

No wait, my mom said that I am not. Mothers are always right.

You insulting my ma or something?

Countries where it has been adopted have mixed it with their own idolatrous ideas, traditions and local customs, joining it with myths and deviant ideas until it has evolved into a totally godless philosophy.

I am sorry I have to bring this up, but how do you classify this then?

When the incident came to the notice of the council, it ordered that she marry her father-in-law and change her relationship with her husband to that between a mother and son.

It also ordered her to leave her home and stay away for seven month and 10 days to become “pure”.

It may seem weird that I have so much faith in Malaysia but I am positive that if something like this happens here, the aftermath would be different. Bye bye father-in-law, see you in jail.

And we are an Islamic country! Race preferential based on the official religion is stated in our constitution!

But give me one orthodox religion that has not changed over the years to adapt to the local culture and I’ll post my naked photo. Oopppss that’s deviancy. Guess I’ll see you in hell.

To ignore Buddhism’s mindless aspects and espouse it just to be trendy and go along with others will result in great loss.

Kalama Sutra? Hello? It’s there for a reason, you know.

Bla bla bla bla bla…. I’m going to skip to Chapter 1.

Since Buddhism is an atheist religion that lacks any belief in God, it also rejects the existence of angels, the eternal afterlife, Hell, and the Day of Judgment.

Lacks? I think the word should be DO NOT. Buddhists Do Not believe in a monotheism god but like the Hindus we believe in polytheism ‘gods’, only that we call them ‘bodhisattvas’. What is a bodhisattva? Well Wikipedia is your new best friend.

FYI the term ‘Buddha’ means The Enlightened One, and the fourth buddha in this kalpa is called Gautama Buddha. Why Gautama? Because that’s his family name, duh.

Some people call bodhisattvas ‘deities’, and the way they help people is something like what angels would do. I wouldn’t call them angels but what’s in a name, right? Oh… no… I guess that concept wouldn’t go down well either because everyone is too pre-occupied with status and what-not that they forget the real meaning of things.

On that same note, we do believe in Hell. That’s right, we believe in burning people for evil deeds that they have done, only that they do not get burnt for not believing in a god. Some poor souls get their hands chopped off until their bad karma runs out, some lucky souls get reincarnated to right their previous wrongs, some roam the many worlds as lost or hungry souls (in the Chinese version, they eat candles! So economical!).

But let’s take NOW as an example, after all you are living here NOW, not before not later. As you are reading this you are breathing the PRESENT air. Right NOW. I am very angry so I am in Hell. But wait, I’m not dead! Of course it is a matter of time but how could I be in Hell now when I am alive and breathing?

The Buddhist concept of Heaven and Hell applies to the present. If you are happy at this moment then you are in Heaven. If you are miserable, angry and what-not then you are in Hell. Why wait till your last breath to enjoy both worlds? Wake up dudes, you are missing out on what is around you.

There is no Day of Judgment but what judges a Buddhist? KARMA. You get judged everyday based on your own deeds. Who determines whether you go to Heaven of Hell? YOU! Yes, you yourself are responsible and WILL be held accountable for your own deeds, be they good or bad. How do you know if karma exists?

Easy. Get someone to slap you on your face; you feel pain don’t you? The slap is the Cause, the pain is the Effect. That’s karma in kindergarten form for you.

Buddhists hold Buddha in a heightened sense of love, deep respect and fear, even accepting him as a god.

Yeah because He was smart enough not to let idiots like you offend him. Me on the other hand am not that enlightened nor generous.

So, fuck you.

And in time, those who nurtured an excessive love towards Buddha came to worship these idols and consider him a god.

I have an excessive love for my dad. I worship my dad. My dad helped create me. So… my dad = god?

The most frequent question I get asked is why do Buddhists bow to the image of the Buddha. Allow me to quote from the book “Good Question Good Answer” by Venerable S. Dhammika.

Question : If the Buddha is not a god, then why do people worship him?

Answer : There are different types of worship. When someone worships a god, they praise and honor him or her, make offerings and ask for favors, believing that the god will hear their praise, receive their offerings and answer their prayers. Buddhists do not indulge in this kind of worship. The other kind of worship is when we show respect to someone or something we admire. When a teacher walks into the room we stand up, when we meet a dignitary we shake their hands, when the national anthem is played we salute. These are all gestures of respect and worship and indicate our admiration for certain persons or things. This is the type of worship Buddhists practice. A statue of the Buddha with its hands rested gently in its lap and its compassionate smile reminds us to strive to develop peace and love within ourselves. The perfume of incense reminds us of the pervading influence of virtue, the lamp reminds us of the light of knowledge and the flowers which soon fade and die, remind us of impermanence. When we bow, we express outwardly what we feel inwardly; our gratitude to the Buddha for what his teachings have given us. This is the nature of Buddhist worship.

Question : Why do people do all kinds of strange things in Buddhist temples?

Answer : Many things seem strange to us when we don’t understand them. Rather than dismiss such things as strange, we should try to find out what they mean. However it is true that Buddhist practices sometimes have their origins in popular supersition and misunderstanding rather than the teachings of the Buddha. And such misunderstandings are not found in Buddhism alone but arise in all religions from time to time. The Buddha taught with clarity and in detail and if some fail to understand fully, the Buddha cannot be blamed. There is a saying :

If a person suffering from a disease does not seek treatment even when there is a physician at hand, it is not the fault of that physician. In the same way, if a person is oppressed and tormented by the disease of the defilements but does not seek the help of the Buddha, that is not the Buddha’s fault. JN 28-9

Nor should Buddhism or any religion be judged by those who don’t practice it properly. If you with to know the true teachings of Buddhism, read the Buddha’s words or speak to those who understand them properly.

This point reveals Buddhists’ idolatrous understanding, as do many others. Buddha’s followers regard him as all-seeing and all-knowing.

I am sorry but the Buddha does not see me. He is dead. It would be scary if the Buddha could see me right now because I am typing furiously, as naked as the day I was born.

Is god seeing me right now? Perv.

Buddha was a powerless servant whom God created and tested in this world; he had no ability or will of his own to influence people. It was by God’s will that he spoke, and he lived the life that God gave him, according to the fate that God had determined.

Maybe. But since the Buddha is dead, I guess he can’t tell me if he was really God’s messenger. And seeing that Buddhists do not believe in a monotheist god, well there goes your belief.

The Buddha was a man, not an idiot.

Buddhist philosophy denies the existence of God, but bases itself on a few aspects of human morality and on escaping from sufferings of this world. Without any intellectual or scientific support, it rests upon the twin concepts of karma and reincarnation-the idea that human beings are continually reborn into this world, that their subsequent lives are shaped by their behavior in their previous ones. No Buddhist scripture considers the existence of a Creator, much less how the universe, the world and living things came to be. No Buddhist text describes how the universe was created from nothing; or how living things came into being; or how to explain the evidence, to be seen everywhere in this world, of an incomparable creation. According to the Buddhist deception, it is not even necessary to think about these things! The only important thing in life, Buddhist texts claim, is suppressing desires, revering Buddha, and escaping from suffering.

As a religion, therefore, Buddhism suffers from a very narrow vision that keeps its believers from considering such basic questions as where they came from, or how the universe and all living things came to be. Indeed, it deters them from even thinking about these things and presses them into the narrow mold of their present earthly life.

Chapter 3 of “Good Question Good Answer”:

Question : Do Buddhists believe in a god?

Answer : No, we do not. There are several reasons for this. The Buddha, like modern sociologists and psychologists believed that religious ideas and especially the god idea have their origins in fear. The Buddha says:

Gripped by fear people go to sacred mountains, sacred groves, sacred trees and shrines. -Dp. 188

Primitive humans found selves in a dangerous and hostile world, the fear of wild animals, of not being able to find enough food, of injury or disease, and of natural phenomena like thunder, lightning and volcanoes were constantly with them. Finding no security, they created the ideas of gods in order to give them comfort in good times, courage in times of danger and consolation when things went wrong. To this day, you will notice that people become more religious at times of crises, you will hear them say that the belief in a god or gods gives them the strength they need to deal with life. You will hear them explain that they believe in a particular god because they prayed in time of need and their prayer was answered. All this seems to support the Buddha’s teaching that the god-idea is a response to fear and frustration. The Buddha taught us to try to understand our fears, to lessen our desires and to calmly and courageously accept the things we cannot change. He replaced fear, not with irrational belief but with rational understanding.

The second reason the Buddha did not believe in a god is because there does not seem to be any evidence to support this idea. There are numerous religions all claiming that they alone have god’s words preserved in their holy book, that they alone understand god’s nature, that their god exists and that the gods of other religions do not. Some claim that god is masculine, some that she is feminine and others that it is neuter. They are all satisfied that there is ample evidence to prove the existance of their god but they laugh in disbelief at the evidence other religions use to prove the existance of another god. It is not surprising that with so many different religions spending so many centuries trying to prove the existance of their gods that still no real, concrete, substantial or irrefutable evidence has been found. Buddhists suspend judgement until such evidence is forthcoming.

The third reason the Buddha do not believe in a god is that the belief is not necessary. Some claim that the belief in a god is necessary in order to explain the origin of the universe. But this is not so. Science has very convincingly explained how the universe came into being without having to introduce the god-idea. Some claim that belief in god is necessary to have a happy, meaningful life. Again we can see that this is not so. There are millions of atheists and free-thinkers, not to mention many Buddhists, who live useful, happy and meaningful lives without belief in a god. Some claim that belief in god’s power is necessary because humans, being weak, do not have the strength to help themselves. Once again, the evidence indicates the opposite. One often hears of people who have overcome great disabilities and handicaps, enormous odds and difficulties through their own inner resources, through their own efforts and without belief in a god. Some claim that god is necessary in order to give man salvation. But this argument only holds good if you accept the theological concept of salvation and Buddhists do not accept such a concept. Based on his own experience, the Buddha saw that each human being had the capacity to purify the mind, develop infinite love and compassion and perfect understanding. He shifted attentio from the heavens to the heart and encouraged us to find solutions to our problems through self-understanding.

Question: What does the Buddha say about the origin of the universe?

Answer: It is interesting that the Buddha’s explanation of the origin of the universe corresponds very closely to the scientific view. In the Aganna Sutta, the Buddha describes the universe being destroyed and then re-evolving into its present form over a period of countless millions of years. The first life formed on the surface of the water and again, over countless millions of years, evolved from simple into complex organisms. All these processes are without beginning or end and are set in motion by natural causes.

An Oppressive, Enslaving Religion

Talking about yourself again? It gets boring at times.

In short, Islam is a liberating religion that saves people from useless customs and prohibitions, social pressures and worries about what other people may think. It calls them to lead calm, peaceful lives with the purpose of gaining God’s approval. So it is that our Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace), in many of his sayings, advises us to make religion simple and easy.

I do not doubt any of that. I have great respect for Islam and I probably have a better understanding of Islam than you ever will. So maybe one day you will finally head the Prophet’s words and stop trying to decipher non-existance points.

Buddhism enslaves its devotees in misty monasteries and forces them into a life of suffering and poverty. Strangely, it discourages good food, cleanliness, comfort-the blessings that God has created for human beings-accepts suffering as a virtue and advises its devotees to lead a miserable life.

If your only source of Buddhist monasteries come from a lonely mountain in the middle of nowhere, then I suggest you take a trip around the world. See more things, brighten your horizons, get your facts straight.

For Buddhist monks and nuns, life is full of all kinds of difficulties. They are forbidden to work or own property, obliged to feed themselves by going from door to door and begging among the people, with their bowls in their hands. For this reason, Buddhist priests are even called bhikkhus (beggars) by the people. Buddhist priests are forbidden to marry or have any kind of family life; they may own only one robe, which must be of poor quality yellow or red cloth.

First of all, a bhikkhu or bhikkuni is a fully ordained Buddhist monk or nun. Here’s a fun fact for you; they WERE called bhikkhus by the Buddha, not just the people. And it DOES mean ‘one who begs’. It ALSO has other meanings, one of which is “one who discerns the fears of the round of rebirths.” And despite the beggar reference, bhikkhus do not beg, but live on what others freely give them.

If you are serious about this whole dirty, uncouth, unsocialised bhikkhu thing, why not actually try to learn more about why they behave as such?

Download A Lay Guide to the Bhikkhus’ Rules by Bhikkhu Ariyesako and read all of the 93 pages.

What, I’m not the one writing an e-book on the lacking of Buddhism.

According to Buddhism, hunger, misery and pain guide the way to the truth.

Errr… huh?

When Gautama Buddha was 29 and still Prince Siddharta, he left his palace and sought knowledge from highly-revered teachers of his time to end life’s sufferings. For 6 years he practised austerism and self-mortifications as practised by a group of 5 ascetics. As we know today it led to nowhere but still he perservered, refusing food and water until he was in a state of near death. He said later that the 6 years of practise caused such severe effects on his physical body that when he touched his belly he could touch his back skin.

One day a peasant girl called Sujata (some people believe that Sujata was actually a bodhisattva coming in aid of the Buddha) took pity on Siddharta and offered him some of her milk-rice. Siddhartha realised that enlightenment could not be reached with extreme practises; but perhaps it could be reached when one in the middle between the extremes of life luxury (remember he had that when he was an ignorant prince) and the life of extreme austerism. After consuming the milk-rice, he took a shower (yes, cleanliness gets you everywhere) and then sat under a tree to contemplate. The rest as they say is history.

But I suppose the hunger, misery and pain part were in reference to the 6 years of practise, which the Buddha later denounced. And the photo of a stark thin bony monk accompanied by those words was someone’s artistic portrayal of the Buddha during that time. And I suppose you are forgiven for your ignorance.

According to the theory of karma, those who are poor, handicapped or ill are paying the price for evil deeds committed in a previous life. Therefore, they deserve their present misfortunes. This perverse understanding results in prevalent injustices in societies where belief in karma is widespread.

Hear me now, for I am a Buddhist :

YOU ARE ONE SICK BASTARD.

Karma is based on the belief in reincarnation…

No.

This idea of a “wheel of rebirth” supposes that every life influences a subsequent one. But this belief fails with one single question: how does this karma operate? If Buddhism doesn’t accept the existence of God, then who judges a person’s former life and sends him back into the world in a new body? This question has no answer!

I just did.

Those who accept the idea of karma believe that their cycle of rebirths will never end-that they live again after every death, until they attain nirvana. And so, they assume that before them lie countless possibilities. Therefore, if someone decides to commit sin, he may think he will be able to atone for it in a later incarnation, even if his very next life is worse than his present one. An understanding founded on such an erroneous foundation cannot restrain a person from committing evil.

If someone chooses to misinterpret karma that way, then it is that person’s fault. Similarly if you choose to use karma in this illogical manner, it only goes to show your shallow understanding of the basis of the law of karma. Weirdly enough, Buddhists I actually KNOW and MET choose to do good instead of bad to accumulate good karma, if you will. Knowing that the law of karma works that way inspires them not to do evil for fear of retribution.

You should probably get new friends or something.

Attachment to this world is most people’s major weakness. They believe in a perverse idea like reincarnation chiefly because they want never to give up earthly temptations.

Oddly enough, the ultimate ultimate ultimate Buddhist’s aim is to detach themselves from worldly temptations and achieve Nirvana, thus freeing themselves from reincarnation.

Bla bla bla bla bla, on to the next chapter.

Bla bla bla bla, in relation to major Hollywood stars and their undertaking of roles to propagate Buddhism in various movies and media appearances.

Bla bla bla bla bla, next chapter talks about the coming of Maitreya Buddha, the next ‘messiah’ who could be another messenger from God.

Again, this is based on our current kalpa which is actually a period of 1,728,000 solar years. Are you going to live that long to find out the truth?

Not that I am avoiding the question of whether or not Maitreya is the next Buddha and not a messenger of god.

Maybe I am but for a good reason. I just don’t know! If I were to devote my entire life to read all the scriptures and trying to find out the ‘truth’ I would definitely need an immortality pill. You can’t decipher everything there is, or everything there is not. Why are you still here then? What is the purpose of your life, your current one or only one if you do not believe in reincarnation? I am glad I am not you.

If something does not make sense to you, then you can choose not to believe it and walk away. Likewise, I do not believe that when the Buddha was born he walked 7 steps of blooming lotus then proclaimed something about heaven and earth. I do not believe that a massive snake was shelter for him when he meditated under the Bodhi tree. They may or may not happened, who really knows? Even if you knew, how would it change your life? To re-enforce your belief in Buddhism? That is sweet but the belief must have been shaky in the first place, coming from a lack of understanding of what Buddhism really is.

Somewhere between ‘an all-merciful, the most merciful’ god and “if only you could see those who do wrong at the time when they see the punishment, and that truly all strength belongs to God, and that God is severe in punishment”, you lost me.

When I was writing this, Edrei asked me if I were writing in defense of Buddhism or prejudiced idiots. I can safely say now that I wrote in defense of Buddhism against prejudiced idiots in mind.

He also scanned through the article in question and apologised to me on behalf of his religion. I told him that it was not necessary at all because he was not the one who wrote all that. There are a lot of people out there who call themselves Buddhists who are most pig-headed - I am not about to apologise for any of them. All I can say is that I feel sorry for them that they did not have the right guidance nor understanding of Buddhism.

*Feels sorry for Harun Yahya*

There is no wrong, there is no right, there is only ignorance.

Harun Yahya is the most ignorant person I’d ever had the misfortune to read. I don’t really mind that you think Buddhism is a deviant practise, but the fact is that you are dragging the good name of Islam and Christianity down the gutter with you. People like you make things worse not better.

A Lot of Nonsense
by Bhikkhu Khantipalo

“A lot of fuss
A lot of people
A lot of time
A lot of trouble
A lot of tears
A lot of money
And all for what?
A little body!

A blob of proteins
Fast unwinding
A little corpse
Quick decaying
No longer is it
Dear Father, mother
Or any darling other.
In spite of this
We must have
Consolations and coffins
Processions and Tombstones
Parties and mourning
Rites and rituals
Buried or burnt
Embalmed forever.

All for these little
Bloated bodies
Sons remember
Grandsons little.
And after them
Are the dead forgotten.
Stones and bones alone remaining
So is this not
A lot of nonsense?”

Just like your e-book.

Run along now.