The Appeal of Buddhism (Jediism??) in the ModernWorld

Dogma does exist in buddhism as you said Brother, in every site, text, it's always present, again as most religions, too much for me. I wonder if the Buddha himself practiced so ridgedly or did much of it come into being after he was gone, introduced by followers. I think this is one of the two reasons why I am not a practicing Buddhist, the other is; yup, the reincarnation thing. I don't buy into the backward-forward, up and down the creation ladder thing. My friends idea is an interesting take on the subject though, and I should add, he is not a Buddhist, just a Joe Smo like the reast of us trying to make sense of all the input.

The memory of times past may just be well; fond 'notions' of past periods we like and the memory could be simple fragments of movies, and pictures created in our minds from the books we read, stories we hear and so fourth.

A big part of me understands and accepts that the mind is a complex thing and the previous paragraph is more than likely the source of our 'past life' glimpses. But truth be told, there is a small part that keeps reincarnation tucked away...For to reject it would admit to our mortality and the finality of our lives. But if reincarnation is even remotely possible, then in a limited way, even without recall of our past lifetime to our next lifetime, we could all be immortals. At least operating system wise.

And I can certainly live with that over and over and over again

Oh, I forgot to address GM Jons last question:

\"The most central teaching of Buddhism is rebirth and the attempt to escape it through enlightenment. One attitude to free themselves from all attachments to this worl is to see this world and all therein as an illusion, even to the extreme that the world is suffering. For example the birds are driven by the pains of hunger and kill worms to eat there causing themselves to to sink further into the samsaric trap. Compelled by compassion those of the Mahayana path are constantly reborn until all beings are liberated, those of Hinayana content themselves with personal liberation. What would interest me is how the Buddhist Jedi realte to that?\"

I believe that there are a few members who are practicing Buddhists, I too would welcome their views.

Thank you Brother. I appreciate and understand your honest answer. It was what I was kind of expecting, knowing you that little bit which I do. . What I was trying to get at was that Buddhism is very often confused with meditation, lotus positions, peace, monks, mantras... even martial arts (which actually has very little to do with Buddhism). But these are just forms or methods or appearances, and say little about the core of Buddhism or can even be found in other religions. What makes Buddhism are the three pillars: Dharma, Sangha and Buddha; something which someone should really be informed about before confessing to be Buddhist. To make my point even clearer, I spoke to some straight down the line Tibetan Buddist monks, and they even said that caritas would not be of any help to anyone and therefore a waste of time.

You are right, I often connect the act of Za-zan (part of the dogma) with Buddhism and Martial Arts. They are all kind of loosly blended within the martial arts world and while I found the practice of meditation helpful in focusing my MA Practice most of the words of the Budda and of the Sages (many having nothing to do with each other ) were tossed in where an instructor thought that they would help the karatka.

I looked into Buddhism early on and while there were many aspects that I liked but there were many things that just were not me, so in typical Garm fashion I took what I liked from Buddhism and added it to my faith buffet LOL.

It's been a lot of years and its easy to conviently forget the things I didn't like. The three pillers, while I can see the use of the teachings(Dharma) and I could buy into the Buddha(at least to one version of his life story) I have difficulties with the Sangha (the spiritual community [I'm not that spiritual]) and just couldn't take it in it's entirity.

That is why I'm not a Practicing Buddhist...guess I'm sort of quasi-buddhist

I get a sort of tranquility from the words and stories, I like the images of the monks, the temples and would love to visit one some day. But could I ever be a monk, or a full fledged practioner? the answer is no.

I can totally understand where that one is coming from Master Garm.
I came from a Mennonite background when i was young,i have looked into Buddhism,which i too have picked up some choice tidbits for my buffet,my life has been a bit of a strange path up to this point which is why i am looking outside of the box for some kind of \"fit\"in the world. The Force lends itself quite nicely too my pattern of beliefs at this point,but I am kind of torn between buddhist and pure land rites.

in the end that is all one can do...take bits and pieces from here and there and assemble them into something that makes sense to the individual. to rip a line from the movie \"dogma\": it doesn't matter what you believe, just that you do believe.