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On the 28th I met up with some old friends from way back, people I've known since I was about 3.
On the 30th I was in in Scotland with one of them, in a Tibetan Buddhist monastry to spend new years, until the 1st.
Seemed preferable to the usual drinking, going to learn a bit more about Buddhist religion, tradition and lifestyle. I'm fairly subbornly aetheist, but that doesn't mean I don't want to understand other belief systems, and the opportunity to see a very different lifestyle was great.
A lot of the three days was taken seeing the day to day lives of the resident monks. It was a very basic lifestyle, with no real entertainment, relatively bland vegetarian meals and not much chance to get out of the place (the nearest small village was 20 minutes drive away).
This was first and foremost a working monastry. Although they accepted visitors and ran occasional courses on Buddhism there was little provided for guests beyond meals (the same vegetarian.. stuff as the monks ate), a bed in a cold dormitory, a small shop and access to watch events in the temple.
There were few provisions for the new year, theirs starts in february, although they did acknowledge this one with a short ceremony, and there was a course running at the time, bringing in some other people who cared.
Still, since all intoxicants, including alcohol, were banned, it was all a very understated affair.
In addition to sitting in on the monks' prayer and meditation sessions, very heavily reliant on tradition and ritual, including some amazing anciant Tibettan chanting, we were also able to attend 3 course teachings.
As well as providing an interesting insight to the purposes of meditation, showing how far my assumptions of trying to clear ones mind were from the truth, the speaker went into the comparison of Eastern and Western philosophy. After indirectly bad-mouthing Socrates and Plato he had a pop at Descates.
To paraphrase:
While 'I think therefore I am' is taken as the centre of all knowledge in the West, in the East, it is the centre of all ignorance.
Personally I'd have liked to pursue that further, but with time running out I had to content myself with picking up a book from their shop, focussing on comparing Eastern and Western philosophy, to let me look into exactly what they mean a bit further. If anything interesting shows up I might post about it here.
All too soon it was time to head back to 'civilisation', but while I'm still aetheist I've definitely been affected by the experience. The peaceful and contented lifestyle simply seems a better way than our hectic, competetive world. While I may not return, it's more an education than an experience, I feel I've taken a little part of the place with me.
If you're interested, it's www.samyeling.org - cheap but difficult to get to, I really recommed going at least once.
On the 30th I was in in Scotland with one of them, in a Tibetan Buddhist monastry to spend new years, until the 1st.
Seemed preferable to the usual drinking, going to learn a bit more about Buddhist religion, tradition and lifestyle. I'm fairly subbornly aetheist, but that doesn't mean I don't want to understand other belief systems, and the opportunity to see a very different lifestyle was great.
A lot of the three days was taken seeing the day to day lives of the resident monks. It was a very basic lifestyle, with no real entertainment, relatively bland vegetarian meals and not much chance to get out of the place (the nearest small village was 20 minutes drive away).
This was first and foremost a working monastry. Although they accepted visitors and ran occasional courses on Buddhism there was little provided for guests beyond meals (the same vegetarian.. stuff as the monks ate), a bed in a cold dormitory, a small shop and access to watch events in the temple.
There were few provisions for the new year, theirs starts in february, although they did acknowledge this one with a short ceremony, and there was a course running at the time, bringing in some other people who cared.
Still, since all intoxicants, including alcohol, were banned, it was all a very understated affair.
In addition to sitting in on the monks' prayer and meditation sessions, very heavily reliant on tradition and ritual, including some amazing anciant Tibettan chanting, we were also able to attend 3 course teachings.
As well as providing an interesting insight to the purposes of meditation, showing how far my assumptions of trying to clear ones mind were from the truth, the speaker went into the comparison of Eastern and Western philosophy. After indirectly bad-mouthing Socrates and Plato he had a pop at Descates.
To paraphrase:
While 'I think therefore I am' is taken as the centre of all knowledge in the West, in the East, it is the centre of all ignorance.
Personally I'd have liked to pursue that further, but with time running out I had to content myself with picking up a book from their shop, focussing on comparing Eastern and Western philosophy, to let me look into exactly what they mean a bit further. If anything interesting shows up I might post about it here.
All too soon it was time to head back to 'civilisation', but while I'm still aetheist I've definitely been affected by the experience. The peaceful and contented lifestyle simply seems a better way than our hectic, competetive world. While I may not return, it's more an education than an experience, I feel I've taken a little part of the place with me.
If you're interested, it's www.samyeling.org - cheap but difficult to get to, I really recommed going at least once.
Whitestripes wrote:
> Don't Zen buddhists hit each other with sticks or something?
If you're a Zen student, and you are near enlightenment, and it is deemed necessary, it's quite common for a Master to strike you with a stick to provide release. There are also plenty of stories about students being hurt (and even one about having a finger cut off by their master I think) in order to provide a pathway to enlightenment.
It's been a while since I looked at anything on Buddhism, and I was only looking at the Zen side of it anyway, so it's probably entirely different for the main religion.
> Don't Zen buddhists hit each other with sticks or something?
If you're a Zen student, and you are near enlightenment, and it is deemed necessary, it's quite common for a Master to strike you with a stick to provide release. There are also plenty of stories about students being hurt (and even one about having a finger cut off by their master I think) in order to provide a pathway to enlightenment.
It's been a while since I looked at anything on Buddhism, and I was only looking at the Zen side of it anyway, so it's probably entirely different for the main religion.
Don't Zen buddhists hit each other with sticks or something?
unknown kernel wrote:
> Cool. I find Buddhism pretty interesting, especially since it's one
> of the few religions that hasn't started killing everyone who doesn't
> believe. At least, as far as I know it hasn't.
If I remember correctly, the Samurai followed a variation of Zen Buddhism at some point in thier history.
> Cool. I find Buddhism pretty interesting, especially since it's one
> of the few religions that hasn't started killing everyone who doesn't
> believe. At least, as far as I know it hasn't.
If I remember correctly, the Samurai followed a variation of Zen Buddhism at some point in thier history.
I agree.
And the fact they actualy stick by their ideals.
Which is more than most religions do.
10 Laws of God - MUST NOT BREAK AS THEY ARE GODS OWN COMMANDMENTS
Do not kill.
Okay, lets have a Holy War to defend our belief in that statement.
Yay.
And the fact they actualy stick by their ideals.
Which is more than most religions do.
10 Laws of God - MUST NOT BREAK AS THEY ARE GODS OWN COMMANDMENTS
Do not kill.
Okay, lets have a Holy War to defend our belief in that statement.
Yay.
Yeah, the monks had the attitude that they wouldn't talk about religious issues with visitors unless they were asked about it, kind of the anti-jehova's witnesses.
You can see where people come from when they believe something so strongly, and they feel the need to show everyone else the 'right' way, but all they really do is drive people away, put peoples' defenses up and generally p*** everyone off.
Buddhists rule
:^)
You can see where people come from when they believe something so strongly, and they feel the need to show everyone else the 'right' way, but all they really do is drive people away, put peoples' defenses up and generally p*** everyone off.
Buddhists rule
:^)
That sounds like quite a good experiance. Wouldn't mind doing something like that. I to am an aetheist, but Buddism is the one religion I kinda have a respect for. Even got given a happy Budda statue for xmas.
:)
:)
Cool. I find Buddhism pretty interesting, especially since it's one of the few religions that hasn't started killing everyone who doesn't believe. At least, as far as I know it hasn't.
On the 28th I met up with some old friends from way back, people I've known since I was about 3.
On the 30th I was in in Scotland with one of them, in a Tibetan Buddhist monastry to spend new years, until the 1st.
Seemed preferable to the usual drinking, going to learn a bit more about Buddhist religion, tradition and lifestyle. I'm fairly subbornly aetheist, but that doesn't mean I don't want to understand other belief systems, and the opportunity to see a very different lifestyle was great.
A lot of the three days was taken seeing the day to day lives of the resident monks. It was a very basic lifestyle, with no real entertainment, relatively bland vegetarian meals and not much chance to get out of the place (the nearest small village was 20 minutes drive away).
This was first and foremost a working monastry. Although they accepted visitors and ran occasional courses on Buddhism there was little provided for guests beyond meals (the same vegetarian.. stuff as the monks ate), a bed in a cold dormitory, a small shop and access to watch events in the temple.
There were few provisions for the new year, theirs starts in february, although they did acknowledge this one with a short ceremony, and there was a course running at the time, bringing in some other people who cared.
Still, since all intoxicants, including alcohol, were banned, it was all a very understated affair.
In addition to sitting in on the monks' prayer and meditation sessions, very heavily reliant on tradition and ritual, including some amazing anciant Tibettan chanting, we were also able to attend 3 course teachings.
As well as providing an interesting insight to the purposes of meditation, showing how far my assumptions of trying to clear ones mind were from the truth, the speaker went into the comparison of Eastern and Western philosophy. After indirectly bad-mouthing Socrates and Plato he had a pop at Descates.
To paraphrase:
While 'I think therefore I am' is taken as the centre of all knowledge in the West, in the East, it is the centre of all ignorance.
Personally I'd have liked to pursue that further, but with time running out I had to content myself with picking up a book from their shop, focussing on comparing Eastern and Western philosophy, to let me look into exactly what they mean a bit further. If anything interesting shows up I might post about it here.
All too soon it was time to head back to 'civilisation', but while I'm still aetheist I've definitely been affected by the experience. The peaceful and contented lifestyle simply seems a better way than our hectic, competetive world. While I may not return, it's more an education than an experience, I feel I've taken a little part of the place with me.
If you're interested, it's www.samyeling.org - cheap but difficult to get to, I really recommed going at least once.
On the 30th I was in in Scotland with one of them, in a Tibetan Buddhist monastry to spend new years, until the 1st.
Seemed preferable to the usual drinking, going to learn a bit more about Buddhist religion, tradition and lifestyle. I'm fairly subbornly aetheist, but that doesn't mean I don't want to understand other belief systems, and the opportunity to see a very different lifestyle was great.
A lot of the three days was taken seeing the day to day lives of the resident monks. It was a very basic lifestyle, with no real entertainment, relatively bland vegetarian meals and not much chance to get out of the place (the nearest small village was 20 minutes drive away).
This was first and foremost a working monastry. Although they accepted visitors and ran occasional courses on Buddhism there was little provided for guests beyond meals (the same vegetarian.. stuff as the monks ate), a bed in a cold dormitory, a small shop and access to watch events in the temple.
There were few provisions for the new year, theirs starts in february, although they did acknowledge this one with a short ceremony, and there was a course running at the time, bringing in some other people who cared.
Still, since all intoxicants, including alcohol, were banned, it was all a very understated affair.
In addition to sitting in on the monks' prayer and meditation sessions, very heavily reliant on tradition and ritual, including some amazing anciant Tibettan chanting, we were also able to attend 3 course teachings.
As well as providing an interesting insight to the purposes of meditation, showing how far my assumptions of trying to clear ones mind were from the truth, the speaker went into the comparison of Eastern and Western philosophy. After indirectly bad-mouthing Socrates and Plato he had a pop at Descates.
To paraphrase:
While 'I think therefore I am' is taken as the centre of all knowledge in the West, in the East, it is the centre of all ignorance.
Personally I'd have liked to pursue that further, but with time running out I had to content myself with picking up a book from their shop, focussing on comparing Eastern and Western philosophy, to let me look into exactly what they mean a bit further. If anything interesting shows up I might post about it here.
All too soon it was time to head back to 'civilisation', but while I'm still aetheist I've definitely been affected by the experience. The peaceful and contented lifestyle simply seems a better way than our hectic, competetive world. While I may not return, it's more an education than an experience, I feel I've taken a little part of the place with me.
If you're interested, it's www.samyeling.org - cheap but difficult to get to, I really recommed going at least once.