BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Bible Basics In The Name Of Jesus

They were not talking about Jesus in this post. They were talking about Buddha and how Muslims believe he is god and how Buddhists claim that he isn't.

For once, the Buddhists happen to be right.

The only God is God himself. The great I AM, the creator of Heaven and earth and all who dwell in it.

Buddha was just an obese man who preached about self control. Go figure.

I think you should double check your facts before you post. The "fat Buddha" you are referring to was not Shakyamuni Buddha who gave the teachings that are the basis for Buddhism.

If you are going to talk about religion please have at least a basic understanding of what you are talking about.

Where did the fat Buddha come from and where did it come from that he was teaching things? How many idols do you guys have that you follow there in your "religion"?

None.

Statues are not idols in Buddhism. We no more worship the Buddha statues (or the Buddha) then you wold worship a statue of George Washington or George Washington himself.

I'm in a hurry this morning, I will try to be back n later to answer your other question.

Buddhism has many divisions. you may not be worshipping idols, but many Buddhist do that. Pleaseremember that the countries in Far east have a kind of Buddhism that is different from the Tibetan. Indian Buddhists worship Buddha. we have a beautiful Buddha temple in Mumbai for Japenese Buddhists.

Hmmm...not one time did I mention the word statues. I said idols. If he is not an idol then he is a god-head and no matter how you slice it, it comes up wrong with the Word of God.

If you worship...follow...fat Buddhas, skinny Buddhas Buddhas who sit on rocks, it doesn't matter because you, Buddha, and everyone else who follows anyone except the One, is destined to a bleak, dismal, painful and very hot eternity.

Jesus loves you, won't you love Him back?

I do not think that laughing Buddha is an idol in any temple.
In fact when I see a laughing Buddha, I feel sad.
Who thought of laughing Buddha first?

The laughing Buddha is a Chinese manifestation of a monk called Mi Fo Lo....It is said that this is probably not a depiction of an actual living being, but a manifestation of an essence of Inner and Outer Joy, coupled with the amusement at seeing the perpetual habit of beings clinging to delusion and attachment...Understand, he is not laughing at them, but at the insiduous persistence of the emotions....

He is often depicted carrying a rod from a peach tree (representing long life) a gourd (filled with the elixir of enlightenment - actually empty) and a sack.... at times, this is said to be filled with sweets and gifts for children, who are more free of illusion and attachment than adults (similar to the 'Suffer the little children to come unto me, for such is the Kingdom of Heaven' passage in the Bible)and at other times, it represents the burden we all carry, of our illusory attachments and suffering....

A story tells of Mi Fo Lo wandering along a path, and carrying his sack, when he meets a Disciple, a follower, who greets him, then asks,
"Master, what is Enlightenment (illumination, Undertanding, Realisation)?"
Mi Fo Lo, in response, merely puts his sack down. It is the shedding of all the extraneous crud we insist on carrying around with us all the time.
The Follower, puzzled at this non-verbal response, asks further...
"Well, if that is it....What then?"
Mi Fo Lo merely picks up his sack, smiles and walks on.

It's not what you carry, but how you carry it. It's just how much you permit yourself to be encumbered by it all.

The statues of the Buddha in temples and other places, merely serve to remind us that the Buddha was a man, and grand as he seems to be, so can we be, if we follow his path. In fact, the Buddha constantly resisted having any likenesses of himself made, because he really didn't want anyone worshipping him, or elevating him above the level of any ordinary Human Being. So the Buddhas are not effigies or likenesses. They are merely reminders that as he was and became, so we are, and can become. In fact, there are other symbols of the Buddha which are not likenesses...the Dharma wheel is another reminder of what we strive to do, as are symbols of his footprints, denoting the path he trod, and we too can tread. The Swastika too, is a symbol of Universal, continuous Love, Compassion and Wisdom.....

Hope this helps to make anyone understand that we don't follow a person. We follow a Path. We are capable therefore, of independent logic and reasoning, by assessing the teachings against a measure of thinking and appraisal, not against what someone in a book tells us to do.

It is time for Buddhists to spread the correct meaning of laughing Buddha.

Well, I'm doing my best - !!

But as I have said before, Buddhists don't proselytise, and we only tend to answer questions when they are posed.... Then it's assumed that answers are requested because the people asking, out of curiosity, genuinely want to know. We don't heap information on people without first being asked to do so....

Most Buddhists know of this Laughing Buddha...but it's when folk ask, that we answer.

We don't 'spread information' willy-nilly.

So thanks for bringing it up, I hope it helped.