Buddhism In the Eyes of Intellectuals

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Kusala
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Buddhism In the Eyes of Intellectuals

Post by Kusala »


“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description.”

Albert Einstein
Last edited by Kusala on Mon May 28, 2012 6:51 am, edited 2 times in total.
"He, the Blessed One, is indeed the Noble Lord, the Perfectly Enlightened One;
He is impeccable in conduct and understanding, the Serene One, the Knower of the Worlds;
He trains perfectly those who wish to be trained; he is Teacher of gods and men; he is Awake and Holy. "

--------------------------------------------
"The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One,
Apparent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation,
Leading to liberation, to be experienced individually by the wise. "
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Kusala
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Re: Buddhism In the Eyes of Intellectuals

Post by Kusala »


“A Buddhist is not a slave to a book or to any person. Nor does he sacrifice his freedom of thought by becoming a follower of the Buddha. He can exercise his own free will and develop his knowledge even to the extent of attaining Buddhahood himself, for all are potential Buddhas.”

Ven. Narada Maha Thera "What is Buddhism"
"He, the Blessed One, is indeed the Noble Lord, the Perfectly Enlightened One;
He is impeccable in conduct and understanding, the Serene One, the Knower of the Worlds;
He trains perfectly those who wish to be trained; he is Teacher of gods and men; he is Awake and Holy. "

--------------------------------------------
"The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One,
Apparent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation,
Leading to liberation, to be experienced individually by the wise. "
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Kusala
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Re: Buddhism In the Eyes of Intellectuals

Post by Kusala »

“Buddhism would remain what it is even if it were proved that the Buddha never lived.”

Christmas Humphreys, "Buddhism"
"He, the Blessed One, is indeed the Noble Lord, the Perfectly Enlightened One;
He is impeccable in conduct and understanding, the Serene One, the Knower of the Worlds;
He trains perfectly those who wish to be trained; he is Teacher of gods and men; he is Awake and Holy. "

--------------------------------------------
"The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One,
Apparent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation,
Leading to liberation, to be experienced individually by the wise. "
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Kusala
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Re: Buddhism In the Eyes of Intellectuals

Post by Kusala »


“To read a little Buddhism is to realize that the Buddhists knew, two thousand five hundred years ago, far more about our modem problems of psychology than they have yet been given credit for. They studied these problems long ago and found their answers too.”

Dr. Graham Howe
"He, the Blessed One, is indeed the Noble Lord, the Perfectly Enlightened One;
He is impeccable in conduct and understanding, the Serene One, the Knower of the Worlds;
He trains perfectly those who wish to be trained; he is Teacher of gods and men; he is Awake and Holy. "

--------------------------------------------
"The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One,
Apparent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation,
Leading to liberation, to be experienced individually by the wise. "
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mikenz66
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Re: Buddhism In the Eyes of Intellectuals

Post by mikenz66 »

Interesting quotes, Kusala.

I recall back on E-Sangha there was a protracted discussion over whether that Einstein quote had a credible source. I recall it was said to be in a book, but no-one had managed to get access to it.

Of course, it could well be something Einstein said. But since the statement
... it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.
is rather general, could refer to many religions, and would probably be a better fit to Vedic/Hindu than Buddhist ideas, it seems that Einstein didn't have much of a grasp of the details of Eastern religions.

An interesting "non-quote" from an intellectual is in Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion.

I don't have a copy (so the following may not be completely accurate) but I remember getting quite excited by his description of how it feels like there is a little man inside our head controlling our body, that this is a powerful illusion, but as a scientist he knows that it is false, you can't find that little man in there...
I was waiting expectantly for him to point out that the Buddha figured this out 2500 years ago, but obviously he knew nothing about Buddhism, apart from that it didn't involve God, so wasn't as bad as those other religions...

:anjali:
Mike
jason c
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Re: Buddhism In the Eyes of Intellectuals

Post by jason c »

Kusala wrote:
“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description.”

Albert Einstein
:clap:
hi kusala,
i like this quote very much. einstein posessed a wonderful mind. it is my personal belief that he experienced a form of liberation which enabled him to think in a 4 dimensional way. he definately had some abilities similar to the buddha's, meaning they arose from his own effort, not from this teaching or that teaching. he was truly wise.

metta,
jason.
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Sam Vara
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Re: Buddhism In the Eyes of Intellectuals

Post by Sam Vara »

Einstein might have been a scientific genius, but there does seem to be a definite "halo effect" which colours the way in which his non-scientific expressions are received. Just like Bertrand Russell, there is little outside his area of specialism that makes his opinions superior to those of many other moderately intelligent contemporaries.
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Dhammabodhi
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Re: Buddhism In the Eyes of Intellectuals

Post by Dhammabodhi »

Hi Kusala,

Thanks for the quotes. However, the Einstein quote seems to be spurious. Nowhere on the web can you find a reliable reference to Einstein's writings or interviews where he has said such a thing.

:anjali:
"Take rest, take rest."-S.N.Goenka
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hanzze_
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Re: Buddhism In the Eyes of Intellectuals

Post by hanzze_ »

I read one time, that Einstein, the more he discovered, the more he did not find any essence and he worried, if there is nothing inherent, there will be also no God. As he was very devoted, this was one reason, that he stopped his further investigation. He did not want to loose his God and his believe. When I read this had the thought, sad that he never come in touch with this teachings.
But I can not remember where I read it. As I saw this statement here some times ago on internet, I also had doubt that it would be from Einstein.

How ever, there is a good story, which is actual very buddhistic but just missing the way to be cool:
Einstein Proves God Exists

The professor of a university challenged his students with this question. "Did God create everything that exists?" A student answered bravely, "Yes, he did".

The professor then asked, "If God created everything, then he created evil. Since evil exists (as noticed by our own actions), so God is evil. The student couldn't respond to that statement causing the professor to conclude that he had "proved" that "belief in God" was a fairy tale, and therefore worthless.

Another student raised his hand and asked the professor, "May I pose a question? " "Of course" answered the professor.

The young student stood up and asked : "Professor does Cold exists?"

The professor answered, "What kind of question is that? ...Of course the cold exists... haven't you ever been cold?"

The young student answered, "In fact sir, Cold does not exist. According to the laws of Physics, what we consider cold, in fact is the absence of heat. Anything is able to be studied as long as it transmits energy (heat). Absolute Zero is the total absence of heat, but cold does not exist. What we have done is create a term to describe how we feel if we don't have body heat or we are not hot."

"And, does Dark exist?", he continued. The professor answered "Of course". This time the student responded, "Again you're wrong, Sir. Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in fact simply the absence of light. Light can be studied, darkness can not. Darkness cannot be broken down. A simple ray of light tears the darkness and illuminates the surface where the light beam finishes. Dark is a term that we humans have created to describe what happens when there's lack of light."

Finally, the student asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?" The professor replied, "Of course it exists, as I mentioned at the beginning, we see violations, crimes and violence anywhere in the world, and those things are evil."

The student responded, "Sir, Evil does not exist. Just as in the previous cases, Evil is a term which man has created to describe the result of the absence of God's presence in the hearts of man."

After this, the professor bowed down his head, and didn't answer back.

The young man's name was ALBERT EINSTEIN.
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