The Barbarism of the Buddha

[Adalbertus]

Re: The Barbarism of the Buddha

Originally posted by aneeshm
In a recent discussion on Mohammed, the point came up that all religious leaders and founders are flawed and were barbaric by modern standards.

Of course. And we are barbaric by their standards. The question is whether they were barbaric by the standards of their time.

[Heresson]

No, what's important is if they are barbaric by our standarts, because their religions give them as example for all the ages.
I believe we're more enlightened then people 1400 or 2000 years ago... it's Enlightment's notion, but I think progress exists... at least up till now.

[Heresson]

Re: The Barbarism of the Buddha

Does anyone here know of anything the Buddha did which could be called barbaric by modern standards?

He was Indian

[DaShi]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Actually, only Chinese and Japanese Buddhas are chubby.

And not all of them. In China, you can see the type of Buddha that aneeshm has pictured. Also, China has a female Buddha so Buddha can get his enlightened groove on.

[Impaler[WrG]]

Buddism definatly seems (to us Westoners) to be the most Pasifist major religion. Certainly Budda set a strong example but I think another contributing factor would be how the ruling classes treated Buddism. The ruling classes tend to be able to distort a religion to serve their purposes, say for example to justify a war or their own position at the top of society. I dont know much of the History here but from what I gather Hinduism has and always was predominent in India, Buddism spread very far but never became the state religion of a War-like nation that distorted it for self-justification. If thats due to an inherent quality of Buddism its-self (Its cant be assimilated like Species 8472, yes I just compared Buddism to StarTrek ) or if its just an acident of history I cant realy say.

[Drake Tungsten]

Actually, only Chinese and Japanese Buddhas are chubby.

They're not chubby, either. The fat "Buddhas" you see in American Chinese restaurants are actually statues of Hotei (Jp.), the Chinese god of plenty.

[senowen]

Originally posted by LordShiva


That's biologically unlikely. He was probably at least a little overweight as a prince, and substantially underweight as an ascetic and beggar.

What about when he eschewed asceticism as misguided? That is always what I think about when I see the fat Buddha, not him as a prince, but him at the time he reached enlightenment.

[senowen]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

Actually, only Chinese and Japanese Buddhas are chubby.

They're not chubby, either. The fat "Buddhas" you see in American Chinese restaurants are actually statues of Hotei (Jp.), the Chinese god of plenty.

I saw plenty of heavyset Buddhas while I was in China in Buddhist temples. But there are also plenty of thin ones. They represent different things. You can usually tell its Buddha by the position of the hands. But I don't have a good explanation off the top of my head at this moment.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by senowen


I saw plenty of heavyset Buddhas while I was in China in Buddhist temples. But there are also plenty of thin ones. They represent different things. You can usually tell its Buddha by the position of the hands. But I don't have a good explanation off the top of my head at this moment.

You and Drake are both right, I think. The "Fat Buddha" has his origins in Chinese folk religion, as the God of Plenty (and of Luck, iirc). The Chinese tended to encounter philosophical systems like Buddhism and Taoism and incorporate them into their non-codified folk beliefs, so that there's now been some merger between the two.

[Drake Tungsten]

Hotei's not a Buddha, though. Depending on which explanation you adhere to, he was either an arhat or a Chan monk...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Hotei's not a Buddha, though. Depending on which explanation you adhere to, he was either an arhat or a Chan monk...

True. I meant that the iconography has merged.

[Drake Tungsten]

I don't know about China, but in Japan Hotei and the rest of the Seven Lucky Gods are very different in terms of iconography from buddhas, bodhisattvas and other members of the Buddhist pantheon.

[Datajack Franit]

Was Buddha a sociopath, pedophile, Jew murderer as well?

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Ate to excess.

[BeBMan]

Re: The Barbarism of the Buddha

Originally posted by aneeshm
When I googled "criticism of Buddha", I came up with nothing.

I'm surprised Tass didn't explain you the reason for this, which is simply that Buddha exterminated all his enemies, so there's nobody left to speak out the truth.