Liebling:-))) said:
I was raised in England to involve with Indians, Chinese, etc and went school with them & also work together with them, too. I learn their interesting culture and meet their families etc – their mothers wear sari and fathers wear tiara (sp) – I remember they are not allow to cut their hair off. The parents choose husband or wife to marry their children. They explained us what the God status with 8 arms is… work, living, sense, ??? I can’t remember any further… I wish to turn clock back to learn MORE about their belief. I was young, that’s time until we visited Singapore… Oh my God… Its fantastic culture which different than I know them in England. I know now it’s Buddha belief…
Actually, it may not be Buddhism, but another religion which is popular in India, called Hinduism. Do not confuse Hinduism with Buddhism.
This is the link to Hinduism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism
We visited 2 Hindu Temples. We saw Buddha statue there.
If we want go in temples then we have to remove our shoes and leave them outside… I remember the note telling us those women who have monthly cycle is not allowed to go in the temple…Why?
A buddha statue in a Hindu temple? I find that odd.
We saw Chinese temple in Kusu Island, Temple of 1,000 lights – 15 meter high figure of Buddha surrounded by chains of light and Merlin Statue, Dragon temple etc in Sentosa Island.
Why are the Dragons important to Buddhism? What special about them? It look like that they don’t believe Jesus? Right?
One would need to bear in mind that Buddhism is not a religion, but rather a guideline, just like Liza mentioned. Having said that, you may see a mixture of ideas throughout Asia. For example, in Vietnam, they follow Buddhism, with a strong emphasis on the teachings of Confucius as well. Sometimes symbols are used for many different things.
Article on Confucius:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius
Belief in dragon has nothing to do with Buddhism nor Confucius. In fact, it goes back to Chinese mythology, where Chinese people believe that they were born from dragons.
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/dragon_lion.htm
One thing I’m disagreeing is the parents choose husband and wife to marry their children. I remember to receive the story from my German friend who visits India years ago. He met deaf Indian couple and become good friend with them. He got them to tell him the story. Their parents disapproved their love and choose hearing partners to marry them. Their love is stronger and runaway together from their parents to start new life. They married with bless from neutral priest and produced a baby girl together.
Again, that is one of the beliefs in Hinduism: arranged marriages. Arranged marriages in Buddhist areas are uncommon, as far as I know. If there are any, then its probably within the stricter sects of Buddhism such as Tibetan Buddhism. There is no ONE Buddhism, as it varies greatly from one country to next.
Tell me what you think?
Why the parents choose the partners to marry their children?
Arranged marriages is a big institution in India, and I do not think it is a part of the Buddhism philosophy. One of the main parts of Buddhism thought is not to cause suffering on others, so why would they force brides to marry guys?
Honestly I wish to believe reincarnation but I still have my doubt either it’s really true or not like what I say about bible in other thread.
In one branch of Buddhism, they believe that reincarnation involves a transfer of soul into animals and such. I don't believe in that. I believe more in the life cycles, where a soul can go through different bodies (human). The goal for the "soul" is to live a life without greed, desire and such, and to attain nirvana (a completion of life cycle, an end of a life). For some people, the reincarnation cycle goes for a long time because the person has not learned or has not been "enlightened." Then, some other person's soul can reach nirvana so fast because he has been enlightened.
They don’t believe funeral and cremation. The men cut corpse off and give them to vultures to eat. When it’s over then the corpse remains were remove for bones. I remember to see the women wash to rid of flesh to clean corpse’s bones and then crash/stomp them with a large rock to make them into powder. I don’t know why they need corpse’s bones for. All what I saw is they throw flesh remains again to birds eat after finish with bones and “decorate” part of bones in their room. This is a point of Buddhist’s view. Is it something do with Karma or reincarnation?
I am not sure about this. Again, this is Tibetan Buddhism, so I would have to look it up to see why they subscribe to this custom.
Karma mean is give something away and then return something back to me. Right? Example: I donate money to orphan homes then I get something nice in return. Correct? I tried to study what Karma is. If I steal money and then get something bad in return. Correct? If yes, then yes, I beleive Karma.
No. Like Christmas, you give presents, but do not expect presents back. It is the same idea for karma. You do good deeds, but should not expect good deeds in return. You should not expect that people will do good deeds to help you out, because expectations can add to your own suffering. What if they do not fulfill your expectations? You get mad, frustrasted, and start to dislike them? Only you can control your own life, and as long as you do deeds that do not adversely effect others, then you should be fine.
My apologies for the confusion!
That´s why I´m a neutral person and do not worship to kind of religions, statues including Jesus on cross and don´t go to church to worship Jesus on the cross...
