Nice explanation. I was a buddhist 10 yrs ago, I converted to Christianity because I was convinced in Jesus's teaching. However, after years of reading the bible, I discovered problems of strong doubt especially on the old testament: 1.It makes no sense to me that the shed of animal's blood were used for sin atonement (old testament). Animals in Christianity are considered to be managed by human beings, and can be slaughtered as food. They dont go to either realms, hell or heaven after death. 2.It is God's order that people who worked on the sabbath day were punishable by death. The bible accounted one person was stoned to death for that. I find this is cruel. 3.Genocide in the old testament like (1 samuel 15:3, book of Joshua, etc) where children and animals were slaughtered as well. God commanded the killing as a form of punishment for years of evil practice and waging war against God's people by those tribes (amalakites and caananites). The part I cannot accept is that, why innocent infants and animals were included as well. Do they sin? Nonsense! I consulted my pastor and watched numerous christian apologist videos relating to that, the reason just doesnt make sense to me. Some says, when God sends disaster as a form of punishment for human sins, it becomes collateral damage for the surrounding. Some says it is punishment for the wicked tribes for not repenting after hundreds of years. Some says, those little wicked seeds will grow up doing the same sin as the previous generation did. Some says thats how God educated the israellites when they were still an early young nation, once they grow up to be a mature nation (takes place in the new testament) God incarnates in the human form which is Jesus bringing grace and love, no more eye for an eye law implemented. However, I find this is inconsistent with the teaching of loving your enemy (matthew 5:44). Either God in the old testament or new testament are the same essence , only appear in the different context of time. Unlike the Buddhism ahimsa (non violent) principle, it has always been consistent from the beginning to the end, thus Buddha never commanded killing as a form of punishment. Not a single story in the Buddhist scripture ever mentioned the right use of violence. 3. Anyone who dont accept Jesus as the only messiah will be judged by their sins and enter hell. Because Jesus is the only way to heaven. I have found numerous argument and reason by apologist for this. Some says, God is the ultimate judge whether atheist or non Christian enter hell or heaven. To me I dont see justice behind this law. Because think about it, not everyone is born with the choice to meet and be convinced by Jesus. Some are completey mentally disabled or crippled, some choose other belief due to not knowing which one is the true religion out of the diversity of religions. Some says, the soul will simply be perished once they die, they neither go to hell or heaven. 4.Existence of eternal hell. Human beings or sentient beings shall always be given chances to repent for their sins, if hell is designed to be eternal, where is the love and justice by God? Most people commit evil practice or deeds out of ignorance, often too late to repent during living, if they are cast in eternal hell for that, it sounds to me too cruel. Unlike the buddhist realms of existence within the circle of life and death, they all have a span of life, or time. Any hell or heaven is not eternal. Only if they reach the state of nibbana, they will no longer be reborn. 5.Everyone born in this world with different conditions, are all destined and created by God for a reason. Some are born completely poor and crippled, some are born rich and good looking. However I find the reason which suits my logic the most is the existence of reincarnation. The cause and effect law. Christians are against this law, because the bible says life is only once, and Jesus is the only way to heaven. However I find karma and reincarnation is what explains the justice of the universal law. 6.Abrahamic religions, especially christians and islam have been engaged in endless debates and confrontation for hundreds of years. I find islam is evil in the deeper doctrine which wage war against unbeliever for not converting or paying jizyah (ransom). Roman catholic and islam fought during the crusades. Nowadays, islam is becoming even more violent, however I find not few christians triggered their temperament to start violence as well. Unlike buddhist, hindus, and jainist who live in peace with each other. Not debating each other's doctrine.
This man's teachings led me to Jesus. To forgive others you must first forgive yourself! Many Christians do not know how to even start to do that. That is why there denominations are all at war with each other!
Imagine if Buddhist meditation techniques had made it to the Mediterranean and been incorporated into Stoicism. God knows how much farther advanced we'd be today, if the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions had happened in a society that already had a firmly established meditation tradition. My god!
First for you nirvana=permanent happiness After nirvana = God(Brhaman) next nirvana= free mind. Like western's thinking. god= creator when we speak about love, god=love when we speak about compassion, god=compassion et cetera... You practice Buddhism with a christian and western system of thinking. The abstract is a collage of everything, it's a thought that means everything and nothing at the same time. "GentlemanGhost1" understand Buddhism better you. His understanding of nirvana is accurate.
At the beginning Ajahn Brahm talks about some Greek philosopher who should have said "we get all our philosophy from the Indians". I made some research but could not find who and where said this. Anybody here who could help me?
There's a a video of Alan Watts talking about this topic and he must've done it a long time ago because it's in b&w television. The 1950s? Anyway, I wonder if AB ever saw it as a kid.
@Tequn9q You are absolutely correct... that's exactly what Lord Buddha wanted us to do too.. He did not want us to learn Buddhism.. He wanted us to practise it..To live it..:)
In a civilization, there is several aspects of life : rules, art, culture, language, traditions, spirituality... Religion is a form of spirituality. To summarize, western's spirituality is absolute and abstract; oriental's spirituality is relative and concrete. When the West came to Buddhism, they saw Buddhisme with their western grid so nirvana will be "permanent happiness". All that you said about nirvana are view, conceptualization from western.
@dhammmaraja Buddhism is a social philosophy, that states you don't need God to grant you libration because you can do it yourself by Practicing Dharma….If this is not what you are looking for, and if you need a God in your life, you can become a Christian or a member of anyother God worshiping brotherhood ,without trying to misinterpret the Lord Buddha’s philosophy.
A truely inspirational video. Although buddhist philosophy originated some time back I never thought it had such an influence on christianity or christ. What would be the other religions that buddhist philosophy influenced..!
@dhammmaraja I just give to you example(medicin) to show his believes(ajahn brahm) I see one of his talking, he saide only when you feel that buddhism are helping you to resolve your problem, practice it, but if you didn't feel that, leave it, and there is no need of buddhism for you he not exactly use this words, but what he saide is same meaning
@dhammmaraja When did I ever say that?...if you have trouble reading English,I can't help that..btw Ajahn Brahm doesn’t believe that physical matter is the only or fundamental reality and that physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value, and doesn’t show regard for worldly concerns in life, so how can you call him a “materialist” ?
Dhammapada, Aganna Sutta : How should we understand it ? 1) In Buddhism all leads to Brahma the suprem and impersonal God ? the ultimate goal (Nirvana) is to become Brahma and impersonal God ? 2) Or we are Brahma. The impersonal God is us (me, you, everybody...) No need to reach to Nirvana to become god since we realized the Dharma. The Dhammapada, Aganna Sutta are a presentation, a display of the superiority of the Dharma.( I go further the superiority of an awaked one, The Buddha).
@dhammmaraja Excuse me, pls don't change what you were saying...and don't be enraged,its not good for a good Buddhist to loose his/her temper...If you are so sure of what you are saying...pls be my guest ,by all means practice and believe in what you want...btw, there are no permanent gods in Buddhism, in Buddhism, nothing is permanent.
Absolute and abstract are GOD, Eternity, Permanent, Truth because these things exist only in the mind. In Buddhism the mind must be empty, free. Nothing should remain permanent in mind. Listen to the Metta song (May I, may my parents, may all beings, mays all deities...) everyone blesses everyone in his own name. Every person who listens is a person who blesses (realtivity). Look at buddhist' practices in Asia all are realtive and concrete.
are you trying to say that nirvana is not permanent???? this is show how lack of knowledge for you on buddhism nirvana is permanent, and lord buddha had mentioned it in so many time as permanent happiness, and in fact, all buddhist are agree about this
@GentlemanGhost1 I did not change what I saide you understand me wrongly!!!! there is no permanent gods, there is permanent god(brahman) if you say nothing is permanent, that mean nirvana is not permanent too!!! which is quite opposite to buddhism
@dhammmaraja Brahma (god) is different from Brahman... Brahman means the one who is "wholly awake" ...It seems to me that you don't even know much about Buddhism,for you believe that Buddha's teachings lead to Brahma,when clearly...the Buddha states in "The Sermon Of The Seven Suns" that even Brahma is not free of suffering during the end of the world, unless he overcomes it by practicing Dhamma and following the eight-fold path....when as asked what his doctrine was about ,the Buddha...
@dhammmaraja Brahma (god) is different from Brahman... Brahman means the one who is "wholly awake" ...It seems to me that you don't even know much about Buddhism, for you believe that Buddha's teachings lead to Brahma, when clearly the Buddha states in “The Sermon Of The Seven Suns" that even Brahma is not free from suffering during the end of the world, unless he overcomes it by practicing Dharma and following the eight-fold path..
Thanks. Buddhism is so complicated. In France are 2.000.000 of buddist. I see on internet Buddhist are 3 groupe: 1Tibet, 2Cylon-Birmania-Cambodgia-Thailanda, and 3China-Koreea-Vietnam-Japonia. China-Koreea consider Buddha god. Cylon-Bruma consider Buddha prophet. Whay this difference? "our universe all substances are from brahman(God)" this sound like European Pantheism. Look this List of creation myths. A romanian Mircea Eliade was one of important researcher in religion myths. He live in US.
@GentlemanGhost1 I am not the one who speak for some thing I don't know, I have experience in buddhism, all what ajahn brahm do is materialize buddhism, thats all what he do before you speak, did you know the lord buddha are reject athiest philosopher, called ajita kesakambali, read this story, the lord buddha strongly reject atheism materialism buddha teaching is lead to brahman(god), there is tone evidence approve this fact, “ I teach the way to the union with Brahman" Digha Nikaya 1.249
What Dhammaraja means by non-personal God/Brahman is that there is no "you",there is no "me","mine/yours",no "me/you" praying to the Brahman,there is only Brahman, IT,there is only IT. Yes "you" are IT,you just need to realize yourself. "We" are not "We", "We" is the One,the Brahman in all. Nirvana/Brahman/Absolute/Deathless (term doesn't really matter) is non-duality,if "you" identify with persona-non-grata,you are identifying yourself with the role you are playing. The life is a mere play,if you take it seriously,you take it personally,if you take it personally that is self identification,that is suffering,that is ignorance,that is greed,that is aversion. Unfortunately,most of the beings are ignorant of this fact. You guys are bashing Dhammaraja for telling you the truth,and you take the position of Nihilism,believing that you are indeed a person,"more or less a real ego entity,that is completely annihilated at death..." The other position, Eternalism would be again taking yourself as a an ego entity and taking something to be yours,(your) Self : "This is me,this is my Self,this is the world,after death I shall remain unchanged and eternal." . Purified, "self" realized Citta=Atman=Brahman. But yes,to realize this "you" "has" to die. Your every belief (as being a person) and attachment to the World needs to be uprooted. You need to watch your mind whole day,i.e mind has to watch itself and see how some things just go by themselves. OK,for every spiritual person,it is clear that you are not the body,and ok you can get over the feelings,but to see sana,sankhara,vinnana arising and falling conditionally,takes great effort. Your attachments,fears,doubts (kilesas and asavas) arise from them,because "you" believe that you are a person,that you own your memory and that memory is you and yourself,that thinking is you and yourself,that your habitual tendencies are you and yourself,that all arises from contact with consciousness etc. All the kilesas and asavas and wrong views have to be destroyed in order for the 5 khandas to be the horses and chariot,and "you" be the charioteer,the mover at will (with kamma transcended, Dhamma established in the heart,not kilesas and asavas,"you" are free)
@GentlemanGhost1 I see some of his talking, he think that buddhism is no more than tool, use it when we have problem, exactly like medicine, after we healing from illness we leave the medicine, he think buddhism like that!!!! thats why I call him materialist
@dhammmaraja Buddha can be regarded as the greatest physician who lived on the earth. His medicine was for the mind. He said "whatever you do, the body will get sick, but dont ever let your mind..I have never seen him saying what you say he did,Ajahn Brahm may have compared it to a medicine,which is what Buddhism is...but never leaving the medicine...because you are never fully cured until Nirvana.
@GentlemanGhost1 excuse me, you don't know much about buddhism!!! here when I speak, I don't mean brahmas(gods) like baka brahma, maha brahma etc... all these brahmas will die and suffering I speak about brahman(permanent god), the buddha always say his teaching is lead to brahman not brahmas, don't be confuse the word brahman famously know in india as God, and according to pali or sanskrite language brahman clearly mean god, nothing to do with the one who awake
Okay first, don't type in CAPS cause no one will take you seriously. Truth comes from the heart. Are you saying Adam and Eve were stupid before they ate from the 'Tree of Knowledge'? who the hell makes such a stupid name. Sorry but the Buddha did not believe in 'silly things' so therefore a talking serpent is impossible. Why do we need Buddha to forgive our sins? what is wrong with you guys? how does 1 person dying affect anyone else?
Do you know why Buddha don't talk about God to people ? When people ask him if God exist Buddha did not answer. Why ? Because when people start to think about God, christian's God or Brahma, people lose their freedom of mind. What they do, think they always end with this absolute. you ! If a buddhist must become someone is would be Buddha. Become Deva (god in pali), Bodhisattva are only intermediate steps befor being Buddha. You are like a brahmin in the mūlapariyāya sutta.
Brahman God is not creator..and not love..its different from western concept of jesus god and I am not practiced under western..western buddhists did not recognized God Nirvana is same as brahman and not after
yeah, buddhism today have three sects,Vajrayana(Tibet Bhutan, Mongolia) Theravada(Thailand cambodia sri lanka laos burma) mahayana(china korea japan vietnam taiwan singapore malaysia) buddhism originally is not complicated its just because its distorted after thousands years, mixes with a lots of cultures Buddha considered by all buddhists as only human,he is not prophet nor god..some interent sites spread wrong things about Buddhism,if you want the real buddhism, see Pali Tipitaka,buddha words
God in buddhism is nonpersonal god, its didn't really interfer with our universe in order to reach Nirvana, we have to follow Buddha teaching of eightfold path, that will lead to nirvana or to be born in heaven as devas(impermanent gods), not heaven sense of christianity, so it will be easier to go nirvana as devas or demi gods buddhist do believe that some demi gods or spirit beings or bodhisatvas do help us there is a story that one of brahmas gods(not brahman) ask buddha to spread teaching
No..we are not yet a brahman according to buddha..we have to reach Nirvana in order to reach god or brahman "Not by matted hair, by lineage, nor by birth (caste) does one become a Brahman. But the one in whom there abide truth and righteousness, he is pure; he is a Brahman." Dhammapda
no, there is no such thing in Buddhism, female can get for sure enlightment as male, Yasodhara the ex Buddha wife, has become enlightment. its just some sexist monk preach that, especialy in Thailand, don't lesting to them please don't lesting to some fake monk, whoe wear as monk but they are not, in buddhism today, its become really a big problem, real monks are rare
who tell you Buddha didn't talk about God?? you. obviously..never read the Buddhist Suttas..Which Buddha mentioned Brahman many times..Go read Aganna Sutta..you will find the differences between Deva(gods) and brahman (impersonal God)..Read Dhammapada and you will understand who is Brahman However..its seems like you have already make absolute judges, due to your dislike of your former religion
Tung Nguyen, Thanks for your brave comment, Siddhartha Gouthama was a Hindu prince surounded by many wifes and dancing girls apart from his own wife Yasodara until the age of 29. His claim of enlightmen is a common fraud of that day same as the anatta and Nirvana illusions. I used to be a Buddhist but I gave my religion up after reading original Buddhist and Hindu scriptures. I am a happy atheist now so my advocacy is give up all religions and be a intelligen, logical and reasonal person.
First of all, my deepest compassion to you. As a Buddhist, I genuinely hope you will find ways out of suffering in life. I would like to point out to other readers of your comment, that you do not seem to possess any knowledge of Buddhism at all. I am unsure of your claim that he had several wives because in many Buddhist scriptures, only Yaśodharā (Gopa) was mentioned. Even if Siddhartha Gautama had more than one wife, why is it surprising considering that the events took place more than 2500 years ago? Many kings then had wives and concubines. And I don't think it is important because Siddhartha Gautama was a human being after all, subject to the woes, cravings and suffering of all men. You have to understand that despite all the wealth, comfort and the various concubines or wives he enjoyed in his youth, he saw no value in them. He became disenchanted by them and essentially gave all that up for the sake of enlightenment. He left the comfort of his palace, stayed under the Bodhi tree without food for long periods, meditating. Would you have been willing to do that if you were Gautama? Buddhism is all about putting an end to suffering, and Gautama discovered that meditation was the only way. During his time, thousands of people became enlightened because of him. I don't think your claim of his enlightenment being a fraud is valid. Have you tried meditating? Have you discovered the peace in it? Unless you have tried following his teachings all the way through, I really don't think you understand Buddhism. Buddhism is all about observing reality as it is.
according to Buddha, our universe all substances are from brahman(God),including the earth,the earth itself has been empty long time without living beings, the first living being born in earth was being that came from another celestial world(not heaven in sense of christianity), there are like a creature from light, after long time in earth, the light beings start getting so different, and start forming many different bieng include humans as a result of substances thery eat in earth
@GentlemanGhost1 I did not believe in christianity, the christian god is false, he is human claim to be god thats all according to lord buddha in pali tipitaka, the god(brahman) did not control universe, so we achieve nibbana by practicing noble eightfold path, we discover the secrets of universe and law of universe and god(brahman) by only follow buddha teaching, the buddha say that in pali tipitaka, all the problem here that western buddhist force buddhism to be athiest
Buddhism is man made. Gautama practiced six years then became a Buddha. Today, Buddhists follow Gatama' s method but the world don't have alive Buddha. Some of Buddhist monk practice when they was a boy until they died. Why do they can become a Buddha as Guatama? Why???? Something wrong with Gautama 's method or Buddhism is liar. Please, show me a realistic in Buddhism or just a rumor, made up story from Buddhist clerks. If Buddhism is realytic, the East should be better than the West. The Christian more democracy and make man and women are equal. Buddhist accepted and sake hand with human bad behaviors. Buddhist king, wealthy Buddhist man could have many wifes, even young girl under age. No right and wrong is clearly in Buddhism. Buddhism didn't effect and change human life to the right thing as Christian. Strong man lazily sit than breath in, breath out. He meditates but didn't bring food for sociality. That means: lazy and selfish.
First of all, my deepest compassion to you. As a Buddhist, I genuinely hope you will find ways out of suffering in life. I would like to point out to other readers of your comment, that you do not seem to possess any knowledge of Buddhism, or let alone, Christianity at all. I am unsure of your claim that he had many wives because in many Buddhist scriptures, only Yaśodharā (Gopa) was mentioned. Even if Siddhartha Gautama had more than one wife, why is it surprising considering that the events took place more than 2500 years ago? Many kings then had wives and concubines. And I don't think it is important because Siddhartha Gautama was a human being after all, subject to the woes, cravings and suffering of all men. You have to understand that despite all the wealth, comfort and the various concubines or wives he enjoyed in his youth, he saw no value in them. He became disenchanted by them and essentially gave all that up for the sake of enlightenment. He left the comfort of his palace, stayed under the Bodhi tree without food for long periods, meditating. Would you have been willing to do that if you were Gautama? Buddhism is all about putting an end to suffering, and Gautama discovered that meditation was the only way. During his time, thousands of people became enlightened because of him. So yes, the only way he could have discovered the ultimate truth of life and a way to end suffering is through awareness of breathing. Why would you feel the need to bring food to the society, when you can bring a greater gift to the world : A way to end suffering forever? Besides in Buddhism, of course monks and the Buddha himself were perfectly capable of finding food on their own. But in order for the people around to gain good karma through giving and generosity, they make it so that only when food is offered to them, can they eat it. It is through sessions of offering food to monks and the Buddha, that ordinary people could simultaneously engage in intelligent discussions with the monks and the Buddha, and gain insightful knowledge from them. Such ways of offering also inculcate values of giving and generosity, allowing laymen and laywomen to gain very good karma.
@@HtetHtetAung92 Nice explanation. I was a buddhist 10 yrs ago, I converted to Christianity because I was convinced in Jesus's teaching. However, after years of reading the bible, I discovered problems of strong doubt especially on the old testament: 1.It makes no sense to me that the shed of animal's blood were used for sin atonement (old testament). Animals in Christianity are considered to be managed by human beings, and can be slaughtered as food. They dont go to either realms, hell or heaven after death. 2.It is God's order that people who worked on the sabbath day were punishable by death. The bible accounted one person was stoned to death for that. I find this is cruel. 3.Genocide in the old testament like (1 samuel 15:3, book of Joshua, etc) where children and animals were slaughtered as well. God commanded the killing as a form of punishment for years of evil practice and waging war against God's people by those tribes (amalakites and caananites). The part I cannot accept is that, why innocent infants and animals were included as well. Do they sin? Nonsense! I consulted my pastor and watched numerous christian apologist videos relating to that, the reason just doesnt make sense to me. Some says, when God sends disaster as a form of punishment for human sins, it becomes collateral damage for the surrounding. Some says it is punishment for the wicked tribes for not repenting after hundreds of years. Some says, those little wicked seeds will grow up doing the same sin as the previous generation did. Some says thats how God educated the israellites when they were still an early young nation, once they grow up to be a mature nation (takes place in the new testament) God incarnates in the human form which is Jesus bringing grace and love, no more eye for an eye law implemented. However, I find this is inconsistent with the teaching of loving your enemy (matthew 5:44). Either God in the old testament or new testament are the same essence , only appear in the different context of time. Unlike the Buddhism ahimsa (non violent) principle, it has always been consistent from the beginning to the end, thus Buddha never commanded killing as a form of punishment. Not a single story in the Buddhist scripture ever mentioned the right use of violence. 3. Anyone who dont accept Jesus as the only messiah will be judged by their sins and enter hell. Because Jesus is the only way to heaven. I have found numerous argument and reason by apologist for this. Some says, God is the ultimate judge whether atheist or non Christian enter hell or heaven. To me I dont see justice behind this law. Because think about it, not everyone is born with the choice to meet and be convinced by Jesus. Some are completey mentally disabled or crippled, some choose other belief due to not knowing which one is the true religion out of the diversity of religions. Some says, the soul will simply be perished once they die, they neither go to hell or heaven. 4.Existence of eternal hell. Human beings or sentient beings shall always be given chances to repent for their sins, if hell is designed to be eternal, where is the love and justice by God? Most people commit evil practice or deeds out of ignorance, often too late to repent during living, if they are cast in eternal hell for that, it sounds to me too cruel. Unlike the buddhist realms of existence within the circle of life and death, they all have a span of life, or time. Any hell or heaven is not eternal. Only if they reach the state of nibbana, they will no longer be reborn. 5.Everyone born in this world with different conditions, are all destined and created by God for a reason. Some are born completely poor and crippled, some are born rich and good looking. However I find the reason which suits my logic the most is the existence of reincarnation. The cause and effect law. Christians are against this law, because the bible says life is only once, and Jesus is the only way to heaven. However I find karma and reincarnation is what explains the justice of the universal law. 6.Abrahamic religions, especially christians and islam have been engaged in endless debates and confrontation for hundreds of years. I find islam is evil in the deeper doctrine which wage war against unbeliever for not converting or paying jizyah (ransom). Roman catholic and islam fought during the crusades. Nowadays, islam is becoming even more violent, however I find not few christians triggered their temperament to start violence as well. Unlike buddhist, hindus, and jainist who live in peace with each other. Not debating each other's doctrine.
@dhammmaraja When did I ever say that?...if you have trouble reading English,I can't help that..btw Ajahn Brahm doesn’t believe that physical matter is the only or fundamental reality and that physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value, and doesn’t show regard for worldly concerns in life, so how can you call him a “materialist” ?
