Curious "The" Buddha Facts

[Prabhaker]

52 minutes ago, Ether said:

Whats the most interesting thing about Buddha, in your opinion?

Buddha created a religion without God. For the first time God is no longer at the center of a religion. H.G. Wells, in his world history, has written about Gautam Buddha, he writes, “Gautam Buddha is perhaps the only godless man, and yet, so godly.”

[Ether]

@Prabhaker So, I heard Hinduism focus on practicing meditation and other techniques and that Buddhism focus on being kind to each other to attain liberation. Is this correct?

Buddha did so much to attain it and he says only to love each other? Haha

[Prabhaker]

10 hours ago, Ether said:

So, I heard Hinduism focus on practicing meditation and other techniques and that Buddhism focus on being kind to each other to attain liberation. Is this correct?

Hinduism includes almost everything.  Hinduism has no "one truth" - it has multiple truths and respects opinions of all varieties. 

Want to know how Indian Law defines a Hindu -  
"A Hindu is a person who is not Muslim, Christian, Jew, or Parsee by religion."

The population in the subcontinent had no concept of religion. In the subcontinent, for millennia, God was a possibility, not an identity. Religion stems from identity.  A Hindu can be polytheist, monotheist, or atheist.

A Hindu can pray, meditate or can be a materialistic.  

Charvaka , originally known as Lokāyata and Bṛhaspatya, is the ancient school of Indian materialism. Charvaka holds direct perception, empiricism, and conditional inference as proper sources of knowledge, embraces philosophical skepticism and rejects Vedas, Vedic ritualism, and supernaturalism.

A Hindu can follow path of Yoga which lays emphasis on celibacy. A Hindu can be on path of Tantra in which sex is a door to super-consciousness. 

Hindus consider Buddha as a incarnation of God. 

[Nahm]

Somebody turn this thread into a movie script. 

[Prabhaker]

Buddha was staying in a village. A woman came to him, weeping and crying and screaming. Her child, her only child, had suddenly died. Because Buddha was in the village, people said, “Don’t weep. Go to this man. People say he is infinite compassion. If he wills it, the child can revive. So don’t weep. Go to this Buddha.” The woman came with the dead child, crying, weeping, and the whole village followed her – the whole village was affected. Buddha’s disciples were also affected; they started praying in their minds that Buddha would have compassion. He must bless the child so that he will be revived, resurrected.

Many disciples of Buddha started weeping. The scene was so touching, deeply moving. Everybody was still. Buddha remained silent. He looked at the dead child, then he looked at the weeping, crying mother and he said to the mother, “Don’t weep, just do one thing and your child will be alive again. Leave this dead child here, go back to the town, go to every house and ask every family if someone has ever died in their family, in their house. And if you can find a house where no one has ever died, then from them beg something to be eaten, some bread, some rice, or anything – but from the house where no one has ever died. And that bread or that rice will revive the child immediately. You go. Don’t waste time.”

The woman became happy. She felt that now the miracle was going to happen. She touched Buddha’s feet and ran to the village which was not a very big one, very few cottages, a few families. She moved from one family to another, asking. But every family said, “This is impossible. There is not a single house – not only in this village but all over the earth – there is not a single house where no one has ever died, where people have not suffered death and the misery and the pain and the anguish that comes out of it.”

By and by the woman realized that Buddha had been playing a trick. This was impossible. But still the hope was there. She went on asking until she had gone around the whole village. Her tears dried, her hope died, but suddenly she felt a new tranquility, a serenity, coming to her. Now she realized that whosoever is born will have to die. It is only a question of years. Someone will die sooner, someone later, but death is inevitable. She came back and touched Buddha’s feet again and said to him, “As people say, you really do have a deep compassion for people.”

[Arkandeus]

can I ask about Buddha and sex?

did the Buddha stop having sex when he enlightened?

did he forbid his disciples to engage in sexual activity? 

are there any stories related to sex?

If I may ask

light & love

[Ether]

1 hour ago, Arkandeus said:

can I ask about Buddha and sex?

did the Buddha stop having sex when he enlightened?

did he forbid his disciples to engage in sexual activity? 

are there any stories related to sex?

If I may ask

light & love

Yes. But there is a funny story about Buddha teaching two hookers lmao

[Ether]

2 hours ago, Prabhaker said:

Buddha was staying in a village. A woman came to him, weeping and crying and screaming. Her child, her only child, had suddenly died. Because Buddha was in the village, people said, “Don’t weep. Go to this man. People say he is infinite compassion. If he wills it, the child can revive. So don’t weep. Go to this Buddha.” The woman came with the dead child, crying, weeping, and the whole village followed her – the whole village was affected. Buddha’s disciples were also affected; they started praying in their minds that Buddha would have compassion. He must bless the child so that he will be revived, resurrected.

Many disciples of Buddha started weeping. The scene was so touching, deeply moving. Everybody was still. Buddha remained silent. He looked at the dead child, then he looked at the weeping, crying mother and he said to the mother, “Don’t weep, just do one thing and your child will be alive again. Leave this dead child here, go back to the town, go to every house and ask every family if someone has ever died in their family, in their house. And if you can find a house where no one has ever died, then from them beg something to be eaten, some bread, some rice, or anything – but from the house where no one has ever died. And that bread or that rice will revive the child immediately. You go. Don’t waste time.”

The woman became happy. She felt that now the miracle was going to happen. She touched Buddha’s feet and ran to the village which was not a very big one, very few cottages, a few families. She moved from one family to another, asking. But every family said, “This is impossible. There is not a single house – not only in this village but all over the earth – there is not a single house where no one has ever died, where people have not suffered death and the misery and the pain and the anguish that comes out of it.”

By and by the woman realized that Buddha had been playing a trick. This was impossible. But still the hope was there. She went on asking until she had gone around the whole village. Her tears dried, her hope died, but suddenly she felt a new tranquility, a serenity, coming to her. Now she realized that whosoever is born will have to die. It is only a question of years. Someone will die sooner, someone later, but death is inevitable. She came back and touched Buddha’s feet again and said to him, “As people say, you really do have a deep compassion for people.”

I really enjoy these stories

[Dodo]

[Prabhaker]

23 hours ago, Arkandeus said:

did the Buddha stop having sex when he enlightened?

Buddha has said it is not the nature of desire to be fulfilled. Fulfillment comes only by desirelessness. 

Buddha wanted and prescribed complete celibacy for his monks. He did not want to let women enter his Sangha. They were later on allowed on the intervention and request of Anand, when the (Mahaprajapati) maternal aunt of Buddha, who had brought up Buddha after the demise of his mother a few days after giving birth to him, and had also breastfed him, applied for entry in the Sangha.

Anand was even given a charge sheet by the Sangha after the demise of Buddha, and one of the charges was that he personally intervened to get ladies entered in the Sangha. One more charge was that he managed that the ladies get the first right to see Buddha, before the male devotees. The charge sheet was dropped, after Anand explained his position.

So, the very desire of Buddha to not let the ladies enter the order of the monks was a proof that Buddha wanted celibacy in the order, and that was why he declared that the entry of the ladies had reduced the age of his Sangha to half, from a millennium to just 500 years.

When after his enlightenment he declares that he will not initiate women into his sangha. He does so because the danger inherent in admitting women is obvious. The danger is that around a luminous man like Buddha, women can flock like moths and they can overwhelm the sangha merely with the weight of their numbers.It is not necessary that women will come to him just for spiritual growth. Buddha’s charisma, his masculine attraction will have a big hand in drawing them to him.

[Prabhaker]

In Gautam Buddha's time there was one beautiful woman -- she was a prostitute, Amrapali. One Buddhist monk was just going to beg when Amrapali saw him. She was simply amazed because kings have been at her door, princes, rich people, famous people from all walks of life. But she had never seen such a beautiful person -- and he was a monk, a beggar with a begging bowl. She was going on her golden chariot to her garden. She told the bhikkhu, "If you don't mind, you can sit with me on the chariot and I will lead you wherever you want."

She was not thinking that the bhikkhu would be ready to do it, because it was known that Buddha did not allow his bhikkhus to talk to women, or to touch any woman. And to ask him to sit on a golden chariot in the open street where there were thousands of people, hundreds of other bhikkhus, other monks...She was not hoping that he would accept the invitation, but he said, "That's good," and he climbed on the chariot and sat by her side. It was a scene. A bhikkhu with a begging bowl...!A crowd was following the chariot, "What is going on there? Nobody has ever heard..."

And then the bhikkhu said, "My camp has come. Thank you for your being so kind to a poor man. You can drop me here."

But Amrapali said, "From tomorrow, the rainy season is going to be here." In the rainy season the bhikkhus, the monks, don't move. They stay in one place -- only for the rainy season. The remaining months they are always on the move from one village to another village. "From tomorrow, the rainy season is going to begin. I invite you to stay with me. You can ask your master."

He said, "Jolly good, I will ask the master. And I don't see that he will object, because I know him -- he knows me, and he knows me more than I know him."

But before he reached, many others had reached and complained that the man had broken the discipline, the prestige, the respectability... that the man should be expelled immediately. The bhikkhu came -- Buddha asked him, "What happened?"

He told the whole thing and he said, "The woman has asked me to stay with her for the coming four months' rainy season. And I have said to her, `As I know my master I don't think there is any problem, and my master knows me better than I know him.' So what do you say?"

There were ten thousand monks, and there was pindrop silence. Gautam Buddha said, "You can accept her invitation."

It was a shock. People were thinking he would be expelled, and he was being rewarded! But what could they do. They said, "Just wait. After four months Buddha will see that he has committed a grave mistake. That young man will be corrupted in that place, in a prostitute's house. Have you ever heard of a monk staying for four months...?"

The man stayed for four months, and every day rumors were coming that "this is going wrong" and "that is going wrong." And Buddha said, "Just wait, let him come. I know he is a man who can be trusted. Whatever happens he will tell himself. I don't have to depend on rumors." And when the monk came, Amrapali was with him. He touched Buddha's feet and said, "Amrapali wants to be initiated."

Buddha said, "Look, about all these rumors... When a real meditator goes to a prostitute, the prostitute has to change into a meditator. When a repressed person who has all the sexuality and is sitting on a volcano goes to a prostitute, he falls down. He was already waiting for it -- not even a prostitute was needed. Any woman would have done that."

[Salvijus]

@Prabhaker I recognize this last story  there's a nice sadhguru's video on youtube about this event.

 

[Ether]

@Prabhaker Can you tell me more about Buddha's personality? He was charming?

Btw, I really apreciate you telling me (us) this stories!

[Ether]

@Prabhaker

On 02/06/2018 at 0:32 PM, Ether said:

@Prabhaker Can you tell me more about Buddha's personality? He was charming?

Btw, I really apreciate you telling me (us) this stories!

 

[Prabhaker]

The Buddha was about six feet tall with coal black hair and a golden brown complexion. All sources agree that the Buddha was strikingly handsome. The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion.

[Prabhaker]

Buddha was sitting under a tree. One astrologer approached him – he was very puzzled, because he saw the footprints of the Buddha on the wet sand and he could not believe his eyes. All the scriptures that he had been studying his whole life had been telling him about certain signs that exist in the feet of a man who rules the world (a chakravartin) a ruler of all the six continents, of the whole earth.

And he saw in the footprints in the wet sand on the riverbank all the symbols so clearly that he could not believe his eyes! Either all his scriptures were wrong and he was wasting his life in astrology… otherwise, how was it possible on such a hot afternoon, in such a small, dirty village, a chakravartin would come and walk barefoot, on the burning hot sand?

He followed the footprints, just in search of the man to whom these footprints belonged. He found the Buddha sitting under a tree. He was even more puzzled. The face was that of a chakravartin – the grace, the beauty, the power, the aura – but the man was a beggar, with a begging bowl!

The astrologer touched the feet of the Buddha and asked him, “Who are you, sir? You have puzzled me. You should be a chakravartin, a world ruler. What are you doing here, sitting under this tree? Either all my astrology books are wrong, or I am hallucinating and you are not really there.”

Buddha said, “Your books are absolutely right – but there is something which belongs to no category, not even to the category of a chakravartin. I am, but I am nobody in particular.”

The astrologer said, “You are puzzling me more. How can you be without being anybody in particular? You must be a god who has come to visit the earth – I can see it in your eyes!”

Buddha said, “I am not a god.”

The astrologer said, “Then you must be a gandharva – a celestial musician.”

Buddha said, “No, I am not a gandharva either.”

And the astrologer went on asking, “Then are you a king in disguise? Who are you? You can’t be an animal, you can’t be a tree, you can’t be a rock – who exactly are you?”

And the answer the Buddha gave is of immense importance to understand. He said, “I am just a Buddha – I am just awareness, and nothing else. I don’t belong to any category. Every category is an identification and I don’t have any identity.”

[Ether]

@Prabhaker  "

The astrologer said, “You are puzzling me more. How can you be without being anybody in particular? You must be a god who has come to visit the earth – I can see it in your eyes!”

Buddha said, “I am not a god.”"

 

Damn, Hindus theory is destroyed!  

[Prabhaker]

4 minutes ago, Ether said:

Damn, Hindus theory is destroyed!

Throughout the history of Hinduism there has been a strong tradition of philosophic speculation and skepticism. Buddha's contemporaries Sanjaya Belatthiputta and Mahavira also denied God.

The Upanishads (ancient Hindu scriptures) think of God not as a person but as existence itself - as the very ground of existence. Nama-rupa-ateet - beyond name, beyond form. Because Upanishads could not create the revolution, Buddha had to speak in a harsher tone. Buddha speaks the same truth as the Upanishads. 

[Dodo]

9 hours ago, Prabhaker said:

Buddha was sitting under a tree. One astrologer approached him – he was very puzzled, because he saw the footprints of the Buddha on the wet sand and he could not believe his eyes. All the scriptures that he had been studying his whole life had been telling him about certain signs that exist in the feet of a man who rules the world (a chakravartin) a ruler of all the six continents, of the whole earth.

And he saw in the footprints in the wet sand on the riverbank all the symbols so clearly that he could not believe his eyes! Either all his scriptures were wrong and he was wasting his life in astrology… otherwise, how was it possible on such a hot afternoon, in such a small, dirty village, a chakravartin would come and walk barefoot, on the burning hot sand?

He followed the footprints, just in search of the man to whom these footprints belonged. He found the Buddha sitting under a tree. He was even more puzzled. The face was that of a chakravartin – the grace, the beauty, the power, the aura – but the man was a beggar, with a begging bowl!

The astrologer touched the feet of the Buddha and asked him, “Who are you, sir? You have puzzled me. You should be a chakravartin, a world ruler. What are you doing here, sitting under this tree? Either all my astrology books are wrong, or I am hallucinating and you are not really there.”

Buddha said, “Your books are absolutely right – but there is something which belongs to no category, not even to the category of a chakravartin. I am, but I am nobody in particular.”

The astrologer said, “You are puzzling me more. How can you be without being anybody in particular? You must be a god who has come to visit the earth – I can see it in your eyes!”

Buddha said, “I am not a god.”

The astrologer said, “Then you must be a gandharva – a celestial musician.”

Buddha said, “No, I am not a gandharva either.”

And the astrologer went on asking, “Then are you a king in disguise? Who are you? You can’t be an animal, you can’t be a tree, you can’t be a rock – who exactly are you?”

And the answer the Buddha gave is of immense importance to understand. He said, “I am just a Buddha – I am just awareness, and nothing else. I don’t belong to any category. Every category is an identification and I don’t have any identity.”

Not a god, because there's only one God/reality, so we cannot use "a" before it.

[Prabhaker]

8 minutes ago, Dodo said:

Not a god, because there's only one God/reality, so we cannot use "a" before it.

Hindu deities are called as gods and goddesses in Hinduism. These deities have distinct and complex personalities, yet are often viewed as aspects of the same Ultimate Reality called Brahman. 

Hinduism is a pantheistic religion: It equates God with the universe. Yet Hindu religion is also polytheistic: populated with myriad gods and goddesses who personify aspects of the one true God, allowing individuals an infinite number of ways to worship based on family tradition, community and regional practices, and other considerations.

Different traditions of Hinduism have different views, and these views have been described by scholars as polytheism, monotheism, henotheism, panentheism, pantheism, monism, agnostic, humanism, atheism or non-theism.