Buddha Dies After Long Illness At Cedars Sinai

Run time: 04:43 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-PVm6Dvd8w   Posted on YouTube: January 27, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: January 28, 2008 By DU Member: Billysundae Views on DU: 1432

 
Resting comfortably in a single room....






Bill Maher's Real Time "Overtime" Segment

*** Bill and his guests need to wake up and google the word "war protest" "social justice".. and see how many groups come up. Everyday there are more people joining the peace/anti-war/social justice movement. Bill then says that none of the candidates speak out against the Administrations crimes. Oh, really ?? How may times did Dennis Kucinich saw we need Impeachment ? How many times was Dennis Kucinich locked out of the debate ?

There would be more people speaking out if progressives who have a TV show or radio show mentions those who are speaking out. Or actions that people are doing. Hell!, Code Pink is protesting in DC and at the Capital so much they rented a house.. who do you think is paying for that.. it is individuals like you and me. I work, yet I still give about 20 hours a week towards trying to end the occupation, end torture, impeach cheney and bush, close guantanamo, get help for veterans, make people aware of how our tax dollars are killing woman and children, and informing everyone I meet of all of the above.

In MN.. before the Invasion of Iraq there were 2 WEEKLY vigils that I knew of, now there are 2-3 everyday, and on Saturday there are 7. That is just what is in a peace calendar.. there would be individuals doing there own.

There are so many peace/anti-war/social justice groups.. I think there is a new one that springs up every couple of months. There are peace events every week. There are marches or protest rallies every 3-4 months.

Yet it is hardly ever covered by the media.. and you have to beg local Air America station to announce it.

So it is not the America people who are Iraq weary.. it is journalist and reports putting their heads in the sand and not speaking out.

there are 2 kinds of Neicherin's, NSA and SGI, a splinter group, a corporation started fairly recently, the 80's i believe.. there is a big rift, 'President I' has a piss fight with the monks and runs off with a bunch of the members.. starts his own version. it has little to do with Historical Traditional Buddhism, the Primary teachings of the Buddha are not taught, but part of one Sutra is. it is an interesting practice, my wife is NSA, it helped her a lot, we met on the way to one of her meetings in 1971. we never have hat an arguement.

it isnt considered Buddhism by many, some do, but if it makes you a more loving and tolerant person, it is a good thing

You're right.

From an interview:

Herbie Hancock: "...I have been practicing Buddhism for thirty years and the reason I practice this Buddhism. It is Nichiren Buddhism. I practice it because the philosophy is amazing. It is very open and it is very inclusive and doing the practice really helps me get a clearer vision of what it is that I need to do. The next thing is actually doing it, which takes strength and courage and wisdom and I hope to be able to develop those attributes along with others to help me be all that I can be and encourage everybody else to be all that they can be too."

is the teaching of Nieturin Diashonin, a political figure in the early 1800's, that represented the poor in feudal japan. he was a remarkable person, and his 'System' does work, but he was declared a reincarnation of the Buddha by his followers,

the practice is based on a 'Section' of the Lotus Sutra, a long metaphysical discussion between Shakyamuni, enlightened beings and other Buddhas, about the powers of magical words, mantras and incarnations. the conclusion of the discussion was that although they had power and did work, ..in Samsara they were a distraction at best.

the Buddha's first teaching was the Four Noble Truths, a logical formula for the cause of suffering. the 4th Truth is the path out of the world of suffering, the path to freeing yourself of the cycle
birth-old age-suffering-death-karmic rebirth.
http://www.buddhanet.net it is a Theravada site and a good one.

there are many flavors of Buddhism, linage is important to some, present company included. groups like SGI are simply Cults, 5 billion dollar personality cult corporation. president Ikeda is selling water by the river... google;SGI cult

in Buddhism intension counts allot.. i practiced NSA for a while till i discovered Buddhism. we were talking to a Monk and someone asked about SGI/Neichern, he politely replied, 'no Dharma, no Buddhism'.

i have deep respect for the diligent practice, good works and intension's of the followers.
but to call it Buddhism is a stretch. that would be like taking a page out of the bible, declaring yourself jesus and starting your own christian denomination

if the 'Collection' of the Shakyamuni's teachings, known as the Dharma, were bound into books the size and print of encyclopedia, it would stretch at least 6 feet side to side. Neichern involves a few pages.

Neichern started a simple practice for the illiterate poor, horribly oppressed by the Zen based oligarchy. as i said, it works to get things, a positive attitude is one of them, the NSA people are all wonderful people, but it is used to acquire things, granted in a positive way, similar to doing affermations..it is the same process. the chanting process is a good way to develop an essential aspect of the mind, also found in meditation

it is a debate usually avoided, but when people say they are a Buddhist and don't know how the Buddha died, well..that is because they don't know anything about the Buddha... how can you be a Buddhist..??

my wife was a Catholic, she didn't know "Anything" about Jesus. now she is a NSA follower and doesn't know anything about Buddha. and doesn't want to.. essentially Buddhism is based on meditation as the primary practice.

there is another traditional Buddha mentioned by Shakyamuni named Amataba, it is essentially practiced by the Chinese called Pure Land, the person Avalokiteshvara, who shows up early in Shakyamuni's quest, later becomes QuanYen, also known as Chenrezig. he has a Buddha Field where he trains Bodhisattva's to return to earth to help us poor suffering son's of bitches.. Jesus and Nieturin were probably Bodhisattva's of their time

Buddha died in his 80's. He was invited as a guest to a person's dinner, and ate some bad food, but it was not the intention of anyone to kill him. There is debate over what that food was. The translation from ancient texts is "pig food". Some have argued that Buddha ate some pork, but others say he would never eat any meat, even if it meant being rude to a host. Besides, eating pork would probably had made the Buddha violently ill, but not killed him.

However, another translation for "pig food" would be "pig's food" which could be mushrooms, as pigs often ate them. A death by mushroom poisoning would seem to be more accurate. Buddha stayed alive for several days after the poisoning, preaching his final thoughts to his followers. This would fit mushroom poisoning, which destroys the liver over a period of a few days.

I was a bit aghast at this "Buddhist" not even knowing those basic facts about Buddha's death. They are well known by any religious studies student who studies basic Buddhism. But his claim that Buddhism really is a religion would sort of support the idea that he is a somewhat ignorant Buddhist. The CNN lady had it right when she said it is a philosophy of life, not a religion. Now, that is not to say that some have not turned it into a religion in some areas. Scared people will make shrines out of anything, and worship those shrines.