053: Finding Namo

The last post has been interesting - not the post itself but the comments from you folks out there! After all, that blog was merely a poll, and yet you were all riled-up to leave a whopping 61 comments!! Amazing.

A DIVERSE BELIEF
One of the things that stood out to me was the subject of Buddhism, thanks to reader wits0. Now, I have always dreaded touching this subject for the simple reason that Buddhism and Siddhartha Gautama himself are still largely a mystery to me. For one, there are a vast number of Buddhists sects out there and their practices and beliefs are quite different from one another. And the fact of the matter, there aren't many practicing Buddhists out there who can speak authoritatively about their religion - so my understanding of the subject is at best, skimming the surface!

I got to know a Buddhist monk a couple of years back. This guy had left his vocation as a head waiter and occasional electrician to don the saffron robe. After a couple of years' discipleship in a monastery in Thailand, he returned to KL. It was then that I met him. I was hoping to learn more, but unfortunately he didn't much to offer. For one, his beliefs involved a lot of superstitions and rituals. On the other hand, I have always heard people say that Buddhism is not so much a religion as it is a philosophy. Perhaps his brand of Buddhism was a blend of Siddhartha's teachings as well as the local culture - which happens to a lot of religions, even Islam and Christianity. But with Islam and Christianity, you CAN tell when the practices are a little off. It's more vague in Buddhism.

BIRTH OF BUDDHISM
Here's what I know of Buddha in a nutshell. Siddhartha Gautama was born around 580 BC. He was an heir to a kingdom at the Indian-Nepalese border. Since his birth, and his mother's subsequent death, Siddhartha's father has sought to protect his son. As a result, Sid led a pretty sheltered life. Then comes the fateful day when he decides to explore the world. He witnesses four sights that would alter his life forever - a sick man, a poor man, a beggar and a corpse. He then decides to find an end to mankind's suffering. In doing so, Sid becomes the Buddha, the Enlightened one and discovers the 4 Noble Truths:

1. All human life is suffering (dhukka)
2. All suffering is caused by human desire, the desire to make impermanent things permanent
3. Human suffering can be ended by ending human desire.
4. Desire can be ended by following the "Eightfold Noble Path": right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

And then Buddha devises the "Middle Way" - a lifestyle between the two extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. And that's about the gist of it.

IDLE WORSHIP
Now if you've been following so far, you'd realise how logical and natural Buddhism is. But then comes the stories of reincarnation and rebirth which is a little more "supernatural". Now this is fine and perfectly acceptable in a religion that believes in a "supernatural" god or gods. But Buddhist don't actually believe in a creator god. In fact, it's not far-fetched to say that a Buddhists is his own god! A Buddhist doesn't pray to god, just to the Buddha within himself.

Here's where things start to bug me. If indeed they are praying to themselves, then why, oh why do they need joss sticks or incense? And why do they bring flowers and offerings to the statues of Buddha? Some people say that this is for respect, or for remembrance. At this, I must offer a reality check - Buddha is dead and gone. But he's not forgotten. Over the millennia that has been, countless of statues have been erected in memory of the great sage - actions which I accept to be marks of respect. But when Buddhists bring offerings to the altar of Buddha, to me that's just idle worship and idol worship. I'm sure not all Buddhists worship like this but I have yet to personally meet one who didn't.

TEXT BOOK RELIGION?
I am told that Theravada Buddhism is probably the closest to the way Siddhartha Gautama intended it to be. But unless you've read the Tipitaka back-to-back, you might never really know what that is. Incidentally, the Tipitaka can be best described as the Big Book of Buddhism. And big, it is! Its voluminous contents are 11 times that of the Christian Bible.

That said, has any Buddhist here ever read the entire Tipitaka? Is there one sect of Buddhism here in Malaysia that is faithful to the teachings of Gautama Buddha? I have many more thoughts and questions about this. Perhaps god-willing, I will blog again soon. By the way, in the essence of this post, "god-willing" would have to mean my flesh be willing. Hehheh! And the flesh is still reeling from the CNY that was!

a freudian spit generated @ 4:29 PM | |

 
052: Happy Lunar New Year

Wow! Looks like I haven't been here awhile. Even the comments to my last post is piling up. Well, it's been a really hectic week last week so I never got round to it. And it looks like I'm not gonna get to it today as well since I'm shooting up north in a couple of hours. And I really don't expect to be able to get any internet access there. So looks like I'll only be back blogging after the holidays.

Anyway, if Gong Xi Fa Cai to you and may this year of the wooden monkey bring you much happiness and prosperity. Have a good holiday and drive safely!

a freudian spit generated @ 4:16 PM | |

 
051: Do You Believe in God? Take the Poll!

Let's take stock of what we believe! But before you start voting, please read the folowing first so that we're on the same wavelength.

In matters of religion, some people say that we're seperated into two categories. Either you believe in God (or Gods), or you don't. But I think in a Malaysian context, there just might be one more category - the one where you refuse the notion of a God but accept that is an unseen force (or forces). For simplicity, I shall refer to this unseen force as a "supernatural" force. If you say you believe in supernatural forces, I will take it to mean you believe or practice ONE OR MORE of the following.

1. You believe in spiritual possessions and deliverances.
2. You believe in seances and communicating with the spirit world.
3. You believe in divination and fortune-telling.
4. You believe that there are ghosts and spirits.
5. You believe that bomohs, pawangs, priests or shamans have magical powers
6. You believe that certain items, colours, numbers can bring good or bad luck.
7. You believe that dreams are a vision of the future or past.

Remember. For the sake of the poll, if you believe in either one or more of the above, then you believe in the supernatural. Okay then, let the voting begin!




a freudian spit generated @ 6:58 PM | |

 
050: A Grave Mistake

A couple of days back I managed to catch a glimpse of Edisi Siasat on NTV7. I love this programme! Apparently, the Malays have gotten onto the bandwagon of the oldest Get-Rich-Quick scheme - "Puja Kubur" (Grave Worship). Now lest anyone thinks I'm racist, I specifically mention Malays for the simple reason that I have always thought that only the Chinese and Indians believe in communicating with the dead. Was I being naive?

MONEY FOR NOTHING
Here's the scenario: We have a bunch of folks going to an Islamic cemetery, leaving some offerings of jossticks, fruits and chicken. In return, they want nombor ekor (4-digit gaming numbers). Of course the assumption is that the dead will oblige, give them the damn (pun intended) numbers which they will bet heavily on the next draw date in the hopes of striking it rich. Good grief! Is nothing sacred anymore that man would resort to such deeds just for money? Do these people know that Islam forbids this?

Here's the thing, firstly if you've ever gone grave-worshipping, then you'd know that there's something evil about all of this. After all, don't forget who it is you're praying to - someone already dead. Secondly, grave-worshippers also know that nothing good can come out of such ill-gotten gains. You might have heard this favourite urban legend amongst the grave-woshippers:

A poor schmoe decides to do something about his hand-to-mouth situation by turning to the darkside. Someone had told him that if he took the "pak-kam" (funeral donations) from his grandfather's funeral and bet it on the horses, he'd strike it rich. So the guy does it and goes off to the race tracks. Sure enough, he picks the winning horse. With his winnings, the guy buys a shitload of stuff and a new car to celebrate! You probably guessed it; he crashes his car and dies a horrible and gruesome death.

GOOD GOD, BAD DEEDS
Personally, I've always felt that man needs religion. While I can't say I'm affiliated religiously to any particular movement, I believe praying is good for the soul. But you gotta draw a line somewhere, folks! Praying to a dead person seems wrong in so many ways than I care to elaborate. Isn't praying to God good enough?

Here's a thought that might rattle some of you. I have many Taoist friends who go to temples to get "ang-kong numbers" so they can bet and win money. Some even go through elaborate rituals of bathing in "7-flowers water" and releasing pigeons and tortoises into the wild to cast away their bad karma. Just so that they'd be successful at the gambling tables. Now, consider this: Gambling is a vice. If you agree, then surely you must wonder: Why would a good god give you any blessings in a bad thing?

a freudian spit generated @ 5:12 PM | |

 
049: Food Of The Gods

The Mad Cows have taken the United States of America. The Mad Cow Disease or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) was first discovered in UK. basically, cows with the disease go quite nuts. Then when we eat them, we lose our mental faculties and our motor skills. And our brains just waste away progressively until we die. So, don't eat beef. Apparent, they've discovered the disease in deers as well. So no venison as well!

Some years back, right in our backyard, we had the Japanese Encephalitis (JE). Pigs were killing us, technically. Mosquitos that fed on sick pigs were passing the disease to us. And the leaders of our favourite opposition party screamed, "See? Told you so. No pork!". So it is. No pork. In 1997, Hong Kong had the Chicken Flu. Some people died after coming in contact with infected chickens. So, stay away from poultry. Most recently, we had SARS. Some people blamed the poor pig. Other blamed the horse. Some people think its the monkey. The monkey is also blamed for AIDS. And Ebola.

ARE YOU WHAT YOU EAT?
Some people think that God is systematically wiping us out with the food we eat. But chew on this for a moment: Cows got sick because Man fed cow parts to cows. Cows were supposed to graze on God's green earth but noooo... we had to feed them other cows. Incidentally, the same symptoms discovered in a Mad Cow was also apparent in a tribe of cannibals from Papua New Guinea. In other words, Cannibalism is the cause of this disease. If you believe in God, then you must believe that God never intended for us to be cannibals. And yet we play god by feeding our livestocks with their own kind.

In the same way, some people (though not all) have suggested that we got infected with the deadly HIV through sexual contact with animals. In other words, we have AIDS today because some horny bugger decided that it's a good idea to screw a monkey. Now, if you're religious or even if you have just a tiny shred of morality, surely you'd believe that sex should be kept within the species, do you not? And yet, bestiality does happen around the world.

I'm not sure how JE or SARS came about, but there's this nagging feeling that somehow, we, the human race are involved. Don't we just love to sow all kinds of shit only to reap them back later? So what do we do about this, go vegetarian? I think that should help some. But somehow, I think eventually we'll screw up the veggies too with our biotech engineering and cloning and stuff! While I am all for the progress of science and technology, surely it's not too hard to swallow that when we go beyond all that is sacred, we're really asking for it.

In conclusion, I offer you my two rules which I try really hard to live by. They are, in no particular order, "Don't play god" and "Don't screw animals". Also, do watch that what you eat doesn't eat you back. Other than that, do have a happy new year, folks.

a freudian spit generated @ 2:15 PM | |