Greetings all
I believe nobody here misunderstood Christianity and Buddhism, specially me
who acknowledged many forms of christianity (was once a christian as well),
and was undergo at least three schools of buddhism (including hokkekyo,
dhyana and vajrayana).
You don't understand buddhism at all by the other side.
The principal point of buddhism teachings is the SUFFERING of any sentient
being. Be it psychological, be it existential, be it an phisical illness.
More research on this subject can also give buddhist roots in the oriental
and ocidental (though Hipocrates and what was before him) medicinal systems,
but it is beyond the topic and will not speak about this issue here.
And disagreeing with mr goldman, Jesuits was not good to Japan and not good
to Brazil. Non-christian for such theology of those intolerant christian
times, was not barelly considered humans until their convertion that should
be done whatever means would be necessary, including sword-pointed
convertion.
The Samurai Spirit is much about Honour, Loyalty (not to a fictional god but
to the Lord he and his ancestors gaves oath of allegiance) and also, the
most elevated moral values of the classical japanese culture that also
includes:
Respect and Loyalty to the Shogun
Respect and Loyalty to his daimyo
Respect and reverence to ancestors
Reverence and respect to the family (Oyakoko)
and foremost and in no way of less importance,
reverence and devotion to the GODS of the Land.
(and I can point SEVERAL verses in the Old and New testment that will
blasphemously against such values)
A TRUE Samurai NEVER would convert himself to a religion that demonizes his
ancestors spirits, the Gods of his ancestors, and if he is much into Shinto,
specially due to it, the Gods that makes the Imperator (Ten no Heika), a
Holy man.
The convertion in itself is already an act of threason desserving a sepukku!
It is true that one must be, at least one time in his life, a buddhist, to
at least understand what buddhism is. No theoric studies can make one
understand even the superfitial aspects of such doctrine.
Octavio Augusto Okimoto Alves de Carvalho
São Paulo - SP Brazil
Message: 16
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2004 19:19:14 +0000
From:
golfmandan@...
Subject: Re: Re: Samurai is not christian
Let me say first off that you've misunderstood Christianity and Buddhism and
most world religions if you think that the point is simply morality. Sure,
most religions have a system of morality, but the defining of good and bad
is NOT the point. In Christianity the point is peace with God through faith
in Christ. In Buddhism the point is the cessation of individual existence in
an illusory world, to exist only in Nirvana. Christians want to propogate
their religion because they believe people will be judged by God when they
die, and so they think people need forgiveness to enter heaven instead of
hell. Buddhists propogate their religion because they believe people are
blinded by the material world from their need to escape into a painless and
selfless existence in Nirvana. It IS the root principle that matters. The
moral system is a reflection of the root belief. That's why Buddhist morals
and Christian morals are so different. They DON"T teach the same thing. I'd
assume from your post that you're not a very religious guy. Talk to anybody
who takes their religion seriously and you'll find that the beliefs are most
important, not the least important.
Which, that's why the Jesuit missionaries tried to clothe Christian truth in
the fashion of contemporary Japanese religion. Christian beliefs with
Japanese rituals or practice. It's the underlying belief that is most
important. So, in theory, if you make it look a little more Japanese, it
becomes easier for the Japanese to understand, but the core beliefs remain
intact. This method of propogating Roman Catholic faith was used by their
missionaries a lot. It isn't looked at as deceitful, but simply as
communicating their beliefs in such a way as to be more easily understood,
and to some extent, in a manner more palatable to the mind of the one being
taught. Some of this has to do with Aristotelian distinctions between the
accident and occident of a thing... The "accident" is the appearance of a
thing. The "occident" is the core essence. The accident doesn't matter
nearly as much as the occident. So, as long as the same core belief is being
taught, then the Catholics didn't care what it looked like. (In actual
practice, though, the old Catholic method tends toward syncretism... mixing
of both belief and ritual... so nothing remains in its pure form).