The Mormon Buddhist

The CTR shield is a symbol for most Mormons growing up. I definitely agree with it's message to "Choose The Right". The 8-fold Path suggests what we should choose the right in. Many Mormons jokingly take it in a more literal sense when they need to randomly choose something, and pick whichever one is at the most right. I thought it would be fun to change it up a bit and make a "CTM" shield, with CTM standing for "Choose The Middle". Buddha's life is a good example of avoiding extremes. he was born in a life of extreme luxury, and then lived a life of extreme asceticism. He eventually came to realize that enlightenment is found in the middle between these 2 great extremes. He would go on to often call his teachings "The Middle Way".

One of my fellow students at Bright Dawn made a great observation today. She said that skepticism is more often than not frowned upon. Whether it be in religion, conversations, relationships, politics, or anything else, skepticism gets a bad rap. I think it gets a bad rap because it is essentially a challenge. You are challenging a person's belief on some level, and that makes them feel threatened. However, from your end, you are just following the first part of the 8-Fold Path: Understanding. You need to ask questions in order to learn, grow, and have a better understanding. In this way, skepticism isn't only healthy, it's essential to becoming the best you that you can be.

There were 3 things that stood out to me in my reading this week. I read this chapter in 2 sittings, and in both sittings these stood out to me: The foundations of Buddhism are the Seals of the Law, Law of Dependent Origin, and the 4 Noble Truths. For something that made such a bold claim as to the foundations of Buddhism, it deserved to be examined. The Seals of the Law Also known as the 4 Dharma Seals, they are said to reflect true Buddhism. Any teaching that has these can be considered part of Buddhism. The 4 seals are as follows: All things are impermanent All existence is suffering All phenomena are empty Enlightenment is peace The first seal, all things are impermanent, is fairly self-explanatory. Anything that is assembled will, sooner or later, come apart. Whether it be a sand castle, a cloud, a person, a planet, or a star, everything will come to an end. The second seal is something that many people have a difficult time understanding. I know I did. However, it is ...

    Buddhism went through many changes in the 2,500 years it has been around. After the Buddha died, there was nothing written down. His head monks all got together and told each other the teachings they remember him teaching. They voted on what was and wasn't Buddhism. This was essentially Buddhism's Council of Nicaea, but called First Council.     After These lessons and teachings were agreed upon, they were orally memorized by the monks present, and they went out to those they taught to teach from those oral lessons. It wasn't until quite some time after this that these teachings were written down for the first time.     There were several other councils where Buddhist leaders gave commentary on and decided on new doctrines.     Buddhism was brought to new heights by a Prince named Ashoka. He was violent and killed his father and brothers to seize the throne and expand his empire. He felt remorse later in life from his violent actions ...