RE: MISSIONARY BAPTIST (as a thank your Cynthia and to add ) it could be a good thing for us to talk about our

thank you... yes we must educate.... get all of those mis conceptions out the way...

Buddahist... chant/meditate/pray
Buddahist believe in a higher power... and the Buddahist I have met .... believe that meditation and chanting... has a channeling effect of spiritual sources....

they believe that they spirit stem from inner energies... where they can be recycled... re birth.... re-chaneling good/positive spiritual energies give off Good Karma...
bad/negative energies result bad karma....

this female in my Philosophy class is teaching me a few things... especially for RELAXATION

thank you.... I told you I was going to learn about different religious rituals...

BUDDHA; ONE WHO HAS BEEN ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE CAUSES OF SUFFERINGS AND HAS BECOME HAPPY TO THE EXTENT THAT THEIR HAPPINESS CAN NOT BE TAKEN AWAY...

THE CAUSES OF SUFFERING IS : LIFE, SICKNESS, OLD AGE AND DEATH...(or in other words being able to over come these very obsticles in life that prevents us from being happy and bring happiness as well as peace in our life time is being a Buddha... and this is what caused the first split in Buddhism...

HINAYANA BUDDHISM : ONE'S POWERS MUST COME FROM THE OUTSIDE (GOD IS THE BUDDHA) AND THE ONLY WAY TO GET THIS DONE IS TO AVOID YOUR DESIRES.

MAYAHNA BUDDHISM: YOU HAVE UNLIMITED POWERS TO OVER COME ALL STANDING IN YOUR WAY TO HANDLE THE UPS AND DOWNS OF LIFE.

While the word Buddha may conjure up images of a specific person from history or world religions cources we have taken, it is also a description of the 'highest state ' of life each of us can achieve. Buddha actually means "awaken one", and the historical Buddha (known as Shakyamuni or Siddharha Gautma) discovered the all humans have a potential for enlightenment- or "Buddhahood" -in the depts of their lives. (smile)

Yes Doc...

buddhism is a way of life that- on the most fundamental level-makes no didtiction between the individual human being and the enviornment in which that person lives. Like a fish in water, the two are not only inseprarable, but each serves as a catalyst for the other thus, to a Buddhist, self-improvement and enhancedment of our circumstances go hand in hand...THE TWO ARE ACTUALLY SO INTERLOCKED THAT IT IS INCORRECT TO CONSIDER THEM SEPARATE ENTITIES.

or what we call two (but not two)but still one. CONFUSING BECAUSE IT IS SO SIMPLE. lol(smile)

...in Buddhism, Karma means action...much like in the Christian beliefs of WHAT YOU SOW, SO SHALL YOU REAP...

but Buddhist believe that the individual and not God did it.lol (smile)

...oops, not God or the Devil or my enemy or my president did it.or the republican's prayers / vote did not over ride my chant (prayer) because I voted my conscious.my Karam is good my (karma) action was to cast a vote of my own. lol(smile)

..or as my mom would say, "Luck is in the Lord and conduct is in the people". (smile)