[Buddha-l] A tribute to Ven. Sheng-yen

[Ben]

On Friday, February 6, 2009, 18:52, Richard wrote,

> Most  of  us are not honest enough to call the quirky
> and idiosyncratic religion we inconsistently practice
> by our own names.

   I  would like to share what I feel as an interesting
finding.

   When  I was a Buddhist, I didn't understand what our
goal in life was supposed to be--to be born in order to
stop  being born still seems quite weird to me--, but I
thought "salvation" was something I could achieve by my
own.

   Now  that  I'm  a  Benist, I think that I understand
what  our  goal  in life is, namely, to become one with
our  other  half.  The  interesting thing is that now I
can't  attain  salvation  by  my  own--it  is  a shared
responsability with my not-yet-discovered other half.

   Warner asked some days ago if we think that Buddhism
is  a  selfish religion. I think so. In Buddhism--along
with  Judaism,  Christianty,  and Islam among others--,
salvation  can  be procured by own self. That's not the
case with Benism.

> Phaedo  calls.  I  have  to go teach that bewildering
> text in about an hour, and I am completely baffled by
> it.

   I  have  never  read  it. Maybe I should give me the
chance to be baffeld by it.

   Best wishes,

-- 
Ben
Asturias, Spain