If Christianity never took hold and Jesus converted to Buddhism would Medieval Europe still try to eredicate pagan culture!?
>>1226830
No.
>>1226837
Explain please. Do you think that buddhism couldn't be dogmatic and used by Medieval rulers to force their culture on other people? I think perhaps it could.
No, we would have pagan Buddhism, with all the hilarious contradictions of Shinto Buddhism, but it somehow works and people don't sweat it to much
Thor reached enlightenment by punching oxen
>>1226880
I am not that good in Buddhism so please someone help me out, but isn't Buddhism godless? It seems incompatable with gods.
>>1226889
Interestingly enough, Japanese forms of Buddhism incorporates gods and deities as an influence of the Shinto/folk religions native to Japan, so while originally not focused on any sort of supernatural deity or god figure, it isn't entirely incompatible with such divine concepts so long as the core teachings and ideas of Buddhism remain. It's by nature a fairly agnostic religion.
>>1226889
Even in the Tipitaka the existence of deities is mentioned. In buddhism gods and goddesses exist, but they too are subjected to the laws of karma and rebirth.
>>1226925
Thich Nhat Hanh and some other modern prominent Buddhists actually actively promote the idea that someone can be Buddhist as well as part of another religion, embracing teachings and ideals of Buddhist thought without clashing with their personal religious. This is more in the spirit of religious dialogue and interfaith communication, but it's not a completely unheard-of idea in Buddhism.
You mean gladiator fights, pederasty, ect.? No idea.
>>1226940
If you want a good overview on some basic Buddhist practices and principles that also helps bring it into an understandable light by comparing it to similar concepts in Christianity, I'd read Thich Nhat Hanh's "Living Buddha, Living Christ". I was surprised by how in-depth it gets as to some key practices and ideals and concepts found in Buddhist teachings (reincarnation beliefs, breathing and mediation practices, mindfulness as a way of life, etc.,). It's a short, easy read that also parallels and gives dialogue between the teachings and religion of Buddha and the teachings and religion of Christ, so as a side it serves as a neat little outsider's evaluation and appreciation for Christian ideals. I dabbled with Buddhism as a teenager but never got deep into it (I did a lot of religious/spiritual/philosophical fluctuating as a teen), even so a lot of its core ideals and outlooks and practices remain influential on my life and approach to living.
>>1226830
Why does India, the birthplace of Buddhism have such a small following?
>>1226830
>the son of God
>converting to Buddhism
>>1226889
>but isn't Buddhism godless?
yes and no
its incredibly mystical and far away from the logical atheistic faith some mongs here think it is
>>1226889
No, even early Buddhism had some of that stuff, and as it went along it incorporated regional deities in various roles, usually as benevolent forces which help believers toward enlightenment
No it was abunch of jews that came afterwards that spread christanity, jesus could be a muslim for all it matters
>>1226830
>Jesus converted to Buddhism
Why would God convert to Buddhism if He came here on Earth with a very specific mission?
>>1227036
OP is talking for a hypothetical and secular perspective, in case you couldn't tell. Not everyone believes Christ is God.
>>1226982
Hinduism was the pet religion of the various Indian kingdoms (except Sri Lanka), so Buddhism never got heavy patronage. Eventually Hinduism did what it does best: syncretized. Sakyamuni was declared an avatar of Shiva and Buddhism in India became one of the bazillion Shavite sects.
>>1227067
>Not everyone believes Christ is God.
Including you.
>>1227116
JUST
>>1227116
Sounds like a retarded version of marcus's meditations or a weak willed version of Schopenhauer. Orientalist need to stop roleplaying and admit their philosophical inferiority
>>1227282
She's probably the most vocal Christian on this board, that's all she ever talks about.
>>1227319
>She
It's a guy who thinks Jesus was hallucinating because of His ascetism.
>>1227421
Source?
>>1227421
It's more.
It's a guy who wanted to marry a tranny so hard he scared her off the board, then he stole said tranny's trip.
>>1227301
>weak willed version of Schopenhauer
>/pol/tard please
Schopenhauer just like many of European intellectuals of his era were heavily influenced by Eastern philosophy
>>1227421
and denies the Flood
>>1227440
How do you steal someone's trip?
>>1227458
They knew less of the orient's religion than we do now, which is mostly shitposting and fantasies. Schopenhauer was influenced by fin de secile cultural movements and is distinctively post enlightenment then any kind of conclusion to stoicism. The asians are superior to us socially, but philosophically they are in the stone age and never made anything actually divorced from religion
>>1227483
>The asians are superior to us socially, but philosophically they are in the stone age and never made anything actually divorced from religion
Basically you've revealed you don't even have a pedestrian knowledge of the various philosophies that were born in the region and only have a shallow knowledge of the popular ones. For example a materialist Hindu sect disproved the existence of an omnipotent god through the use logical reasoning and deduction thousands of years before the same logical concept was born in the West.
>>1226830
>Jesus converted to Buddhism
There would be no antichrist then, as the antichrist would have gone towards buddhism :^)
>n-no j-jesus is t-t-rue
And brings freedom by forbidding fucking everything, amirite?
>>1227483
>The asians are superior to us socially, but philosophically they are in the stone age and never made anything actually divorced from religion
philosophy is the activity of the least potent.
>>1227483
I think you are into proving that YOUR limited knowledge of the eastern religion allows you a view that categorizes the eastern philosophy to the drivel you claim.
Read up on carvaka and mimamsa schools of Hinduism if you are a true seeker of knowledge
>>1227632
>philosophy is the activity of the least potent.
So is the act of living a sedentary life that has you refuting things on a Inuit fish puppet board.
Pointing fingers is fairly easy.
>>1227646
this; emotions matter to hedonist who think hedonism is a good life style.
But of course, most people love hedonism far too much to stop being scared of leaving hedonism. Most people are not meant to be something else than hedonist. In fact, the whole humanity is here because people love to cling to what they feel and think and refuse to do something else with their life.
for people saying that hedonism is relevant,
>life=what you feel+what you think+what you expect from your desires from what you feel and think
therefore,
>grade your desires
and
>non acting on your favorite desires = non life = death
hedonism is not an effective doctrine to be happy. Hedonists believe that you literally die if you ''do not think nor do feel''. They have faith that 'no moving' is death.
of course, doing the opposite brings you a better life:
>perpetual evanescence and lack of control of what you think and feel, therefore cannot be taken seriously (to be happy) => stay still towards what you think and feel.
Once you try to reach stillness, you are more equanimous and benevolent.
>>1226830
No, because reincarnation is a thing in Buddhism so obviously there wouldn't be missionary zeal to convert and supress paganism
>>1227553
>>1227639
How is a religious sect with deist and non deist elements that focuses on metaphysics divorced from religion? Orientals will never improve in a field if they get angry and refuse to admit inferiority, the Japaneses were willing to do this thus opening the way to modernizing and being a first world country instead of shitting in streets
>>1227680
>How is a religious sect with deist and non deist elements that focuses on metaphysics divorced from religion?
How is this a bad thing? Only fedora tippers think that religion is inherently bad. Almost every ideological concept is born from religion, you can't have culture without cult.
The West did have its chance:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism
But we couldn't do what the Far East did with Buddhism.
>>1227680
Almost a good post. Almost.
Would Islam exist?
Probably not, but a pagan form might.
>>1227680
this
religion is a coping mechanism once you face your failure of your life, just like other contrived fantasizes, your faith in the scientific method included.
Religions are meant to leave material-bodily hedonism, travels, concerts, foods, sex and so on, for a spiritual hedonism, through prayers for theists and mediation for atheists.
Plenty of material hedonist love to think of themselves as less hedonistic than they are, since it improves their hedonism in thinking that they are not animals...most people who claim to be religious are not all, it is just the way they are.
In buddhism, you even leave this spiritual hedonism, after you have gained it, which is called jhanas, since you understand that this bliss from prayers, which is just a great, but not perfect concentration-stilness, are not personal nor permanent and that you are still prone to avidity and aversion.
>>1228744
Yeah, because the indo-greek kingdoms got conquered by steppe nomads.
>>1227632
philosophy is so impotent it only manages to influence the entire worldviews of all major civilizations(confucianism, stoicism, platonism, etc)
>>1229063
philosophy is so impotent that it does not change you, since you remain an hedonist as long as you philosophize.
>>1228952
Indo-Greek kingdoms got conquered by Kushan empire. Another buddhist/hindu empire. Kushans got conquered by the Sasanids(persian empire). Sasanids were waging war on two fronts the Islamic raiders and the Byzantine empires. The war with Byzantine allowed the Muslims to take over all of the Sasanid and expand.
If the Muslims didn't exist, there is a very high chance those indo-greek kingdoms would have a much better history today. Both Sasanid and the Kushans allowed the existence of those kingdoms. Buddhism/Hinduism was spreading into the Sasanid empire slowly. The sudden Islamic incursion stopped that.
most people are hedonist. In fact, non-hedonistic people are so rare, that you may never ever see a non-hedonist in your life.
what is hedonism ? to analyze life through
-pain
-pleasure
-non pain, non pleasure
then
-to fancy pleasures
-to hate pains
then, because you take so seriously what you feel, what you think, your likes and dislikes, that you choose to identify with all this.
>>1229112
Shit anon, I thought I was somewhat educated but posts like these make me realize how much I don't know. Thanks. :;)
>>1229112
Bit more, the Sassanids were followers of Zoroastrian religion. With the initial takeover from Kushans, many Buddhist monasteries/temples suffered. However as things went on, they eased up. The Giant Buddha in Afghan was created during the Sassanid empire.
There are many evidence that Buddhism was spreading into Iran slowly and hybridism was emerging as a result. Mani is one notable example. A prophet who claims to be the reincarnation of Buddha. The Sassanids may claim to be Persian in culture, but they had great interest in Indian culture. Cross cultural exchanges happened as a result.
>>1226880
European gongen? Mithras is Dainichi Nyorai is Amaterasu?
Alternate universe Buddhist syncretism would be awesome.
*exits cave*
>>1229638
Like Mani in Europe instead of Christianity?
>>1226830
What if Nazism never took hold and Hitler became Communist, would Germany still try to eradicate the jews?
ciunmp
>>1226845
No, out of all of the major religions Buddhism is by far the most tolerant and it has a long history of peacefully coexisting alongside and mixing with other ones.
>>1226889
Buddha didn't explicitly deny that deities existed but from the perspective of his teachings they are irrelevant because you are the only one who can solve your own problems.
>>1226940
What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula is probably one of the best intro books to it.
>>1227116
That is needlessly complex and its unclear about what certain things mean in relation to other parts of the chart. I imagine it makes little sense to someone who hasn't studied Buddhism in depth. Only about half or even less of the stuff there is majorly important for understanding Buddhism.
>>1227301
You can't really learn or determine much about Buddhism from the chart. Marcus's Meditations isn't really related although Schopenhauer's ideas were on some level similar to some parts of Buddhism. If you like Shopenhauer then you would probably be greatly interested by Buddhism so I would recommend reading about it from good sources and not retarded charts.
That sentence about orientalists and inferiority was really dumb though. Greek philosophy and through it western philosophy as a whole was influenced by Buddhism and what distinguishes Schopenhauer from other philosophers are things that were largely articulated and explained better in Buddhism anyway
>>1228863
Judaism already had a long history in the Arabian peninsula and some scholars believe it had more of an influence on the formation of Islam then Christianity so it might still have arisen or something similar.
>>1226948
Are you trying to imply that Christianity only eliminated the bad/inhumane/wrong things from pagan culture? Because if so thats ridiculous.
>>1228913
The Jhanas in Buddhism are not spiritual hedonism. Although they are something that can occur it is not as though you are expected to embrace them in a hedonistic manner. If they do occur you supposed to maintain the Buddhist approach to craving/attachment/desire and not let yourself become attached to them or wallow in pleasure. In Buddhism the point is to respond to both the good and bad things with that approach and not just the bad.
I don't remember the exact quote but there is one quote by Buddha where he says that someone who is enlightened/etc could eat the most delicious food and not have any craving or fixation arise and not generate any karmic effects. The second you fixate on some sort of elevated consciousness that you reached and allow yourself to become elated over it you've messed up. The Jhanas can include feelings of bliss and joy etc but you are not supposed to get attached to any of it.
>>1230455
Something like that would likely have happened or something like Chinese Buddhism where it became a mashup of Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism.
>>1227301
>>1227483
>>1227680
>>1229063
Its an anachronism to consider it philosophy only when its separate from religion. Thats a modern distinction that people in those times would have had little reason to make. To them it was all just ideas and teachings about the world.
There is a reason that the term "eastern philosophy" is often used interchangeably with "eastern religion" and its because the boundaries were blurred and often they mixed more then they did in the west. If you look throughout the entire history of Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism and all the Śramaṇa movements you will find countless instances of people and sects coming up with many of the same ideas that are considered to be among the most significant that western philosophy produced.
Leaving aside the rest of Asia, just in the Indian sub-continent alone there have been an untold number of sages, mystics, ascetics and other teachers who pondered the same questions as western philosophy and then went around teaching their views which sometimes included the explicit denial of the existence or relevance of any sort of god or religious-like stuff. The thing though is that people who haven't bothered to read anything about eastern philosophy just assume that they were all Hindu or Buddhist and that therefore it was not philosophy when in actuality thats not true at all.
One could just as easily dismiss most of western philosophy as not being real philosophy because the people behind it were often Christian or believed in the Greco/Roman pantheon and because for most of European history the vast majority of the population was only interested in religion and not philosophy. It couldn't be more incorrect to say that the east didn't have proper philosophy but that view persists because most people know little about it.
The Tibetans were allowed to keep their old gods, so the euros would have kept them too, but with reduced power over the affairs of mortals.
The tibetans had to drop human sacrifiece too, but the romans already got rid of that 96bc so the germanics would have had to compromise on that too.
The closest thing to european bhuddism may have been the bogomils.
