Reply To: Why Buddhism?

#51898
pathfinder
Participant

It brings me joy to read the above discussion! I learnt about theravada concepts from young, but I did not start to seriously read into them until coming across this site. However, I have been asking myself “Why Buddhism” constantly until today. That is because I have seen how other people believe that they find rational explanations for their own religion, and I realise that I could well be in the same group as them. Others will also say that they became a better person following this religion. Until today I am still scrutinising Buddhism, trying to see if my beliefs or the teachings are correct. There still somethings that I cannot 100% convince myself in, such as

  • The idea that we have been in countless rebirths
  • The idea that we have been born in other realms

Even though the mechanism of the above processes are described (Paticca Samuppada), they are still theories for me which I take as working hypothesis. However, I find that the evidence for rebirth is quite convincing, at least from human to human rebirths. Evidence for Rebirth. This is one of my earliest post that I read which made me read more because the materialist understanding of the world clearly does not account for this.

That being said, I find that Buddhism has by far been the most convincing philosophy to explain the world, and I continue to take it as a working hypothesis. There are some aspects of the dhamma that I do not find it in other religions:

  • The Buddha constantly invites people to experience and understand for themselevs rather than believe him purely by faith
  • The Buddha is extremely precise in the teachings. Eg in Brahmajālasutta, he gives the exact number of ways how people come to conclusions about certain views, he gives the exact number of wrong views. This is not common in other philosophies or religion which are more extract and do not give such precise explanations. 
  • The dhamma is extremely consistent. This is also not common across other religions.
  • The Buddha has no incentive to lie or bluff that he knows everything
  • A relatively clear process of how the teachings are passed down – through the arahant council, and the arahants are those who would have understood the teachings well. Other religions may not be as clear.

One can simply read on other philophies and religions and decide for themselves the quality of explanations. I have talked to people from different backgrounds to compare, and Buddhism is still the best for me.

Upon reflections of anicca dukkha and anatta, I also saw that this applies to everything in our world. Of course, I cannot 100% confirm myself that there is no lasting heaven, but even in this life I start to see that we have been mindlessly pursuing pleasures that have no ultimate essence. Hope this helps!

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