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First, let me excuse myself for not having a perfect english because my first language is portuguese, and there is a looooooooot of words who are pretty much the same, changing only some letters or adding some. Aaanyway.
As a buddist myself, I don't really care about it becoming a trend at all. Just sayin': if it brings people who want to understand what we believe in, what we do and even try some of our path, it's cool! You know? Have fun! Buddhism is faaaaaaaar away from the "suffer to achieve enlightment", even more it is very against it, because buddhism is fully build around being conscious that life is suffering, but there is a way out for it.
My problem starts with the fact that buddhism has things we buy - or don't, it's actually a pretty free religion if i may - like the Jamapala and the Dhammapada, and we all know what "being a trend" means, right? It means consumption, it means buying to belong.
Let's recall it together: monks live with donations of others. We believe and try to live in the Middle Path, wich means not having too much nor too less. We believe that nothing belongs to us, full out of attachment - even our beliefs are not our belongings, our thoughts are not our thoughts. There is no "self" in buddhism: you don't even exist. Your body does not belong to you, does not shows fully who "you" are.
So yes, the consumption culture and the buddhist world should NOT go together (now, that's my opinion. I am also not a big fan of having little buddhas around your house, for an example, because buddha itself was against it, and since he is not a god, not someone i worship, why have it?). I do believe that here, in this world and in this time, almost everything comes with a price, that's fine (says my inner voice almost being at the edge of a panic attack).
But i do think how harmful the first world, the people who make fun of asians, even more of south asians, who call india disgusting, who cannot say where are thailand, mongolia or cambodia in a map, are starting to use a religion that is full of culture and respect to be cute videos on tiktok.
I KNOW it's not that harmful! But for now, it isn't. People are getting scarier, the world is ending, there is full right wing winning ALL four places of the globe and what people decide instead of going to the streets or trying to be a voice for a moviment is... joining buddhism?
I'm not saying being a buddhist is not possible when being on the streets - count me in! - i'm saying that people are clearly seeing that if they can't believe in god anymore, they need to be part of a religion that is "good" with what is happening in our world.
Buddhism is not like that. Buddhism is not being "chill" about everything.
I just think i wish people were into buddhism because they were interested in, and not because planet is collapsing and they think joining the "chill guys" group is a way to be saved or just being part of a group. But hey, I'm also trying to be part of a group, right?
Let me hear your thoughts on it!
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mokoylo
love your pfp oh my gah sevika is my fav
Id first say that I disagree on your thought that "its not that harmful" I believe that there is a pattern in the west where they cherry pick from different cultures and make it aesthetic, while actively hating and being racist to said cultures: e.g., calling black people ghetto for wearing bonnets and then making it a trend, calling middle eastern peoples hair greasy and gross, then taking that and making taking their haircare and rebranding it as " the clean girl aesthetic. so i think its harmful because at the end of the day its about white supremacy: taking over anything, whether its culture, music, fashion trends etc- when its not focus is on them. i assume the same thing is happening with Buddhism, but with a tad twist.
Agreeing with what you said, that people are clearly seeing that IF they cant believe in God anymore, makes this more than just a simple "come and go trend". the beliefs that they've built law, values and morals on are being swept from under their feet. this causing a reaction to seek something that will replace that. I also feel as though they may seek it as a way to voice and claim they are apart of a movement ;but not actually take part and do the heavy lifting.
taking your example of people buying little buddhas your house and showing it off as a tiktok, proves your point on people not actually being interested of Buddhism. And I'd take it further saying i don't think they could if they wanted to. Firstly because You cannot learn and fully understand a religion when your attention span is 30 seconds held on 2x speed. this shows because if they actually researched the history and teachings of buddhas, they would know that he wasn't a god and wouldn't approve of that.
dude I could chat about this for hours but I don't wanna embarrass myself lols! but I rlly like your point of view, even though i myself am not familiar of Buddhism. im also interested in what you mean by the world ending. i think that would make good blog no pressure
and when i say this im talking about the trend hoppers not actual people wangting to get into the religion
by mokoylo; ; Report
Gutted
Omg my irl friend group found out im not a christian anymore, and so they were like "why not, be a buddhist? cause you like believe in all that... enteral happiness n peace bullcrap right?" and I was so caught of guard and confused by this suggestion and had to explain that I was an atheist and they were like "so?" and I was like "so that means.. I dont believe in a higher power.. duh.. yk charles darwin and evolution?" and they were just confused and im pretty they had no idea what buddhism really even is but I also dont know much about it myself just some basics LOL
so! i think it's weird someone say something like that... i do believe they did that in a good way, but also people are kind of scared to "not believe in anything", since the world is "dying"
but just a fun fact! buddhism is atheist, that's why some people will say that's not a religion and yes a philosophy - since i gueeeess the definition of religion envolves believing in one or more gods? i may been saying bullshit.
buddhism believes in the Buddha Nature, which means that everything affects everything (kind of butterfly effect) because everything is connected, everything is Buddha Nature, but Buddha Nature has nothing to do with changing your path or something like this. Also people say that Karma is "you will pay for your actions" when actually is just that every action has a reaction. If you plant rice, it will not grow apples.
And here is the thing! If we believe that everything depends on me, and that every action has a reaction, it means that if i plant rice i must get rice. If i don't work hard for something, i don't commit, i will not get it. If i can pray for a God, pray for more than one God, and get it without commiting, thaaaaan it's a reaction for something i DID NOT make the action.
And sorry for the lond answer (i love talking about buddhism sorry)! But here comes another one: Buddhism was born before Jesus, so we don't have a concept of "God". What is God? A flower? A mosquito? Someone with full power? Someone with no power? We don't really try to explain why we are here, we work more on the "we are here, so what now?"
Hope i didn't sound rude, it wasn't supposed to! And also i hope it didn't sound like i am trying to makr you a buddhist lol, i just saw on tiktok a thousand people saying that buddhism isn't atheist and i was like uuuuuurgh this is the basic stuff :(
by goiaba; ; Report
Ohhhh that makes a lot more sense to me now, thx for educating me
by Gutted; ; Report
no worries! if you need anything, reach out!
by goiaba; ; Report