Buddhism: Things I Find Interesting

Buddhism: Things I Find Interesting

As I was reading the selected portions of the book for this chapter, I came across a few things that I found interesting. At first I did not catch them, but after I went back and reread the selections, I found these things, that I thought were intriguing.

Buddhism is supposedly a non-theistic religion. However, in the reading titled "The Majjhim-Nikaya: Questions Which Lend Not to Edification" (5.1) and in "Realizing the Four Noble Truths" (5.3, the Buddha is continually referred to as "The Blessed One". If he is only a man, why is he referred to in such a way? Other Buddhists have the potential to become Buddhas, so would they also be referred to as "Blessed One"? If this Buddha was not the first, and not the last Buddha, why are other Buddhas also not referred to as "Blessed ones"? In my opinion, if this Buddha is not considered to be a god, then he should at least be referred to as "One of the Blessed Ones" instead of "The Blessed One".

Another concept that I found interesting was the idea of duality that was discussed in "The Majjhima-Nikaya: Questions Which Lend Not to Edification" (5.1). I do not quite understand it, so I was intrigued it. The selection says that the soul and body are identical, and then that the soul and body are separate. It says that the world is finite and that the world is infinite. It also says that the world is eternal and then that it is not. How can these things be? I do not understand how the saint can both exist and not exist after death. I think that in my worldview, things such as these concepts are not present. I see ideas such as the world, and the body and soul as one way or the other. I think that the concept of duality is interesting because it is not something that I have previously been taught. It is confusing and difficult to understand.

There are several concepts of Buddhism that are hard to grasp, yet interesting and intriguing at the same time. The two that I have discussed are the two most obvious to me, and it seems to me that, though I cannot really grasp them, they are two of the simplest.