Which of Gods teachings are the correct ones to follow.

A view that blinds you to other views is hindering your potential to form your own view.

It's interesting that you see my views as being prejudice... Quite revealing.

Religion, spirituality isn't something to be taken lightly They are all dangerous because we give up free will by believing in something and often are open to many things because of that belief.

disagree... I would say that taking this stuff too seriously is dangerous... There are many ways to look at it and the only thing that's dangerous about that is our prejudices.

If you are following or basing your beliefs on any known system you are not forging your own path, lol... Even if you are taking bits and pieces from each they are still systems built on faulty thinking, which you are picking what is right. Ummm think about that for a second.

Spirituality and religion are businesses. If you don't think so do a little research.

If you think the phenomena is real and only specific to the belief in something do a little research.

If you don't think they play on our very hopes and fears, do a little research.

It won't take you long to sort out what is real and what is something that you are led to believe is real based on something that is true without any belief at all.

Ummm, no... What I did was take from them what made sense to how I percieve the world... I have found many that I can relate to but none that have captured my perception perfectly... Faulty thinking huh? Is that because you don't agree? Do you have the answers? Even if you shared the same belief as me, it would be different in some respects... That's just the nature of being unique... If everyone who disagreed with you had faulty thinking, you must be pretty darned um... Unfaulty?

If you are only picking bits of belief systems then clearly there is something faulty.

But what most people are doing is reading up on different belief systems and building a so called spiritual life. I mean come on people are not Buddhist in the west... They just meditate and eat musli because it is trendy whilst collecting a set of buzz words that make them sound like something they are not.

I don't know why you take offence to the way i think and it really it doesn't matter but it doesn't change the fact that your beliefs are built from faulty systems.

I don't need you or anyone to agree with me I am merely stating my point of view on a subject because that is what the forums are about. You give your point of view and i give mine.

Pointing out that I have moved from the topic of Buddhism is skirting the issue of belief. Buddhism is also a belief just as any other belief. In my original post on Buddhism i mentioned there are dangers of the belief and gave a link. It is obvious you didn't read the link because if you did you would of know how it is all related.

If you don't mind it would be better to stay on topic instead of diverting it off topic and then blaming me for being off topic for answering you.

Do you have anything real to add or would you like to just put down others ways some more?

And as any good Buddhist teacher will tell you: “… if you don’t like want I’m saying, then that’s alright too …”.

Buddhism in the west is not buddhism. The community of buddhism of the east is completely missing in the west making it a solitary new age mysticism version of buddhism.

There is plenty of back and forth that could go on. I merely wanted to share a link and let people make up their own minds however you've made this personal for some reason...

Right then lets talk about the faulty belief system then. Who wrote it down? Buddha? I think not. Just like Christianity Buddhism was written down long after Buddha was dead and gone, Imagine that already starting to sound familiar to other religions. Also like other Religions Buddhism isn't new or original at all it borrows its ideas and beliefs from other belief systems just like... You got it Christianity, and this is before we even get to its beliefs.

The Buddha communicated in a way that was appropriate for a given audience; the message was always the same, but the terminology might have been different depending on the circumstances. Any “westernization” of Buddhism is simply to appeal more to the Western “scientific” mind; the message is still the same. (See “The Tao of Physics”, for example).

Right On!

I Belive he was quoted as saying

"Question Everything! Even this statement!"

I am in no way a new age mystic buddhist.... I came to the middle path as a result of spending time in southeast Asia, where especially in Thailand, buddhism permeates all aspects of daily life.... lay buddhists there do not spend inordinate amounts of time in sitting meditation because they know that there are many ways to practice mindfulness throughout their day....

The Buddhism of the west need not reflect the Buddism of the east. A post-industrial society will deal with the truths revealed through self-introspection differently then would a tribal society.

You seem to want to get into right and wrongs... I do not. My experience with religions and Buddhism included were not positive at all. You can't take that away from me or discredit it because you believe in a certain way. I don't really care what bee you have under your bonnet or what you want to prove.

Argue all you want it won't change the facts. You can try and trap me with what ever you want but in the end you are only doing yourself a disservice by fighting about a belief that means nothing in the end.

If it wasn't for the outside influences they would not be nice people at all. That is painfully observable in any religion because many are still behaving badly under the guise and protection of their religions (Buddhism) included.

I have no hidden agenda (to be fair) nor am i selling anything. Just sharing an experience that is different then your own.

If you would like I can go and dig up dirt on Buddhism to support my case 'for you' and i guarantee it won't be hard to do so. I don't see it as necessary however. I didn't ask you to agree with me or jump in my bandwagon. Everyone has a right to share their experiences, thoughts and opinions without being attacked by people like you,

Buddhism isn't new or original at all it borrows its ideas and beliefs from other belief systems just like... You got it Christianity, and this is before we even get to its beliefs.

What teachings did the Buddha lift from Christianity?

A view that blinds you to other views is hindering your potential to form your own view.

Your skirting the issue. I was very clear that belief itself is a way of giving our freedom away. You seem to keep quoting other things and trying to take it in a different direction. Prove to me that belief isn't taking your freedom away? The moment you choose to believe anything you've limited your freedom. There is no getting around that.

I have researched enough to know for myself. what is real or not for myself.

There is no truth we can blindly follow. Saying so is misleading people, especially those who are sincerely looking for answers in this world. Buddhism is no more then a belief system that cannot be proven like Christianity or any other belief system. Nothing more nothing less.

Study religions from the aspect of fundamentals of the human condition and you will begin to see just how insidious religion is and how it plays on all of us, Buddhism included.

One good thing about Buddhism i can say is that it asks us to question everything even Buddhism perhaps if you started doing that you'd begin to see a different perspective, who knows?

Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person's ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming in me.
Neither the Bible nor the prophets -- neither Freud nor research --neither the revelations of God nor man -- can take precedence over my own direct experience.
My experience is not authoritative because it is infallible. It is the basis of authority because it can always be checked in new primary ways. In this way its frequent error or fallibility is always open to correction.
from On Becoming a Person
Carl Rogers

You have no right to tell people that because it didn't work for you, it won't work for them.. Then it is you who are trying to limit someone elses freedom.

I am quite open about my belief that all religions should be banned. I don't deny that at all.

Thats quite a scary way of thinking imo - and an oppressive viewpoint.

I don't know why you think i'm not knowledgeable... Ask me what you will and i will tell you.

Buddhism isn't its own belief system just like most other religions were built on others.

You may find facts but you can only have a limited relationship with a fact and in the end it means nothing. I never said Buddhism lifted anything From Christianity.

Buddhism isn't new or original at all it borrows its ideas and beliefs from other belief systems just like... You got it Christianity, and this is before we even get to its beliefs.

I said there are similarities in trying to verify them as truths because like any successful religion they start out with some simple commonly known fundamentals of human nature and then add what ever they believe to that.

I'm not so sure who you think you are but i have every right to tell people what i think and believe just as you do.

The things i believe do not cost people there hard earned money, or prey on their sense of humanity for my own gain like religions.

I am quite open about my belief that all religions should be banned.

This is a Religion forum not limited to the belief in a religion but also questioning its validity or need.

“Lying” is to be avoided, but if it meant deceiving the Nazis about the whereabouts of a Jewish family, then in this case, lying is “right living”.

While specifically seeking to ban all regions in particular, the idea also seems to be to “ban” ALL “beliefs” in general.

You may believe you are exercising your free will to believe but there is growing evidence that you are programmed to believe that you are exercising your free will by believing.