Death & Taxes

I really liked this, C!
Particularly the line where the priest says -
"You talk to God through me."

You ask -
So why did God make us this way?
Did he really want us to suffer?

If you ever wonder about pain you realise it is there to tell you something is wrong.
'Oops, you're on fire' or 'I think you've broken your ankle' - are fairly obvious needs for pain, or at least some sort of violent alarm.

It's the pain we can't explain that makes us question suffering.
Yet maybe they share the same root - the need to do something, to realise that something is wrong and needs fixing.
In my experience pain is a very powerful aid to change.

As for why we weren't born perfect, maybe we were and it's the world we are born into that isn't :O)

Seriously, isn't at least half the fun of life feeling that you've grown, achieved something?
If you were born perfect then where would the 'you' be?
Isn't that what life is about, discovering who you are and striving to be the best person you can be rather than simply being the same as everyone else?

C A Jones
Thankyou Geow.
I don't like organised religion because of the hypocrisy and the way it assimilated other pagan religions and their feast days etc. Once one thinks with an open mind then no religion stands up to scrutiny.
Only the depressed and the deranged really believe in religion now in Britain. The depressed beleve because they need to and the deranged because they have to.

How does Buddhism fail under your open minded scrutiny, Carole?

C A Jones
I think Buddha was over-protected, and when he saw death and age he lost it. The shock was too much and he retreated from life and responsibility.
C

Yes, but that all in part one, you should watch part two now.
That's where He goes on to reach Enlightentment and develop some of the finest philosphy the world has ever heard...

C A Jones
Recommend me a good book please, I like to know more about things. Nietzsche is my favourite philosopher.

Slower, he walked along in his thoughts and asked himself:
“But what is this, what you have sought to learn from teachings and from teachers, and what they, who have taught you much, were still unable to teach you?”
And he found: “It was the self, the purpose and essence of which I sought to learn. It was the self, I wanted to free myself from, which I sought to overcome. But I was not able to overcome it, could only deceive it, could only flee from it, only hide from it. Truly, no thing in this world has kept my thoughts thus busy, as this my very own self, this mystery of me being alive, of me being one and being separated and isolated from all others, of me being Siddhartha! And there is no thing in this world I know less about than about me, about Siddhartha!”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhartha_(novel)
(you need to cut and paste it into the address bar).

Is a very good book - it might not tell you much about Buddhism (although it should ;o) but it will make a welcome change from Nietzche :O)

C A Jones
Actually I find Neitzsche very funny and a brilliant psychologist.
However I shall go and have a look because I find religion fascinating.
Thanks for the link.

C A Jones
I read a fair bit and my main problem, as with many relighons is the subjugation angle. I don't believe life is suffering but a series of challenges to be overcome.