Comments on: Buddha noodling http://blog.bbbeard.com/2008/08/19/buddha-noodling/ A Peculiar, Yet Refreshing, Blog Sun, 20 May 2012 11:16:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: Air Jordan http://blog.bbbeard.com/2008/08/19/buddha-noodling/#comment-2041 Air Jordan Thu, 15 Apr 2010 01:56:44 +0000 http://blog.bbbeard.com/2008/08/19/buddha-noodling/#comment-2041 It just shows that experience in writing brings such depth and meaning to readers. Thanks for sharing. <a href="http://www.airjordan.cc" rel="nofollow"> Air Jordan</a> It just shows that experience in writing brings such depth and meaning to readers. Thanks for sharing.
Air Jordan

]]> By: bbbeard http://blog.bbbeard.com/2008/08/19/buddha-noodling/#comment-42 bbbeard Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:28:19 +0000 http://blog.bbbeard.com/2008/08/19/buddha-noodling/#comment-42 <i>By “extracting” these elements from the human body, it could lead to immortality.... So why would a Buddhist be motivated to seek immortality? </i> Dunno. Sounds like the Buddhist version of Branch Davidians to me.... By “extracting” these elements from the human body, it could lead to immortality…. So why would a Buddhist be motivated to seek immortality?

Dunno. Sounds like the Buddhist version of Branch Davidians to me….

]]> By: aurora_guy http://blog.bbbeard.com/2008/08/19/buddha-noodling/#comment-30 aurora_guy Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:19:16 +0000 http://blog.bbbeard.com/2008/08/19/buddha-noodling/#comment-30 I visited Buddhist and Taoist temples in China and Singapore a few months ago. (My trek included a Tibetan temple in Singapore.) I observed some very definite "co-mingling" of beliefs, which made it a bit confusing to distinguish them in some ways. I am no scholar on either, of course, but I did read about Taoism on and off for several years as a young man. One thing I learned on my recent trip was Ko Ch’ang-Keng in Buddhism incorporates notions of Taoist alchemy. It seems the Ch’an sect believed the human body could produce certain compounds or elements found in nature; e.g., lead and mercury. By "extracting" these elements from the human body, it could lead to immortality. (The soul living on, of course, is a key notion in Taoism.) Doesn't this quest run counter to one of the fundamental tenets of Buddhism? My understanding is that at Enlightenment, one ceases to be reborn, and subsequently loses all form to be "one with the universe". So why would a Buddhist be motivated to seek immortality? I visited Buddhist and Taoist temples in China and Singapore a few months ago. (My trek included a Tibetan temple in Singapore.) I observed some very definite “co-mingling” of beliefs, which made it a bit confusing to distinguish them in some ways. I am no scholar on either, of course, but I did read about Taoism on and off for several years as a young man.

One thing I learned on my recent trip was Ko Ch’ang-Keng in Buddhism incorporates notions of Taoist alchemy. It seems the Ch’an sect believed the human body could produce certain compounds or elements found in nature; e.g., lead and mercury. By “extracting” these elements from the human body, it could lead to immortality. (The soul living on, of course, is a key notion in Taoism.) Doesn’t this quest run counter to one of the fundamental tenets of Buddhism? My understanding is that at Enlightenment, one ceases to be reborn, and subsequently loses all form to be “one with the universe”. So why would a Buddhist be motivated to seek immortality?

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