I have been getting into Buddhism lately and am amazed how simple the four beliefs are yet how difficult it is to actually live your live by them. Has anyone lese done much studying into Buddhism? I would like to talk with someone who truly believes in the ideals of buddhism and live their life by the four beliefs.

I've been on and off (studying and practicing) with Buddhism since 04. Much of it is obscured in my memory due to the effects of my experiences during my time in the Iraq War, but I may be of assistance. What questions do you have?

This really doesnt have to deal with living everyday, but I am reading into the staff that the Buddhist monks carry. What do you believe the purpose of them to be? I was also wondering how we can at once be free of ignorance but also at the same time continue to follow the belief that nothing is permanent? I just cant wrap my mind around it. Because to believe that all things are impermanent is ignorant, we dont know if things are permanent. Such as the soul and mind, we dont know if they are permanent or not. If you dont understand what I'm asking let me know and I'll try and reword it, it hard to question what you just completely dont understand.

In regard to the last post, Buddhists, while believing in reincarnation, do not believe in souls.

This really doesnt have to deal with living everyday, but I am reading into the staff that the Buddhist monks carry. What do you believe the purpose of them to be? I was also wondering how we can at once be free of ignorance but also at the same time continue to follow the belief that nothing is permanent? I just cant wrap my mind around it. Because to believe that all things are impermanent is ignorant, we dont know if things are permanent. Such as the soul and mind, we dont know if they are permanent or not. If you dont understand what I'm asking let me know and I'll try and reword it, it hard to question what you just completely dont understand.

I know nothing about the staffs the Buddhist monks carry, but I'm sure they have their fair share of symbolism and practical means.

I don't see an issue with transcending our ignorance and simultaneously having the "belief" that all things are impermanent. Perhaps you have worded it incorrectly. The observation that all things are impermanent I take is true all around the board. Therefore, I wouldn't regard it as a belief in the religious sense. Buddhism can be quite scientific. I have yet to come into contact with anything (material, or immaterial) that isn't subject to decay. If you have come across such a phenomenon, please inform me. However, if you haven't come across it already (and I doubt you have) there are two points of view in Buddhism: conventional wisdom and transcendent wisdom. Conventional lies within the realm of relativity while the transcendent is absolute; neither of which is the same nor different from one another. The conventional admits to the perpetual fluctuation of all existence. That which is manifest into "being" arises, develops, and passes away. This is the surface. At the core there is the changeless. Transcendent wisdom states that nothing is ever born, but nothing ever dies. So, everything is eternal but has no essence. An essenceless essence, so to speak. Sunyata is the Buddhist term for this "emptiness". The best analogy I've heard regarding both views is that of the ocean. The surface is volatile, violent, and ceaselessly in motion, while the deepest depths are quiet, still, and tranquil.

I'd suggest doing some research on the Three Marks of Existence: Anatta (doctine of no-soul), Anicca (impermanence), and Dukkha (commonly translated as "suffering" but a better way of expression is unsatisfactory conditions). That should clear up any issues (and probably create new ones) about impermanence.

If there is anything you don't understand that I've said, please let me know. It's almost 4:20am here and I'm extremely tired, so I doubt I'm as coherent as I should be.

my mom's a buddhist =/

she goes way over the line saying "video games are bad because they pollute your mind, and if you play video games youll be reborn as some arab kid in middle east"

and im like :confused:

There was a certain aspect of Buddhist thought that eluded me. If you completely detach yourself from the material world, as you're supposed to, wouldn't you die? If eating gives you no pleasure, if the desire to live is just another aspect of dukkha, why eat? There's the whole "Bodhisattva" idea in Mahayana Buddhism, but aside from that... I can't see a fully enlightened person doing anything except sitting and meditating in bliss until they die.

Then again, few people reach that level. Maybe they do just die.

An important thing to remember about Buddhism is that "the Buddha" does not refer to a specific individual.

In Buddhist thought "specific individual" does not exist (prompting my other puzzlement: what are you trying to free, then?), though I believe by "the Buddha" they mostly refer to Siddhartha. There were other Buddhas before him, and the term itself has meaning (awakened one, was it?), but mostly it refers to him.

There was a certain aspect of Buddhist thought that eluded me. If you completely detach yourself from the material world, as you're supposed to, wouldn't you die? If eating gives you no pleasure, if the desire to live is just another aspect of dukkha, why eat? There's the whole "Bodhisattva" idea in Mahayana Buddhism, but aside from that... I can't see a fully enlightened person doing anything except sitting and meditating in bliss until they die.

Then again, few people reach that level. Maybe they do just die.

Desire is much easier to be freed from when you understand that desire results from fear. It is not wrong to live, to eat, to sleep, to work, or anything else. What IS wrong, is when we desire life because we fear death; when we desire food because we fear starvation; when we desire sleep because we fear the day; when we desire work because we fear poverty; when we desire the counter to anything which we fear. The desire to live is not necessary to stay alive, nor that for food necessary to eat, nor that for sleep necessary for rest, nor that for work necessary for security.

Even the enlightened individual will keep hold of his base instincts for survival, nourishment, peace, security, procreation. It is when the person is afraid that these instincts are incapable of doing their job properly that they form desire, and upon these desires they find justification for the acts that bring suffering.

If one is afraid of death, they are prone to act upon this fear by trying to 'eliminate' those that threaten their continuity. If one fears starvation, they are prone to act by theft, or gluttony. If one fears conflict, they are prone to withdrawing from the world, to suicide, to ignoring the task at hand. If one fears being alone, they are prone to acts of sexual violence, manipulation, domination, and more. If one fears fear itself, they will be riddled with insanity!

Desire IS the root of suffering. But fear is the soil that desire takes root in.

my mom's a buddhist =/

she goes way over the line saying "video games are bad because they pollute your mind, and if you play video games youll be reborn as some arab kid in middle east"

and im like :confused:

To Twisted_Ferret:

This is a good example here: This mother's instinct to raise her child is well and capable, but she fears her son will go down the wrong path. In this fear, the desire to 'correct' that which isn't broken has formed in her heart. She then acts upon the desire to fulfill an instinct that already is fulfilling itself, bringing confusion to her child, and ill feeling towards herself FROM her child.