# does "the west" give enough respect \[to Buddha\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 13, 2009, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053 "2009-01-13T06:26:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jessesheeran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@jessesheeran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jessesheeran)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053/21 "2009-01-13T15:43:03Z")
agreed with phlosphr ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053/22 "2009-01-13T16:24:57Z")
Buddhism isn’t nihilistic, but that’s a common misunderstanding. That perecption confuses the ego with the “self,” which are not synonomous in Buddhism. ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053/23 "2009-01-13T17:10:08Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Buddhism isn’t nihilistic, but that’s a common misunderstanding. That perecption confuses the ego with the “self,” which are not synonomous in Buddhism. When stripped to the core, its central concept is that as long as you have a distinct identity, you will be unsatisfied. You seek to erase yourself in life so you are worthy of disappearing as an individual and merging with some larger gestalt after death. It is close enough to nihilism to turn me away. Jonathan ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053/24 "2009-01-13T17:26:49Z")
> [@Strassia](#): > > When stripped to the core, its central concept is that as long as you have a distinct identity, you will be unsatisfied. You seek to erase yourself in life so you are worthy of disappearing as an individual and merging with some larger gestalt after death. It is close enough to nihilism to turn me away. This is all inaccurate. It’s not about loss of identity, it’s about confusing identity with ego. It also has nothing to do with “merging” with anything. It’s about understanding that the ego is an _illusion_ of self, not a _loss_ of self. There’s no “merging,” and it happens during life, not after death. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053/25 "2009-01-13T18:45:53Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I’ve been told by an expert in the Pali dialect that both the terms “suffering” and “desire” are oversimplifications of what’s being stated in the 4NT’s. The word that usually gets translated as “suffering” is (so I’ve been told) better translated as “unsatisfactory.” Life isn’t necessarily active suffering, but it never quite satisfies…at least not permanently. > > The concept expressed as “desire” is not just about wanting, but really about subjective judgement and discrimination over all. Supposedly, we’re unsatisfied because we divide the world into varying degrees of things we want and things we don’t want. It’s the ego that does that. If you kill the ego, you no longer “suffer” with dissatisfaction. I’ve heard “desire” expressed better as “attachments.” It’s worth pointing out, too, that you’re discussing things from the point of view of Theravada or Mahayana Buddhism, and those two, close to each other though they are, are not the end-all of the Buddhism world. I think of Theravada as “pure” Buddhism, I admit. (But then I think of Orthodox Judaism as “pure” Judaism, a point of view not universally embraced either). ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053/26 "2009-01-13T18:50:24Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > This is all inaccurate. It’s not about loss of identity, it’s about confusing identity with ego. It also has nothing to do with “merging” with anything. It’s about understanding that the ego is an _illusion_ of self, not a _loss_ of self. There’s no “merging,” and it happens during life, not after death. I am be mixing up my eastern philosophies a bit. I was reading into a lot of different world views at the time. Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to argue against the belief systems, just stating why I couldn’t follow it. I liked the idea of trying to find balance and not trying to divide everything into extremes. But ultimately, I like the “I” in my head. I do not think I am perfect, but don’t see the point of trying to erase part of who I am. Jonathan ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053/27 "2009-01-13T19:19:28Z")
I have a desire to read posts whose proper syntax and punctuation prevents them from turning into incomprehensible word pasta. I do not see myself getting rid of this desire any time soon. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053/28 "2009-01-14T04:51:44Z")
“Eh, you spits, I bow.” ---
**Author:** ![jessesheeran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@jessesheeran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jessesheeran)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053/29 "2009-01-14T05:55:17Z")
thread title does not inspire ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053/30 "2009-01-14T08:37:00Z")
**Diogenes the Cynic** , this is a side of yourself that I don’t recall reading about before. You seemed to have stopped Zen meditation at what I would think would be an intriguing door. I wonder if it’s common for meditators to balk at opening the hand – and then to stop meditating without ever experiencing it. All I had to do was close an eye. I was that eye. If I closed that eye, I would cease to be. But rather than feeling like I was facing death or anything negative, the thought of that just flooded me with feelings of contentment. I thought it was a choice I could come back to and maybe I will. But that has been many years. I haven’t meditated on a regular basis in a long time. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053/31 "2009-01-14T13:43:30Z")
I respect Siddartha Gautuma (or is that G… S…) for his search for the answers & his attempt to live by & share the message with others. I respectfully disagree with his conclusions. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Understander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@The\_Understander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Understander)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053/32 "2009-01-14T16:35:26Z")
> [@Strassia](#): > > I am be mixing up my eastern philosophies a bit. I was reading into a lot of different world views at the time. Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to argue against the belief systems, just stating why I couldn’t follow it. I liked the idea of trying to find balance and not trying to divide everything into extremes. But ultimately, I like the “I” in my head. I do not think I am perfect, but don’t see the point of trying to erase part of who I am. > > Jonathan I don’t believe the point is that you’re trying to erase a part of who you are, but rather realize that the “you” in your head and the “I” in my head and the “her” in her head are already one in a sense, and yet also separate in another sense… and the idea is to realize that without suffering because one day all of those “uses” will no longer be in the same forms that we like. Of course, by following your free will to view the world another way you’re already doing that! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-west-give-enough-respect-to-buddha/481053.md?page=1)