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Friday, February 14, 2014

A bit about Buddhism to a Muslim

I did not start this Blog to promote Buddhism, and make a poor Buddhist anyway. However, I have had some inquiries and I am happy to answer questions as best I can, with the proviso that there are lots of more qualified sources available.

Buddhism is an ancient religion, more ancient than Islam or Christianity. The Buddha coincides in time with Zoroaster and precedes Confucius and Socrates.

Buddhist "scripture" exists. Buddhists are not, however, superstitious. We do not see scripture as magic books that give us magic solutions to all of our questions, nor do we think the invention of humans (language) could possibly be adequate to divine words. We see our scripture as the writings of wise and good men to be respected..

As with any religion, it is impossible to summarize Buddhism, especially with all of its varieties, in a few sentences, although the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Noble Path are sometimes used that way, the idea gives me cold shivers. They can at least serve as a start.

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