(Serene Mind) The truth behind Buddhism | Why do [some] Buddhists not believe in God when many do, and others understand that it doesn't actually matter as far as one's own awakening, liberation, and freedom go.
Buddhism is nontheistic (not agnostic, not confirmed atheistic) and don't believe in some supreme ultimate creator God but can and do if they want to.
Theism and atheism both have very goods point and some reality to them. Pantheism and polytheism are closer to the truth.
There are no monotheists just henotheists, but they don't know it or don't want to admit it because they're afraid to question their own religion's beliefs. Parents said, priests said, Bible interpreters (and mistranslators) said...so we just believe them.
The Buddha visits Sakka and Maha Brahma
Many, probably most, Buddhists do believe in all kinds of gods (devas) and Gods (brahmas) and even GOD (Brahman, the Monad, the ONE), as well as many kinds of unseen beings. But are any of these invisible entities an ultimate creator of souls, bodies, realities, controlling everything that happens? No way, even though Jehovah (Yahweh), the Demiurge (Yaldabaoth), Allah, Ahura Mazda, YHWH, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and countless other "supreme beings" will say so or have priests say so for them.
There is Maha Brahma (the "Great Supremo") in Buddhism and the great Sakka (Indra), King of the Devas, and countless light beings (devas, lit. "shining ones") on many of the 31 Planes of Existence.
There is not just this world but worlds -- countless worlds -- to come in samsara. Rebirth is very real and has been since time immemorial but not often understood because most people are convinced it has to be some kind of "eternal soul" passing through all kinds of incarnations. It may seem that way, but ultimately it is not that way. Conventionally, yes. Many religions have good general descriptions even with culturally varying details.
So sacred texts and religious ideas can and sometimes are superior to answers science feeds us, as the Religion of the White Lab Coats claim to have irrefutable, testable, repeatable proof ("objective" unchanging evidence), mathematical formulas, cold logic, and views that later crumble. They always crumble. Science is incapable of coming to certainty about anything. There are no fixed conclusions. Everything needs more research and more scientists getting paid to work on things.
Science can't even agree on a definition of itself or its method. We are told to call it the "scientific method," but that changes and is applied differently everywhere, from lab to lab, university to university, city to city, state to state, country to country, and likely planet to planet.
Scientists, like religious priests in their flowing robes, tell us what is okay to believe, what we are given permission to believe without being laughed at -- no matter what is actually true or untrue.
We think "scientists" are unanimous. They are not! Not even within a single department of a single university. We think scientists hold to one worldview. They do not.
What's Zen Taoism got to do with anything?
In this country, most scientists are at least nominally "Christian" or members of some other Abrahamic faith. Why? If science were so sure about anything, at least it could be sure that creationists, intelligent design advocates, and fearmongers are out-and-out wrong.
But no, to play it safe, they align with one religion or another, almost always the one they were born into.
Way to go, science, what an inspiration and model for our reasoning and personal behavior.
We say, forget religion and science. But that can't easily be done, can it? So listen. Question. Think. Follow your heart and intuition and reason and the advice of noble friends and teachers. But to do this it is almost certainly going to mean we have to go check for ourselves what that advice is or has been in the past. We can't accept the words of well-meaning intermediaries, to say nothing of the ones who do not mean us well.
Accept what agrees with experience and understanding, like the Kalama Sutta suggests, but read it to the end. The Buddha does not stop at, "There is nothing to believe." He very much gives things that can be believed from our own personal experience and builds from there.
Unless we're enlightened, we ought never think we know for sure. After all, history shows, we humans are easily misled, too easily deceived, and sadly are also very much at risk of self-deception.
So purify the mind and heart, then systematically be mindful with it, then see for yourself if what the Buddha and the noble ones said was true isn't exactly as they said. That is our advice.
Because each person is responsible for one's own karma (deeds of thought, speech, and body that have the power to produce welcome and unwelcome results in the future), it is for each person to decide what to believe. Use it. Remain open. Truth is not arrived at by words but by practice and direct-seeing that produces insight.
As evolution became widely accepted in the 1870s, caricatures of Charlie Darwin with the body of a monkey or ape came to symbolize evolution [14]. This sketch was originally published in the satirical magazine The Hornet. The image, called "A Venerable Orang-outang," is available on University College London Digital Collections (1886).
Like Korean Buddhism,* K-pop (Korean 케이팝, RR Keipap, "Korean popular music") is a best-selling creation originating in South Korea [2]. The music genre that the term is used to refer to colloquially emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians influenced by Western dance music, hip-hop, R&B, and rock [3, 4, 5].
Today, K-pop commonly refers to the musical output of teen "idol" acts, chiefly all-girl groups and all-boy bands, who emphasize visual appeal and performance [6].
As a pop genre, K-pop is characterized by its melodic quality and cultural hybridity [7, 8, 9]. K-pop can trace its origins to "rap dance," a fusion of hip-hop, techno, and rock popularized by the group Seo Taiji and Boys, whose experimentation helped to modernize South Korea's contemporary music scene in the early 1990s [10, 11, 12].
Their popularity with teenagers led the music industry to focus on this demographic. Lee Soo-man of SM Entertainment, who developed the Korean idol system in the late 1990s, created H.O.T. and S.E.S., the "first generation" of K-pop [13].
By the early 2000s, TVXQ and BoA had achieved success in Japan and gained traction for the genre overseas [14, 15]....
ROSE and PSY perform "APT." (live from Summerswag 2025)
By 2019, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) listed South Korea as the 6th largest music market in the world [116], with boy band BTS alone accounting for $4.65 billion, or 0.3%, of South Korea's GDP [117].
In 2024, IFPI declared K-pop the leading global genre in unit sales, across both physical and digital formats. Seventeen of the top 20 albums on the IFPI Global Album Sales Chart that year belonged to this genre [118, 119] thanks to BTS, Blackpink, solo Rosé, Katseye, and a few others. More
Korean Buddhism began in the 4th century CE during the Three Kingdoms Period. Centuries after Buddhism originated in [Gandhara, now modern Afghanistan] and Magadha [a Buddhist territory later brought into the empire under the umbrella term "India" under Buddhist Emperor Ashoka], the Mahayana tradition arrived in China through the Silk Road in the 1st century CE, then entered the Korean peninsula in the 4th century, from where it was transmitted to Japan.
In Korea, it was adopted as the state religion of three constituent polities of the Three Kingdoms Period, first by the Goguryeo (aka Goryeo) in 372 CE, by the Silla (Gaya) in 528 CE, and by the Baekje in 552 CE [1].
Korean Buddhism is distinguished from other forms of Buddhism by its attempt to resolve what its early practitioners saw as inconsistencies within theMahayana Buddhist traditions that they received from foreign countries.
To address this, Korean Buddhists developed a new holistic approach to Buddhism that became a distinct form, an approach characteristic of virtually all major Korean thinkers.
The resulting variation is called Tongbulgyo ("interpenetrated Buddhism"), a form that sought to harmonize previously arising disputes among scholars (a principle called hwajaeng 和諍) [2].
As it now stands, Korean Buddhism consists mostly of the Seon [Zen] Lineage, primarily represented by the Jogye and Taego Orders. The Korean Seon has a strong relationship with other Mahayana traditions that bear the imprint of Chan teachings as well as the closely related Zen.
Other sects -- such as the modern revival of the Cheontae lineage, the Jingak Order (a modern esoteric sect or Vajrayana), and the newly formed Won -- have also attracted sizable followings [3].
Korean Buddhism has contributed much to East Asian Buddhism, especially to early Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Tibetan schools of Buddhist thought. More
Prince Siddhartha Gautama (who became the Buddha at 35) had a dad, not Mr. Gautama. (Surnames came from mother Queen Maya Gautama). His father was King Suddhodana, a very proud, caring even doting father, who had to seem like a jerk to young Sid, always giving him everything he wanted but shielding him from seeing the truth about the world at every turn. His motive? Suddhodana had to keep Sid homebound so he could take over the family business when the time came. It didn't matter that that wasn't what Sid wanted: Your future has been decided for you.
Hey, Beavis, we become our Dads, huh huh huh.
In America, we hate our dads, I guess, until we become our dads. Then we hate ourselves and drink beer, wondering, "Did Dad hate himself? And did his dad hate himself? And is this trap sprung on everyone even in the 'richest country in the world'? This is as good as it gets? This is the best?!"
O, Buddha, I think Bart hates Homer. - Warn him
But what kind of karma (deed, action, conduct) is that, and what will be the result? According to the Buddha, our parents provide a massive and tremendous opportunity for merit (good karma). The only people who provide more are the noble ones (those well-behaved people along the stages of enlightenment). But our parents also have a hidden danger for us, massive and tremendous risk of bad karma for their neglect, mistreatment, abuse.
(It's strange because the same two people, if disrespected or harmed by others, wouldn't be such weighty karma as if we did it. It would still be bad, but when it's our own father or mother, or people who raised us like a mother or father, it is VERY weighty. It is so weighty that the Buddha pointed out Five Heinous Karmic Crimes, two of which are matricide and parricide).
How WE treat -- feel, think, talk, and do towards them -- matters a great deal. It matters so much that once a boy really wanted to see the Buddha in the flesh, so he traveled a long way and finally met him, and the Buddha asked him, "Why do you need to see me when you have two Buddhas at home?" (This would suggest that anything he might gain from the Buddha, say in terms of the karma of honoring him in person, he could gain from his parents).
Ultimately, it becomes what WE do, not what parents do or did. There will be no excuse for our intentional actions towards them -- or anybody, but especially them. That's how special parents are.
If a snarling animal were to come at us and we killed it, that would be the terrible karma of killing. "But," we'll say, "it was going to kill us, or harm us, or it was scaring us by snarling! So that shouldn't be bad karma; I should get a freebie on that one."
Now, think about it for a moment. If even a snarling savage wild crazed rabid animal were coming at us, snarling and looking ready to bite, and we killed it THAT would be bad karma with suffering for us as the result, how much more for a father, mother, or stepparent -- who came at us providing life, food, shelter, assistance, learning, and so much more?
I slapped this on my Dad's car so he'd know.
Sure, of course, we don't remember that. We weren't aware and don't now remember when we were infants puking on our dads and moms or parental figures. How we pooped, got sick, were helpless, needed things, got housed, got fed, got cared for, got loved... Sure, we'll say, "Nah, dawg, you don't know my dad [or Mom or whoever]!" And we can tell stories about how bad he was (or they were), how much he drank and yelled and restricted and punished and threatened and spanked or punched or worse. Blah, blah, blah. It's true. It's understandable.
But it's not going to matter. It is NOT going to make it neutral karma, and it sure isn't good karma. "But, but...but I was ill-equipped to handle it. No one taught me any other way! I blame my dad, stupid jerk, for not teaching me better! HE made me do it! I treat him like he treated me at the worst of times (because I've forgotten the best of times when he was doing so much for me that I don't count or never knew about)."
How punks D.R.I. see "Karma"
D.R.I. somehow learned about "Karma" and sang about it
LYRICS "Karma": Hey, Punk, with that bottle in your hand/ What makes you so sad? Could life really be that bad?/ Sure, you've got your reasons/ But your alibis are lies/ The story is an old one/ It's been told a million times/ You were glad to be alive/ On life's journey/ You were excited/ But you were not in a hurry/ For years, you walked up and down each road/ You had to try them all/ Looking for your place, I guess/ Where you could rest and feel at home/ Now, tired of walking/ You've started to run/ Passing everything by/ But at least you're having fun/ Good karma, bad karma/ You'll get what you deserve/ There is good and evil/ You've got a lot to learn/ There is love, there is hate/ You can't do as you please/ Wash your face, take a bath/ Your aura's still filthy/ In someone's bathroom, turning blue, puking green/ You're senile, senile at seventeen/ Scars on your brain from drinking beer and smoking weed/ Another acid tab, another shot of speed/ Good karma, bad karma/ You'll get what you deserve/ There is good and evil/ You've got a lot to learn/ There's no lie, only truth/ In reality/ You hate love, you love to hate/ Your soul is so diseased/ You are just a fish in a sea of human beings/ Lost in, caught up in, someone else's dream/ Afraid to laugh 'cause you might drown/ The true mad, sad clown sinking down/ Into the darkness where no one/ Would dare venture to save you
I don't deserve what happens to me!
"Karma's a b*tch," that's the saying. What does it mean? It means karma can be. How is "karma" defined in the West? "What comes around goes around." And what does that saying mean? That means what we send upstream will be coming downstream, what we put out comes back, what we throw out there sooner or later lands on our heads. When we put out something in the wind, it will eventually be hitting us right in the face. So if we spit or pee or poop, ooh, that's going to be a "b*tch" all right. But what if we were to waft fragrant flower petals before us, or wondrous incense smoke, or the aroma of savory food? Mmm, that would be pleasing! That would be welcome hitting us in the face. So it is not that "Karma is a B" all the time, just the times when our karma (deeds) are as awful as offal (tripe, eviscerated waste, poop).
Karma works out its results quite impersonally. Y'know how annoying Christians say, "God is not mocked" (Galatians 6:7)? I think they're really, without realizing it, talking about Karma. We don't really get away with things only we know we did. The truth will out, maybe not in this lifetime, and maybe we'll content ourselves to say, "There can't no other lifetimes because I don't believe in that!" but it won't matter.
Remember that slightly stoopid fad kids had going not long ago, saying "six seven" to everything for no apparent reason? (Thanks, South Park!) Wisdom Quarterly wonders if it wasn't some semi-conscious allusion to Galatians 6:7. It's not like anybody reads the Bible nowadays, and no one consciously remembers. But it gets shoved down our threats and into our heads, so who knows if it didn't sneak in so that when everyone heard "six seven," it did have this meaning: "Do not be deceived. Karma cannot be mocked. We reap (harvest) what we sow (plant)."
F Dad who never cared 'bout me
But, y'know, like, what if you do hate him? It's understandable to be very mad at an American parent, fathers and mothers -- and those super jerks the stepparents, who didn't even give birth to a kid and have to suffer the same things and worse from the troubled kids they adopt. It's not all for nothing, parents. It's no accident we adopt. It's no accident we were born into this society that taught and trained us this way, so that's not going to work as an excuse to get us off the karmic hook. Who would ask us, Yama King of the Dead? Jehovah/Yahweh/Yaldabaoth, the Demiurge? Karma does not work through "court" proceedings. It just does its thing. Without knowing it, we are carrying around the seeds of it right now so that wherever we go, there we are. And wherever we go, karma is already there. Karma is the builder, the creator, the producer of our states and traits, our vipaka and phala (karmic resultants and fruits).
So what's a person to do? What action (karma) would produce merit? One should ask, "Hey, if I hate my Dad and am going to get into a world of karmic consequences for ignoring or mistreating him, what should I do?" That would be a great question to ask the Buddha, the Awakened One. If one is lucky enough to seek guidance from the Buddha, the Dharma, or the [Noble = Enlightened] Sangha, that will be a very good question. And here's what they would say:
Cultivate metta. Cultivate all four of the Divine Abidings. It will be for YOUR good for a long, long time. Seeing as how we've been cultivating terrible qualities -- whether we learned them from our parents or not -- this would be a great way to go against the stream that pull us down. We could RISE ABOVE (all the BS and family problems we were born into) and go up!
The lotus bud figured this out long ago. Ever notice where the most beautiful and fragrant lotus flowers grow? That's right -- in the mud and mire, the filth and pollution. They love it, accept it, transform it into the most beautiful things. Come to think of it, all the best tasting food grows on dirt, mud, soil, and fertilizer. Fertilizer?! That's made of dung 💩🐽🤭, isn't it?
So Western Theravada monk Ajahn Brahm wrote that book making this point: If a dump truck pulls up in front of your house and drops a massive load, what should you do? B*tch and complain, tell everybody how unfair it is that this happened to you, take revenge, start throwing it at everyone like a monkey in a zoo would?
Or might it be a better idea to take it around back to the garden, dig it into the ground, and get the most beautiful flowers and vegetables and fruits from its transformation? Bury it. Let it do good. You'll be thanking that dump truck driver in the end, if you follow this enlightened advice.
When I was a kid, I had a cousin of around the same age. My Dad was a drunk, his father was a religious nut. We'd come home from school and call each other. During those phone calls, I would tell him the latest insanity my dad displayed, and he would tell me what his pops (my uncle) was up to. Before long, it became a contest. "Hah, my dad's a bigger a-hole than your dad!"
Homer, your son says you're a bad father to him.
"Oh yeah, well, let me tell you what he was up to today." And we would flabbergast each other with the ghastly things those fathers of ours had done. Sometimes he won, but most of the time, no one could touch my dad for sheer awfulness, depravity, drunkenness, and vulgarity, to say nothing of the threats, punishments, and always having me be in some kind of trouble or restriction. I fought back. My cousin was smarter and kept his head down, "Yes, Dad," that way he avoided trouble. We eventually called it a draw and my belief that if only he didn't drink, my dad would be all right. His dad never drank and was this much of an a-hole? Hah! What's a growing boy to do? I did what, it seems, few other boys do.
I didn't drink, and I didn't believe in my parents' religion. No way, what hypocrisy! The whole idea of a "father" in the sky was enough for me to say, "F the Patriarchy!" Very punk rock, very crossover, very thrash, very heavy metal, very extreme and alternative. But what's a boy to do, having given up that cultural inheritance? Look for a new, a better one, something I chose rather than was born into (on account of karma).
I eventually loved my dad. I always loved him. I didn't think I didn't love him. I just hated him on top of that. So I stopped that extra layer, stopped ruminating on all the negative things he did. Why/how? I learned Buddhism and Eightfold Yoga.
Buddha Yoga (Wm. Bodri)
I rejected Western materialism and sought answers in the East, where I always suspected they were, just like so many before me, from Siddhartha to Jews of all eras like Jesus, who was more likely an Essene, Gnostic, Buddhist monk at Hemis Gompa in Ladakh, a student of Vedic Brahmanism, and not much of a "Jew," as the Ashkenazi of today would have the West believe).
There's more we can do to love our dads and moms (or at least not hate them) than the Four Divine Abidings. That's why it's invaluable (so valuable that a price cannot be put on it) to have learned and practiced "meditation." What is this English word we call "meditation"? It is cultivation (like dung in the garden or farm), self-improvement, development (bhavana), literally "bringing into being" what we want, like to not be so mad, angry, resentful, and ingrateful.
If we cultivate the opposite of these four, what would we be like? We could be sane, here and now under these circumstance; we could be more loving, joyful, and grateful -- FULL of gratitude not only for our parents, such as they were, but for all the other people who sort of "parented" us when our parents weren't always up to the task: teachers, family, friends, acquaintances, pure strangers, enemies even. There's a very beautiful saying in Hinduism that really helped me when I reflected on it to not be resentful of the harm people do us, with or without knowing how much harm they're doing:
The sandalwood tree sprinkles perfume on the axe that lays it low.
I once opened a fortune cookie at a Chinese restaurant. Who knows why, it's not like I ate those cookies or believed in the mass printed fortunes in them, and I found a treasure. This ancient wisdom of the East:
(CLUB LADIEZ) The Other F Word is an American documentary film directed by independent filmmaker Andrea Blaugrund Nevins. It explores the world of aging punk rock musicians as they transition into being parents and try to maintain the contrast between their anti-authoritarian lifestyle/pose with the responsibilities of Fatherhood, the titular "other F word." In addition to interviewing over 20 musicians [1] from across the spectrum of the genre -- including Jim Lindberg of Pennywise, Mark Hoppus of Blink 182, and Fat Mike of NOFX -- the film also includes other emblematic figures of the punk subculture such as professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, in a chronicle of the struggles and rewards that accompany raising children. It was released in the U.S. by Oscilloscope Laboratories in 2011. More
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