Nalanda University reopens after hundreds of years!

[arp2041]

This thread has been a richly educative one and i really enjoyed the contributions of our Sri Lankan, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese colleagues. This truly is a microcosm of world thought. This is what I TRULY admire about PDF.

STOP IT mate.....or You Will Make me Cry ------------->

This is what I TRULY admire about PDF.

TTA is the MAX. post you can get here, no need to write all this

 

[Indrani]

Which Indian Marxist had said so?

All. If you were to go through @Bang Galore posts, he seems more interested in talking about how Buddha hated Brahmins and despised Vedas. The Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib school of thought wove these stories that Hindus were the killers and destroyers of Buddhism in India.

 

[Sriram]

Sun wukong was supposed to be the next hero released for dota...ice frog still has not released it!!! He is there in LoL though Thats how I knew of him

All. If you were to go through @Bang Galore posts, he seems more interested in talking about how Buddha hated Brahmins and despised Vedas. The Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib school of thought wove these stories that Hindus were the killers and destroyers of Buddhism in India.

there is truth behind it, the priests actually despise buddha i have seen it and spoken to them

 

[DarkSeid]

Shaolin Temple? Sure.
Originally founded by a guy called Bodhidharma (supposedly a Buddhist monk from India), it became the birthplace of Shaolin kung fu and Zen Buddhism.
It's still doing well today, you can visit the place as a tourist, some areas are open to the public.
About applying to be a Shaolin monk at the temple, I have no idea. The thought never crossed my mind, I can't give up my worldly possessions and become a monk.

Sri Lanka National Television had telecasted "Kung Fu Television Series'' before 2000 I think. Still remember how we adhered to watch it at that time.

When considering about Bodhidharma monk, there was an Indian movie about him. Unfortunately I haven't watched it yet.

 

[Indrani]

there is truth behind it, the priests actually despise buddha i have seen it and spoken to them

Well, I do not know what kind of priests you have met, but most of the Buddhist monasteries were being taken care of by Brahmin priests including the Maha Bodhi shrine before the neo-Buddhist Ambedkarites wrested control of the sites in 1992.

 

[Aepsilons]

Sri Lanka National Television had telecasted "Kung Fu Television Series'' before 2000 I think. Still remember how we adhered to watch it at that time.

When considering about Bodhidharma monk, there was an Indian movie about him. Unfortunately I haven't watched it yet.

@ShreddeR ,

If i am correct, Sri Lanka was pivotal in the spread of Thervada Buddhism throughout most South East Asia. I think there are cultural affinities between Sri Lankan Thervada Buddhism with those of past south east asian empires such as: the Sri Vijaya Empire, Majapahit Empire, Khmer Empire, Champa Empire, Kingdom of Sukkothai, Kingdom of Lan Xang, Kingdom of Ayudhaya, Burmese Tongou Empire et al. Since most of these sovereign states/ empires had adopted a Buddhist philosophy after supplanting Hinduism.

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

I am always awed at the beauty of how religions are passed from the progenitor source to new an distant lands. I am amazed at the shear fact that Japan, presently, remains a Shinto-Buddhist nation , at how China remains a culturally Taoist-Buddhist nation, the same for South Korea and many other nations in South East Asia -- the vibrancy of the Buddhist school of thought -- be it Mahayana to Thervada. Yet Buddhism hails from South Asia [India-Nepal].

Back to the original point of the thread, its good that India is revitalizing her cultural history , cultural awareness and the identity of its people. This thread has been a richly educative one and i really enjoyed the contributions of our Sri Lankan, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese colleagues. This truly is a microcosm of world thought. This is what I TRULY admire about PDF.

@Aeronaut , @WebMaster , @scorpionx @Chinese-Dragon et al.

The Gandhara civilisation (modern day Pakistan) were Buddhists aswell..

The Fasting Budhha from Gandhara...
Gandhara Civilization

Apart from that we The ancient Taxila university ..

 

[dravidianhero]

All. If you were to go through @Bang Galore posts, he seems more interested in talking about how Buddha hated Brahmins and despised Vedas. The Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib school of thought wove these stories that Hindus were the killers and destroyers of Buddhism in India.

With all due respects to you,isn't it true that advaitis(followers of shankaracharya)boast about shankaracharya defeating Buddhists in debates and convincing people and kings to revert to Hinduism?Doesn't that mean both those religions were not in good terms with each other?Of course we may have a difference of opinion regarding atrocities committed by certain schools of Hinduism against Buddhists but to say that Buddhism and Hinduism co existed in harmony is a bit far fetched in my view(I don't like to call Buddhism and Hinduism as separate religions since the rivalry between different schools of philosophy existed within even so called Hinduism;Buddhism is just one part of broader Indian philosophical thoughts)

 

[DarkSeid]

Well you see it in this thread itself. Half the Indians here are atheists, yet still they consider themselves Hindus. They seem more aligned to the Carvaka school of thought which is very similar to materialism and atheism in the Western sense. A lot of practicing Hindus would fall in the category of agnosticism tough.

Then they are engaging with an unproductive activity, which couldn't give the spiritual strength needed.

 

[Indischer]

Then they are engaging with an unproductive activity, which couldn't give the spiritual strength needed.

Could you please elaborate? You aren't hinting that blind faith rather than a mind for inquiry is the source of one's inner strength, are you?

With all due respects to you,isn't it true that advaitis(followers of shankaracharya)boast about shankaracharya defeating Buddhists in debates and convincing people and kings to revert to Hinduism?Doesn't that mean both those religions were not in good terms with each other?Of course we may have a difference of opinion regarding atrocities committed by certain schools of Hinduism against Buddhists but to say that Buddhism and Hinduism co existed in harmony is a bit far fetched in my view(I don't like to call Buddhism and Hinduism as separate religions since the rivalry between different schools of philosophy existed within even so called Hinduism;Buddhism is just one part of broader Indian philosophical thoughts)

Well, if they weren't coexisting peacefully, you wouldn't have those lengthy debates which Shankara apparently won, would you?

 

[Aepsilons]

I don't know about the reddish complexion part, but we definitely do call him "阿彌陀佛" (Amitabha Buddha).

Amitabha supposedly means "Infinite light" which is why we use the term "無量光佛" (Buddha of Infinite Light).

It's also translated as the "Buddha of the Western paradise" (Western paradise referring to the Indian subcontinent).

Very interesting, indeed. So much similarity.

In Japan there are 4 schools of Pure Land Buddhism : a) Jodo-shu, b) Jodo shinshu, c) Yuzu nembutsu- shu and c) Ji-Shu. One unique aspect of these 4 schools are the importance of meditation -- I'm sure this is a similarity -- if not identical to the Chinese forms.

 

[Indrani]

With all due respects to you,isn't it true that advaitis(followers of shankaracharya)boast about shankaracharya defeating Buddhists in debates and convincing people and kings to revert to Hinduism?Doesn't that mean both those religions were not in good terms with each other?Of course we may have a difference of opinion regarding atrocities committed by certain schools of Hinduism against Buddhists but to say that Buddhism and Hinduism co existed in harmony is a bit far fetched in my view(I don't like to call Buddhism and Hinduism as separate religions since the rivalry between different schools of philosophy existed within even so called Hinduism;Buddhism is just one part of broader Indian philosophical thoughts)

That is exactly the point, co-existing does not mean that you would have no difference of opinion at all. Even in a family of 5 all 5 may have different view points on any subject matter, does not make them rivals. Arguments and debates are the very essence of an intellectual society where every view point is critically looked at. Do you call a science symposium a meeting of rivals and of bad faith? Of course the way Shankaracharya went about was to intellectually debate with people around, if they could defeat him intellectually, he would have converted to Buddhism. It was not a one-way street. They had the intellectual honesty to concede and agree when they lost the debate. This is being in good terms.

How can that be compared to the intolerance of Abrahamic faiths?

 

[Aepsilons]

So are Japanese Buddhists vegetarian?

Some are. Tho many eat all kinds of meat.

 

[Indrani]

Then they are engaging with an unproductive activity, which couldn't give the spiritual strength needed.

How?

 

[dravidianhero]

Then they are engaging with an unproductive activity, which couldn't give the spiritual strength needed.

@Indrani should have used the word agnostics instead of atheists;Hindus who are into spirituality(educated ones)mostly are philosophical. The curiosity in philosophy starts with bhagavadgita;engaging in philosophy is not unproductive;it brings in a lot of peace irrespective of the fact whether one believes in God or not.