Top 10 Most Interesting Things I learned about Thai Buddhism*:
1. Buddha was a Indian prince who desired to find an answer to the suffering in the world. He did not want to be worshipped as a god. He just thought he had found answers to true happiness.
2. The base is if you do good, you receive good. If you do bad, you receive bad. No one can help you. You must do it all yourself.
3. The five pillars of Buddhism involve not drinking, not lying, not having extramarital affairs, not stealing, and not killing animals. Most Buddhists cannot follow all of these.
4. Buddha's followers did write down Buddha's teachings, yet Thai Buddhism is not solely based on his words.
5. They believe in reincarnation meaning your actions in this life can affect your next life.
6. Nirvana, the ultimate goal of Buddhism, means escaping the cycle of reincarnation into nothingness. You no longer exist.
7. To be a true Buddhism, you would desire to escape the world entirely--from all good and evil. You would achieve having no feelings at all.
8. Many monks' teaching now also includes selling Buddhist amulets and monk images to people telling them these images will keep them from sinning.
9. Thai Buddhists have incorporated beliefs about ghosts, heaven and hell in their post-death thoughts. Therefore, you could die, become a ghost, then be sent to hell, then heaven, and then on to your next life.
10. Heaven and hell, according to their thoughts, include levels relating to what you've done wrong. You only stay there a definitive time period not forever.
*These are in no particular order. Just some thoughts from my first 10 days of class. I do not mean to be hurtful in any way. I could be wrong about many of these things since I am neither a Thai or a Buddhist. However, this is purely to share some of my learning.
I passed my midterm test in this Buddhism class. My teacher says I know enough of Buddhism now to be a monk. (He was joking with me.) I however will not be pursuing that career path. I need Jesus!
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