Buddhism :: essays research papers

Buddhism Things I Find Interesting     As I was interlingual rendition the selected portions of the book for this chapter, I came across a few things that I found interesting. At first I did not catch them, but after I went back and reread the selections, I found these things, that I thought were intriguing.      Buddhism is supposedly a non-theistic religion. However, in the reading titled "The Majjhim-Nikaya Questions Which Lend not to Edification" (5.1) and in "Realizing the Four Noble Truths" (5.3, the Buddha is continually referred to as "The Blessed One". If he is only a man, why is he referred to in such a course? Other Buddhists have the potential to become Buddhas, so would they also be referred to as "Blessed One"? If this Buddha was not the first, and not the last Buddha, why atomic number 18 other Buddhas also not referred to as "Blessed ones"? In my opinion, if this Buddha is not consider ed to be a god, then he should at least be referred to as "One of the Blessed Ones" instead of "The Blessed One".      Another concept that I found interesting was the idea of duality that was discussed in "The Majjhima-Nikaya Questions Which Lend Not to Edification" (5.1). I do not quite understand it, so I was intrigued it. The selection says that the soul and clay are identical, and then that the soul and body are separate. It says that the world is finite and that the world is infinite. It also says that the world is eternal and then that it is not. How can these things be? I do not understand how the angel can both exist and not exist after death. I think that in my worldview, things such as these concepts are not present. I natter ideas such as the world, and the body and soul as one way or the other.