200 years after

That gospel was written in around 130-170 CE.
Which is basically 100 years more than the other ones.

Buddha isn’t important for buddhism, his teachings are

plx use AC and BC

>>>>>How many Buddhists actually avoid listening to music, tv, and having sex? (The Buddha actually recommended this, even to non-monks). accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an05/an05.180.than.html

OP here, don't forget about this question, pls

Have you never played a game of Chinese whispers?

>using CE
Soy as fuck.

AD and BC
not AC
bitch

>PALI canon
It's not chinese.

That makes Mark about as legit as a L. Ron Hubbard short biography written and edited by the Church of Scientology in 2016. Slipping a wonder here and fulfilling a prophecy there.
>70 AD
>REEEEEEEEEEEEE, Romans just destroyed our holy Temple in Jerusalem
>REEEEEEEEEEEEE, lets become Christians instead!

Lay people aren't expected to be as strict as ordained monks. To what degree will you take your practice of the Dhamma is entirely up to you.

I used to be a Buddhist and I did that, no music, tv, porn, anything at all except working and meditating.
It drove me fucking insane, especially since I also practiced sense guarding (if you don't know what that is just look at SN 35.120) I became clinically depressed, my parents actually had to take me to the psychiatrist.

Eventually I realized how retarded and superstitious the religion was.

Don't try to avoid the fact that the Pali Canon explicitly recommended all of this, and sleeping very little, and "moderate eating".

Don't blame Buddhism just because you extended yourself beyond what you were capable of and ready for.

india has a great tradition of chanting remembering stuff orally unlike the west

>How many Buddhists actually avoid listening to music, tv, and having sex?
Not that many. Buddhism is relatively layman friendly, because you keep getting as many tries as you need. The average layperson is simply concerned with not sinning so much they get reincarnated as a worse person.

That's really advice for people who want extra brownie points to work their way up faster, or monks who are trying to advance even further.

But what about the empty tomb?
Why would they write down women (who's opinion was seen as inferior at the time) as the witnesses of that?

>cultist writes book
>includes badly sourced, not really credible "wonder" to spice things up
sounds convincing mate

>no music, tv, porn, anything at all anything at all except working and meditating.
>It drove me fucking insane,
Maybe you just did all of that without understanding why it should be done and what are its actual benefits.
Maybe you just used Buddhism as an excuse to become a hermit and not have to face the problems you have in your life.

I believe your opinions on what Buddhism is describe you more than they actually describe its doctrine. It has been liberating for me because of the way I have used it. Maybe you just did it wrong.

Not even trying to offend, I legitimately feel bad for what you did to yourself and I hope you get better.
Disparaging the Dhamma won't fix your problems, you got nobody to blame other than yourself.

I knew very well the justification for all that.
I am very familiar with the "theology".

You avoid all these pleasures because they help create the illusion of self identification with the five clinging aggregates, and because they are a waste of time, time you should spend meditating and understanding the mechanisms behind the mind.

I am not "blaming" the Dhamma. I am blaming myself for following it.

Other than the not-self philosophy, which itself is highly overrated, and inferior compared to many other western ideas, Buddhism is nothing but superstitious belief about reincarnation, Hells and Heavens, the Buddha's omniscience, and karma.
And all these superstitious beliefs have no more evidence than those found in any other religion.

In short.
Buddhist philosophy is not very good compared to other philosophical sects.
And it's religious aspects are just as backed up as in any other religion.

it is aparent from this post that you have very little understanding of buddhism, or its teachings and doctrines let alone its practices,

Please, I spent a whole year doing nothing but studying it, through the Pali Canon and through Thanissaro Bhikkhu's essays.

I used to meditate 2/3 hours a day, and sometimes even 5.

What is the real reason to avoid sensual pleasures then?
What exactly am I getting wrong?

Please link your sangha because everybody can see you have zero clue what you are talking about

My main sources
dhammatalks.org/
accesstoinsight.org/

Again, what exactly am I getting wrong?
Or are you guys Zen/Tibetan, instead of Theravada?

Buddhism is a "come and see" doctrine. You aren't supposed to be compelled to believe anything that you can't check out by yourself. (AN 3.65)

>What exactly am I getting wrong?
There are many differing interpretations of the Pali scriptures. I follow the Theravada school but disagree in some things with the mainstream view (and even more so with other schools), based on this man's arguments:

puredhamma.net/

He has been studying extensively the Pali canon in its source material for years and cleared a lot of misunderstandings for me. I suggest you look him up, it revolutionized my understanding of the Dhamma and exposed to me many distortions in its message throughout the centuries. It really was helpful to me.

One of his main points is that most practice is of little worth unless you have the correct understanding (Right View) first, and that it is almost always lost during translation from the Pali source. He explains the Discourses and the meanings of key words and the how and why they've changed so much throughout the centuries.

I hope you give it a try. My best wishes, user.

I never heard about meditating on how the mind works. But I realised you already noted the not clinging to sensual pleasures stuff.
No offense but did you have a "normal" life? Given that you link onlinesources I assume you weren't part of a community.
I'm sorry for belittling your depression. I only read the other post before I commented. Asthe other guy said you're not supposed to follow monk rules as a lay.
If you can't manage as strict asceticism why not slow it down?I don't see how that invalidates the philosophy.

>What is the real reason to avoid sensual pleasures then?
you are still attached to your sense organs since all your doing is avoiding the pleasure objects instead of detaching from the sense organs, in this way you are bound and is the cause of much fustration grasp nothing, spurn nothing this way you are free

>You have to start with Right View.

Yeah, and guess what that is, MN 117:

"And what is the right view with effluents (the one you have to start with), siding with merit, resulting in acquisitions?

>>>> 'There is what is given, what is offered, what is sacrificed. There are fruits & results of good & bad actions.
>>>>>There is this world & the next world. There is mother & father.
>>>>>There are spontaneously reborn beings; there are contemplatives & brahmans who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim this world & the next after having directly known & realized it for themselves.' This is the right view with effluents, siding with merit, resulting in acquisitions."

^ Right view is precisely believing in very superstitious things.

But if this is a wrong translation or something, please explain what's wrong.

Your website thinks we should believe Hell exists.
puredhamma.net/myths-or-realities/does-the-hell-niraya-exist/

The arguments given are deep sophism.
And sometimes even laughable
"When we get really angry, we burn inside, our bodies even get heated, faces get reddish, and we perspire. It is not a pretty sight to see a really angry person or even a child."

"9. Going back to the locations of the 31 realms in our solar system, they are centered around the Earth. The nirayas are located deep inside the Earth and those beings have very dense bodies."

This does not give credibility to you or your religion.

Fairly simple.

Buddha preached, he died. His followers gathered to create a recorded oral tradition and make the texts very much a mnemonic friendly (its why repetition is very much baked in Buddhist scripture). Buddhists then spread all across India and spread the Buddhism. Few councils/gathering took place, in the first two, nothing was changed. Third council took place due to arising of differences in doctrine and monastic rules. So many different buddhist schhools have sprung up by then, various minor appeared but the implications were severe. Severe enough that by 2nd century, Nagarjuna had to lay down the most coherent core of Buddhism in his famous work, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā(Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way). Its a discourse that cleans up the mess created by the multiple buddhist variations popping out. Especially those who were propagating something similar to atman/brahman (which the buddha refuted). This became the basis for which the Buddha's word were to be interpreted from there on out.