We hear a lot about how Buddhism is the most rational religion, barely even deserving of the name. That might be true of some forms and practices of Buddhism, but not all, as this story shows. Like the ancients were going to do without their demons and vengeful gods just because their relgion’s founder didn’t endorse them.

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What forms and practices of Buddhism are rational?

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Jimmy:

The Four Noble Truths are pretty reasonable, if somewhat pompously named.

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“What forms and practices of Buddhism are rational?”

Meditation is rational if you don’t have any expectations.

Now as far as the Buddha’s realization I discovered something quite interesting about 2/3rds of Buddhist monks that I contacted did not know what the Buddha realized about the origin of suffering.

I emailed 30 Buddhist monks and asked one question what is the origin of suffering that the Buddha realized. I got 16 responses, which is a pretty good response percent. Three answered correctly. The origin of suffering is ignorance. The other 13 answered a combination of answers that included attachments, cravings, grasping, and desire.

Attachments, cravings and grasping are symptoms of ignorance not origins or root causes. Desire is another story.

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Ignorance is the cause of suffering?  Ouch!

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if ignorance is the cause of our suffering as the buddha taught then what is the origin of that ignorance?

run that by the buddhists and see what kind of answers you get.

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