Tiger Woods and Buddhism

[Gman]

There is something I don't get about Tiger Woods and his Buddhist beliefs.. Recently he stated..

“Part of following this path for me is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age,” he said. “People probably don't realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist, and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint.”

So if he claims that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security, then why is he still pursuing a multi-million dollar career in golf? Why is he still competing on the golf course?

[RickD]

There is something I don't get about Tiger Woods and his Buddhist beliefs.. Recently he stated..

“Part of following this path for me is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age,” he said. “People probably don't realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist, and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint.”

So if he claims that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security, then why is he still pursuing a multi-million dollar career in golf? Why is he still competing on the golf course?

Maybe because he's the best golfer in the history of golf.

[touchingcloth]

There is something I don't get about Tiger Woods and his Buddhist beliefs.. Recently he stated..

“Part of following this path for me is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age,” he said. “People probably don't realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist, and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint.”

So if he claims that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security, then why is he still pursuing a multi-million dollar career in golf? Why is he still competing on the golf course?

Because his career in golf is within himself?

[Gman]

Because his career in golf is within himself?

Let the golf in you shine through...

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

I bet we see a bunch of repentant adulterous men converting to Buddhism now.

FL

[Gman]

I bet we see a bunch of repentant adulterous men converting to Buddhism now.

FL

Yes... Buddhism it splices it dices, it will even clean your oven or living room floors... Never leave home without it.

[Canuckster1127]

That explains something ....

Tiger Woods went to a buddhist hot dog vendor and said ... "Make me one with everything ..."

The vendor then handed him his hot-dog but no money, so Tiger asked, "Hey, where's my change?" to which the buddhist hot-dog vendor replied, "Change come from within"

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

«What in the West has come to be known as Buddhism, by analogy with other '-isms' is, in its home in Asia, known as the Buddha-sasana, that is, the way of life, or discipline, of the Awakened One, the Buddha. It is known also as the Buddha-Dhamma, that is - as near as it is possible to get an English meaning for the word Dhamma (in Sanskrit Dharma) in this context - 'the eternal truth' of the Awakened One.»

The above is the opening paragraph of the chapter on Buddhism in World Religions From Ancient History to the Present, edited by Geoffrey Parrinder.

For the Christian that I am, knowing that «Buddhism» means «The eternal truth of the Awakened One» reminds me of that scene in the Garden where Satan assured Eve «You will not surely die...For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God...»≠ Satan's lie and Buddhism's definition are remarkably similar.

FL

≠Ge 3:4-5

[DannyM]

For the Christian that I am, knowing that «Buddhism» means «The eternal truth of the Awakened One» reminds me of that scene in the Garden where Satan assured Eve «You will not surely die...For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God...»≠ Satan's lie and Buddhism's definition are remarkably similar.

FL

≠Ge 3:4-5

Buddhists like to portray Buddhism as "enlightened" and "super-rational," when in reality it is merely a religion based on the self...self-absorption. Things are the way they are because that is the true way of things; it is "improper" to ask why things just happen to be that way; just accept it. Hmm, super-rational huh?

I'm with you to an extent; only the "serpent" did not so much lie as tell a half-truth.

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

Buddhists like to portray Buddhism as "enlightened" and "super-rational," when in reality it is merely a religion based on the self...self-absorption. Things are the way they are because that is the true way of things; it is "improper" to ask why things just happen to be that way; just accept it. Hmm, super-rational huh?

Buddhism* is the only religion that is atheistic.** Is it any wonder it attracts the self absorbed?

FL

*and its offshoot Nichiren Shoshu.
**Classical Buddhism is atheistic. Modern perversions have a god, or gods, or «forces.»

[DannyM]

Buddhism* is the only religion that is atheistic.** Is it any wonder it attracts the self absorbed?

FL

*and its offshoot Nichiren Shoshu.
**Classical Buddhism is atheistic. Modern perversions have a god, or gods, or «forces.»

I agree that it has many atheistic attributes to it, but I would personally describe Buddhism as agnostic. Buddhists certainly do not believe in God, and I don't think you'd find much talk of a personal creator God. Buddhism does appear, though, to believe in the existence of divine beings, a bit like the gods of Greek mythology. The Buddhist gods (deva), apparently, tend to be happier than we are and more powerful, and they live longer than we do, but they are still a part of the cycle of "death and rebirth." In infinite past rebirths you and I have been gods many times over; pretty neat huh?

[Gman]

That's interesting Danny.. But I'm pretty sure that Buddhists don't believe in any creator God.

In a recent conversation with the Dalai Lama, he put Buddhism this way...

Question: The God of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims to whom the faithful address themselves is a person, with whom one can have an actual exchange. It is also the ''All. " To you, does the Buddha correspond to this definition?

Answer: No. For us, the Buddha is not an "All." But if one defines God as a refuge, the Awakener, the Buddha corresponds to your idea of God. He is the omniscient Being par excellence. On the other hand, he is not the creator of the world and its creatures. We believe that we all have the Buddha nature in us. Yet we cannot create ourselves.

Question: So, in effect, the idea of creation is not at all understood in the same way in Christianity and in Buddhism?

Answer: For Buddhists, it is karma that creates the world. All action Bows from a previous action, every event Bows from a previous event, following the law of causality. It is the strength of the mind, the sentiments, the emotions that create the world in which we live, that fashions beings...

Question: Could you describe how you understand Buddhism? Is it a religion, a practice, or a philosophy?

Answer: It's all three at once. In it, one practices various forms of meditation. And analytic meditation-among others-is done with the aid of a certain knowledge. It's equally a religion, because this practice and this philosophy join beings together toward enlightenment, the refuge, aiding them to become Buddhas, enlightened beings.

I thought this was interesting too on the Devas.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_%28Bu ... s_vs._gods

[DannyM]

That's interesting Danny.. But I'm pretty sure that Buddhists don't believe in any creator God.

In a recent conversation with the Dalai Lama, he put Buddhism this way...

I agree, the gods (deva) are practically irrelevant to Budddhism ... Do you know where this ocnversation with the Dalai Lama took place?

Question: So, in effect, the idea of creation is not at all understood in the same way in Christianity and in Buddhism?

Answer: For Buddhists, it is karma that creates the world. All action Bows from a previous action, every event Bows from a previous event, following the law of causality. It is the strength of the mind, the sentiments, the emotions that create the world in which we live, that fashions beings...

This is one of my main contentions with Buddhism. Fundamental to Buddhism is a moral order: good deeds produce happiness and bad deeds produce suffering (law of karman). But here's where it ties itself up in knots. Is it necessarily the case that there is moral order, or is it merely contingently so? The Buddhist appeals to the regularity of causation in one breath, while in the next breath says that this moral order is just happens to be the way of things; things just happen to be this way and they will stay that way no matter how far into the future one goes. This is where Buddhism, for me, simply stops still, refusing to investigate any futher. It accepts an underlying moral and causal order, yet throws its hands up and says 'that's as far as we go' ... Now, if this is considered to be super-rational then surely it iis at the very least equally rational for the Christian to believe and investigate the CAUSE for this causal order? On these very premises of Buddhism, then, it seems to me that a creator, or a CAUSER, would be needed to bestow this order and moral behaviour? Appealing to the regularity of the causation alone seems to me to be absurd.

Question: Could you describe how you understand Buddhism? Is it a religion, a practice, or a philosophy?

Answer: It's all three at once. In it, one practices various forms of meditation. And analytic meditation-among others-is done with the aid of a certain knowledge. It's equally a religion, because this practice and this philosophy join beings together toward enlightenment, the refuge, aiding them to become Buddhas, enlightened beings.

I have no problem whatsoever with the Dalai Lama, but the above is yet more vague talk of knowledge and enlightenment. I've not once read a Buddhist who can adequately explain, i.e put into words how one is to really achieve this liberation, or enlightenment (nirvana). I've seen the 'set path' layed out for morality, meditation and wisdom- all free of suffering, but I feel it is all very vague. (Not that I'm overly-read in Buddhism- I'm not claiming to be.)

I thought this was interesting too on the Devas.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_%28Bu ... s_vs._gods

Yeah, that link seems to tally with some of what I've read.

[Gman]

I agree, the gods (deva) are practically irrelevant to Budddhism ... Do you know where this ocnversation with the Dalai Lama took place?

I grabbed it out of a book called "The Wisdom of the Buddha." I own most religious books including the Quran.

I have no problem whatsoever with the Dalai Lama, but the above is yet more vague talk of knowledge and enlightenment. I've not once read a Buddhist who can adequately explain, i.e put into words how one is to really achieve this liberation, or enlightenment (nirvana). I've seen the 'set path' layed out for morality, meditation and wisdom- all free of suffering, but I feel it is all very vague. (Not that I'm overly-read in Buddhism- I'm not claiming to be.)

I guess what I don't understand about it is reincarnation.. Tibetan Buddhists, as an example, believe that a newborn child may be the rebirth of some important departed lama. However recently, Osel Hita Torres, a boy that was hand picked Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of a spiritual leader, turned his back on the Buddhist order. Basically it was suspected that Torres was the reincarnation of Lama Yeshe, but then it back fired.. Not surprisingly..



As he states.. "They took me away from my family and stuck me in a medieval situation in which I suffered a great deal," said Torres, 24, describing how he was whisked from obscurity in Granada to a monastery in southern India. "It was like living a lie," he told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/ma ... ita-torres

I guess I don't see what Tiger Woods sees in all this.. Perhaps he thinks he is the reincarnation of some golf god? But then again he attended Stanford..