Originally posted by MajinVegeta
Thanks! My philosophy is greatly based on Buddhist philosophy about the chi. I am obssesed with Shaolin philosophy. I do the 18 excercises the Monk Mo Fa said to do, in order to excercise your chi. It hasn't worked (maybe 'cause I do it once a week...)
I want to offer a suggestion based on your interest in Buddhism.
Something I see all the time is that people will study "Buddhism" without as carefully studying the Buddha himself. There really is a huge difference between the two. Buddhism is a religion, the Buddha was enlightened. Since a religion cannot be enlightened, this is what the Buddha had to offer that religion cannot.
One book I have is called
Thus Have I Heard -
The Long Discourses of the Buddha translated by Maurice Walshe (Wisdom Publications, London). It is a translation of the original talks the Buddha gave as he traveled from village to village, or when people came to his Sangha to hear him speak. Unlike the words of Jesus, there are lots of the Buddha's talks preserved.
It is profound stuff, and very much about body, mind and soul. Now, everyone knows the Buddha didn't speak directly of a "soul," but he did direct his students inward toward something he didn't want to label,"“There is, monks, that plane where there is neither extension nor motion. . . there is no coming or going or remaining or deceasing or uprising. . . . There is, monks, an unborn, not become, not made, uncompounded . . . [and] because [that exists] . . . an escape can be shown for what is born, has become, is made, is compounded.”
N_Quire says the soul is just an idea, and for him that may be true. But for the Buddha, it was an
experience which he attained through what he called "samadhi." Several hundred years after the Buddha the Indian yogi Svatmarama described samadhi as, “. . . just as a grain of salt dissolves in water and becomes one with it, so also in samadhi there occurs the union of mind and [soul]. Mind dissolves in breath and breath subsides. Both become one . . .” Since the enlightenment of the Buddha many have undertaken the practice of samadhi. I myself have practiced it over an hour a day for the last 30 years, and can highly recommend it.
Anyway, my point was that you can do a very different sort of essay than is typically done on the Buddha if you read his talks. Often his style is Socratic, questioning someone who has a concept about the self or the soul until they come to an understanding. He covers a great deal more than what everyone is already famaliar with (i.e., the Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path, etc.).
