Buddha is back!

[gtc]

This is the headline on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald's website:

'Buddha: He spent months sitting in jungle without food or water.'

The linked photo is captioned 'The reincarnation of Buddha ... Ram Bahadur Bamjan'.

Apparently some Nepalese buddhists are convinced that Ram Bahadur Bamjan hasn't eaten or drunk anything since 2005 and 'say he spent months without moving, sitting with his eyes closed beneath a tree.'

The only skeptics they quote are themselves buddhists who point out, rather inconveniently, that Buddha isn't supposed to reincarnate.

The story here is not only that some (some?) buddhists are incredulous but that a supposedly quality newspaper is presenting the story as if it is fact.

 

[lionking]

It looks like the Fairfax press is joining the rush to the bottom.

 

[Frozenwolf150]

So if I meet Ram Bahadur Bamjan on the road, should I kill him?

 

[SimonD]

(Said in that Movie trailer voice)

Buddha is back and this time it’s personal.

He sat under a tree in India, this time it’s Nepal.

Be thrilled as he dispenses wisdom

Shot of a sexy girl wearing next to nothing: “O Buddha, fill me with your enlightenment”

Buddha : You just gotta breath in and out

Watch as he seeks alms

Buddha: “Uzi 9mm”

See him destroy suffering

A shot of a big explosion

Buddha is back – see him at a temple near you.

 

[Gagglegnash]

Hi

Yeah - Buddha is supposed to be off the wheel of Samsara! That's the whole idea of reaching Nirvana, right? Bodhisattvas are the only ones who are supposed to come back.

Something is fishy in Nepal.

 

[Dancing David]

Buddha is an appelation, it referes to bodh or light as in bodhi, so buddha is a name that means 'enlightened' although most references are to Sidartha Gautama Shakyamuni, the alleged histoprical buddha.

This just shows that silly is evenly distributed through out the universe. The last one ran off with a girl.

Strangely the buddha is alleged to have sat under a tree twice, once when he practices great privation and eats only one grain of rice a day. At the end of this time he realises that he is no closer to his goal than before. he is rescued by a cowgirl who feeds him and nourishes him back to health.

Then allegedly he also sat under the bodhi tree for 49 days and saw the rising morning star when he realized , the self is an illusions. Then the marching band of the gods shows up and the rest is is history...

 

[Ichneumonwasp]

Time for Thin Lizzy to reform and record a new song.

 

[kbm99]

Time for Thin Lizzy to reform and record a new song.

If you're thinking of "Bodhisattva" that's Steely Dan.

 

[Ichneumonwasp]

The Buddha's Back in Town*.













* They only had a couple hits with "The Boys are Back in Town" probably the biggest.

 

[Undesired Walrus]

Apparently some Nepalese buddhists are convinced that Ram Bahadur Bamjan hasn't eaten or drunk anything since 2005 and 'say he spent months without moving, sitting with his eyes closed beneath a tree.'

Sounds extraordinary. Is there any evidence of this?

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Apparently some Nepalese buddhists are convinced that Ram Bahadur Bamjan hasn't eaten or drunk anything since 2005 and 'say he spent months without moving, sitting with his eyes closed beneath a tree.'

And apparently some Norsemen once believed that there was this god named Thor who could create thunder and lightning with his hammer.

 

[kbm99]

The Buddha's Back in Town*.

* They only had a couple hits with "The Boys are Back in Town" probably the biggest.

It's easily the biggest. That and "Whisky in the Jar" may be the only two Thin Lizzy recordings I could identify on hearing. At any rate, I always thought "The Boys" sounded a bit like a Steely Dan song, which is where I thought your (non-existent) confusion came from.

 

[kbm99]

Apparently some Nepalese buddhists are convinced that Ram Bahadur Bamjan hasn't eaten or drunk anything since 2005 and 'say he spent months without moving, sitting with his eyes closed beneath a tree.'

If he hasn't eaten or drunk since 2005 and he's motionless with his eyes closed, my bet would be that he's dead.

 

[Ausmerican]

The Buddha looks like my nephew. More tanned though. I wonder if he plays guitar too?

 

[SisterSmile]

Beats the "I saw Jesus in a slice of toast" newsbits !

 

[shemp]

Gunning For The Buddha

 

[John Freestone]

I like this bit:

"Meditating without food does not prove that he is the reincarnation of Buddha," said Min Bahadur Shakya of the Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods, a Buddhist research centre in Kathmandu. "There is much study needed to be done."

How much study will be needed to be done, I wonder, to verify that. I have some doubt about the Exact Methods. I googled the institute name and found their website address, but google has put a warning against it "This site may harm your computer", and I have no wish to tempt karma.

And this is weird:

Bamjan has never addressed the subject [of whether he is the reincarnation of the Buddha, an impossibility according to Buddhism] in any of his speeches.

The devotees who have flocked to visit him have fewer doubts.

So, what? People flock to get the Buddha's blessing, call him a god, and he hasn't confirmed or denied it? Ah, unity consciousness.

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

Just to be clear, according to Buddhism, the Buddha denied that he was a God and the whole point of enlightenment is to not be reborn again. And there is no soul in Buddhism.

But Nepal is a majority Hindu nation, and the Buddhists and the Hindus have intermingled to the extent that it is rather hard to differentiate them on the day to day level.

Indeed, I have to wonder how many of the "followers" (Note how the article didn't say "Buddhists") actually identify as Buddhists.

Apparently they have cults in Nepal too .

 

[Nick227]

The Buddha's Back in Town*.

or Heatwave's "Bodhi Nights"

Nick

 

[Darth Rotor]

This is the headline on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald's website:

'Buddha: He spent months sitting in jungle without food or water.'

This guy is merely the lead singer for the New Age band, Anorexic Buddha.

"I got a chance to see God today," Bishnu Maya Khadka, a housewife, said after receiving Bamjan's blessing today. "They say he is Buddha, but for me he is just God."

This is rich with material.

DR