Gloomy

All the articles lead to just a handful of monks and a small group of their followers all of whom are military backed. It IS NOT wide-spread.

I can read and watch and understand what these militant monks have been saying and doing while you haven’t so your ASSUMPTION is again coming from absolute ignorance as are your arguments.

I’m not assuming, I’m going by the information that has been made avaible. Like here:

This violence has often been supported by factions within the Buddhist monastic community in Myanmar. Buddhist sermons regularly include Islamophobic messages such as unsubstantiated rumors of Muslim violence against Buddhists or Muslim plots to take over the country and destroy Buddhism. Thousands of monks have participated in anti-Muslim demonstrations, increasing interreligious tensions in the region. These elements of the Buddhist community have justified their actions using Buddhist theology, claiming that violence is acceptable if it is done in defense of their religion.

Regardless, there is no doubt that much of the Buddhist religious leadership of Myanmar has promoted violence against Muslims in the region.

https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/religion-context/case-studies/violence-peace/conflict-myanmar

I can read and watch and understand what these militant monks have been saying and doing while you haven’t so your ASSUMPTION is again coming from absolute ignorance as are your arguments.

This seems to directly contradict you.

As a side note, I find this part interesting:

The ethnic and religious violence in Myanmar is incredibly complex; the traumas of colonialism, poverty, the recent transition from a military government to a more democratic state, and the global war on terror all play major roles in shaping the conflict. However, the role of Buddhism in this conflict is clearly no less complex. While many monks in Myanmar seem to support and even advocate for violence against their Muslim neighbors, there are others who are constantly working to end the violence. Both believe their actions to be deeply inspired by Buddhism, and both use theology to justify their claims.

Maybe you will habe to just accept that there is no such thing as an easy truth here.

Listen, I understand your anger. I identify as a Buddhist and I am not happy to acknowledge that, in this case, the religion was at least used as an excuse for spreading violence.

Non the less, I don’t think talking around it is sensible. Sometimes we just have to face reality, even if it’s hard to swallow.

By your logic (if I understand you correctly, and by all means please correct me if not), something like the crusades could not be blamed on Christians. After all, they were politicaly motivated and the Pope only used the “Holy War” excuse to rally up troops.

I also don’t think it’s necessary to quote teachings in order to qualify the statement that “Buddhism was used to get people to commit a genocide”. Even if all they said was “we have to get rid of them, because they threaten our identity as Buddhists” that, in my opinion, is enoth to qualify the above statement.

And of course non of us knows of they quoted teachings. I assume you weren’t present, an I for sure was not. So they might have, or not have. Given the context of what happend it is at least a valid possibility.

You are right that I am not familiar with the detailed context and I thank you for adding it.

It remain an unfortunate truth, even after reading your post, that Buddhism has been used here as a weapon to spread hate. And even if it was only a minority of the population that fell for this hate, it remains true non the less that Lord Buddhas teachings have been used here in such a way.

So, even with this context, my main point stands: Every idea can and will be twisted in a hateful way by humans.

That’s not what OP is referring to.

Buddhist extremist monks have used hate speach in Myanmar for years to drive a genocide against the Rohingya, who they claim are a thread to the Buddhist identity of Myanmar.

Read about it here, for example.

I am a Buddhist myself, and I have to disagree with the “most peacefully religion ever” part. As the above example shows, every idea can be perverted and used for hate by humans.

Other examples against the idea of Buddhism beeing peaceful are Samurai beeing Buddhists, or that many people in Buddhist countries see disabled people as beeing at fault for their disabilities (the idea here is that the disability is the result of a karmic action in a past life).

Buddhism beeing overly peaceful is a misconception in the minority world (“the West”), possibly because it was introduced to Buddhism by New Age Hippies in the 70s, that worked it into the “Love and Peace” mindset that they already brought with them when encountering Buddhism.

I learned about Buddhism by one of the Lamas (Teachers) whon had encounter such Hippies and had been able to get enoth experience with “Westerners”, to be able to teach about the religion in a way that I could understand and connect from my point of view, while destroying the faulty concepts many of us have about Buddhism in the Minority World.

It’s how the law is in my country (Germany) and I wouldn’t know of any loopholes here.

If you win something in a lottery or a quiz show here, as long as it’s not job related, you don’t have to pay taxes on it. If you win a million you get a million. But if you put that million into a bank or invest it in any way, you have to pay taxes on the money you earn trough that.

Or, and this is a wild one, or the law could give a devinition of “price” that doesn’t open it up for abuse while not taking from people who won something.

The last time was a sofa and a love seat. We were stuck with the most uncomfortable furniture I’ve ever had in my life.

Oh no. They realy gave you an uncomfortable sofa? Bummer. At least you got a nice love seat out of it.

Was this writen by AI?

The researchers found surprisingly high levels of microplastics in the brain tissue. The concentration of plastics in the brain was much greater than that found in the liver or kidney samples. It was also higher than levels previously reported in placentas and testes. The median amount of total plastics for 2024 brain samples was 4917 micrograms per gram, and for 2016 samples, it was 3345 micrograms per gram. For comparison, the 2024 liver and kidney samples were 433 and 404 micrograms per gram, respectively.

Even more concerning was the finding that the amount of plastic in the brain was increasing over time. Brain tissue samples from 2024 had significantly higher levels of microplastics than samples from 2016, representing an approximate 50% increase in just eight years.

Isn’t that the same information just repeated after each other?

To measure the microplastics, the researchers first chemically dissolved the tissue. This created a liquid mixture. They then spun this mixture at very high speeds in a machine called a centrifuge. This process separated out any undissolved materials, including plastics, into a small pellet. Next, they heated this pellet to a very high temperature (600 degrees Celsius), a process that breaks down the plastic.

Why does this sound like somebody explaining this to a 10 year old?

Nono, you are thinking to small. See, it’s not just all Americans beeing guilty under their government. You see, even non Americans should fight it. And since they clearly have failed so far ALL humans are guilty. Even you.

That is where your logic leads to. What a bunch of bullshit.

Sure buddy. Sure.

I tend to agree. The man has worked all his live to bring Buddhism closer to the West and this was the single worst thing he did and, very likley, be the one thing that people will remember first.

After years and years of build relationships and beeing seen as a wildes positive figure. Bit of a shame, what he has to say is valid and important, at least in my opinion. But alas, this was a fucking Desaster for him. And I very much don’t think he’s a pedophile. But in this day and age, with all this hyper sexualisierted westerners, with its complete lack of nuance and social media, it was the worst thing he could have done. China will have done everything to amplify the message to, which for sure doesn’t help.

But he didn’t say that. Others have defended him, yes.

The Dalai Lama hinself apologised for the joke and acknowledged that it must have sounded strange for a western audience.

The mother of the boy was sitting in true audience and she wasn’t offended by it at all. She defended the Dalai Lama. That in of itself doesn’t mean anything, I have to admit. If you’re in a cult you tend to close your eyes to abuse. But take a closer look at the whole situation:

Of course, it could be possible that the person whon spent his live reaching out to the West, preaching about love and kindness, decided to make a very puplic statement about his pedophile nature while beeing on a stage surrounded by cameras. Or it was an interaction between two people of a different culture whom had an exchange that, admittedly, sounds strange to Western ears.

I know what I think is more likley here. Especially because there was nothing else after this. Usually, once a public person is called out for abusive behaviour, there will be some victims who are encouraged to break their silence. In this case? Nothing. Doesn’t that make you question your assumption of him beeing a pedo at least a bit?

What you are doing here is using the western culture as a benchmark to judge the culture of another region. Not everything is seen trough a sexual lens, that’s just your western mindset doing that.

You can read about it here, for example.

But everybody said about Trumps tariffs, that the American people will have to pay them. Can somebody explain why Canada keeping the Tariffs is good then? Aren’t it the Canadian people paying for them?

Honest question btw, I’m not trying to be snarky. I’m just a bit slow sometimes.

Edit: Thanks for the explanations, I think I have a better understanding now. Tariffs hurt the consumer and the foreign industrie, but Canadians are rdy to pay that price for their sovereignity.

Correct. There is no nuance in your statement. At all.

Show me one example, please. In my experience the message for his followers is absolutely the same. He speakes about Buddha, about kindness and wisdom and how to apply the Buddhas words in the modern world.

I have seen quite a few events now that he has held for Tibtain monks and nuns and that were provided with English subtitles. I see no different message there, than he has for his western audiences. Of course, there is a difference in how he speaks about things, but not what he is saying.

Ah, nothing but a bit of casual racism on your left wing platform.

That’s been the right wing talking point for a while now. It’s the only thing they could come up with, because even to them the Fentanil explanation was to thin. Of course they completely ommit or ignore the quota part.

Is it just me or did he use more simple words when addressing “Donald”?

I think you are painting the blackest picture, but the fact that this is not an unlikely scenario is frightening.

Europe is not ready to fight Russia without America. It wouldn’t last three months against Russia + America and possibly China.

I don’t know what will happen from now on. And I think that’s the one thing we can be certain of: The world is now a place that is a lot less predictable. The post WWII Word order is over.