Sunday, November 28, 2004
Buddhism and Ah bengs.
I really really deplore the image TCS potrays of Buddhism. I was watching Happy Fish II when the character Long ge ( a good-for-nothing gangster) was praying desperately for his girlfren and her unborn children's lives. He really ping re bu shao xiang, ling shi bao fo jiao.. It struck me that that was how TCS potrayed Buddhist pple as.. the perpetual ah soh.. the ah longs ( gangsters), the lower class pple.. while all the lawyers and teh doctors enjoyed being associated with other religions.
Although I must admit that most peopl really don't have an idea of what Buddhism is. It has been mixed up too much with taoism and ancestral worship. As a kid, I was brought to all these temples and told to pray to the gods and goddesses . After years of asking and asking from these heavenly beings.. who range from the Goddess of Mercy, to Confucious to the idol of a deity whose name still eludes me... I started feeling disillusioned. Yez.. and truth be told.. the pple praying around me were ah sohs and ah peks, clutching cans full of sticks and the red "lips" , asking for favours and staring in anticipation at the answers they received from tossing the items they beheld in their hands.
Thankfully Trudy saved me and showed me gently to the path by leading me to Fo guang Shan Art gallery. After being reintroduced to my faith, I finally understood the teachings that the great Buddha compassionately gave to men. It is upsetting how many pple are turned away from this beautiful faith becoz of the image it has been given by the media.
"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both natural and spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual and a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism." Albert Einstein
I really really deplore the image TCS potrays of Buddhism. I was watching Happy Fish II when the character Long ge ( a good-for-nothing gangster) was praying desperately for his girlfren and her unborn children's lives. He really ping re bu shao xiang, ling shi bao fo jiao.. It struck me that that was how TCS potrayed Buddhist pple as.. the perpetual ah soh.. the ah longs ( gangsters), the lower class pple.. while all the lawyers and teh doctors enjoyed being associated with other religions.
Although I must admit that most peopl really don't have an idea of what Buddhism is. It has been mixed up too much with taoism and ancestral worship. As a kid, I was brought to all these temples and told to pray to the gods and goddesses . After years of asking and asking from these heavenly beings.. who range from the Goddess of Mercy, to Confucious to the idol of a deity whose name still eludes me... I started feeling disillusioned. Yez.. and truth be told.. the pple praying around me were ah sohs and ah peks, clutching cans full of sticks and the red "lips" , asking for favours and staring in anticipation at the answers they received from tossing the items they beheld in their hands.
Thankfully Trudy saved me and showed me gently to the path by leading me to Fo guang Shan Art gallery. After being reintroduced to my faith, I finally understood the teachings that the great Buddha compassionately gave to men. It is upsetting how many pple are turned away from this beautiful faith becoz of the image it has been given by the media.
"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both natural and spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual and a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism." Albert Einstein
http://www.buddhanet.net/1-gqga.htm
this is an awesome site.
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