The Buddha's Smile.

I had an interesting discussion with some of my friends who have been studying Buddhism. I am a Christian. We took turns kind of telling each other what our beliefs were, and eventually we came to the conclusion that Buddhism and Christianity are not incompatible and believe kind of the same things. When you take the Christianity of the Bible (not the Christianity that has been doctored and chopped up by people) and compare it to some of the beliefs of Buddhism, there are definitely similarities. Christians too believe in unity of all things, a unity that stems from a common creator who put us on a common Earth. Perhaps it is not a matter of everyone specifically believing Buddhism, but just getting everyone back to the basics of their religion, without all the stupid stuff that humans have added to it.

another good video. i'm not a buddhist but it's one of the few religions that i think is mature and meaningful.

Einstein was a great thinker, and this quote is just another example of his wide cover of universal "problems". Too bad we still have to call it a "religion", as this word can bear some ugly and violent attributes. Although, even if Buddhism isn't as dogmatic as other religions, it still has a belief system that one must follow to become a buddhist, and that alone can lead to controversy. I try to follow some of its philosophy, but only for practical life reasons, like yoga and meditation which are absolutely a must, especially for the modern human living in big crowded noisy cities, something that can easily lead to depression, anxiety and stress. Other than that, it's just another religion to me, but if I really had to choose a religion, Buddhism would be the one for me :D

Hello Chiang_Mai_boy!!! That is very true. And it is coming already. Nowadays the scientists are claiming various things but those were already discovered by Lord Buddha and Buddhism already had those things. There are many many people in this world who are tired of believing in the baseless dogmas and are converting to the atheist. Even the atheist are in the favor of this thing. They are focusing in the spiritual life without the belief in any kind of God. And the quantum physics has a lot to do with it, isn't it... When the world will be aware of this thing then this world will definitely take a new turn. The world of wisdom, where people try to be good, not because he/she is afraid of heaven or hell, but feel that he/she need to.... happy mylotting...

I like the title of this thread. The Buddha's smile is an interesting incident. It was said that when the Buddha smiled, only Ananda, his attendant, would comprehend the situation. And in order to benefit all those who were present, Ananda would ask the Buddha the reason for the smile. And then the Buddha would tell the story and the moral lesson from the story. The story could be based on an incident that happened in the past of a particular area that the Buddha was aware of. The Buddha's smile was always welcomed.