Rational Nation USA

 

Buddha  (Siddhārtha Gautama) insisted he was human and that there is no almighty, benevolent God. He preached that desire was the root cause of suffering and that people should seek to eliminate desire. He was born in present-day Nepal roughly 500 years before  Jesus Christ  (Jesus of Nazareth). Christ was born in Bethlehem in present-day Palestine. He was a Galilean Jewish Rabbi who was regarded as a teacher and healer in Judaea. Christians believe that he was the Messiah promised in the  Old Testament  and that he was the son of God. In fact, the  Christian  concept of  God  is a holy trinity: God (the Father), Christ (the Son) and the holy Spirit. Comparison chart Buddha versus Christ comparison chart Buddha Christ Died c. 483 BCE (aged 80) or 411 and 400 BCE, Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, today in India 33 AD, Jerusalem Born c. 563 BCE, Lumbini, Sakya, Nepal Approx. 07-04 B.C. Islam Islam does not mention the Buddha. In Islam as opposed Chri...

It is believed that the whole universe, in its most fundamental form, is made up of vibrating, pulsating energy. Vibration produces sound and AUM is considered the  humming sound  of this cosmic energy. AUM is said to be the primordial creative sound from which the entire universe has manifested. Without using any jugglery of heavy and fancy spiritual words, I would straightaway like to answer  in simple words – 1. OM is a word while AUM is the sound of this very word OM i.e. Om is an auspicious word which should be pronounced as AUM (AAAUUUMMM )while chanting. AUM in itself is just the sound ,not any word. Further,theoretically speaking  , English Alphabet ‘O’ is spelled as a symmetrical combination (diphthong) of A & U in sanskrit and hence AUM. To feel the   play of vibrations, chant AAAUUUMMM. 2.Regarding mystics about AUM, when you pronounce AAAUUUMMM continuously ,you can very well feel the upward surge of energy as explained in one of my earl...

 

 

  America, the country I was born in and have loved for nearly 70 years is becoming unrecognizable. It is becoming, at an ever accelerating pace, but a shell of its former self. One political party, under the stewardship and direction of  Donald J. trump, continues to move the party deeper and deeper into lies, conspiracy, and ignorance. As a result the country is slowly becoming destabilized and will become ripe for the picking by agressive and violent authoritarians within our own country. The liberties and freedoms this democratic republic allegedly stood for (until now) are slowly and steadily being challenged and even limited in red republican (aka trumpublican) states. As the more extreme elements in the republican (aka trumpublican) party gain confidence their efforts to restrict civil and human freedoms will increase in intensity. America should be ashamed of the post WW II generation. That generation,  known as baby boomers, grew up spoiled to the hilt as well as...

  The three marks of existence are Buddhism’s basic description of reality. These three simple truths, which characterize all things, are surprisingly transformative. They are: Impermanence   (Pali:  annica ): This truth is the foundation of Buddhism. The Buddha said that all compounded phenomena disintegrate. All things are made of parts, and all things fall apart. Another, blunter, way to put it is that everything dies. All of samsara is an attempt to deny this reality. Suffering   ( dukkha ): Every experience is marked by some quality of suffering, whether it’s extreme pain or a background sense of unease. As long as we struggle to maintain a sense of solid self, our lives will be marked by stress and fear. Our struggle will always be unsuccessful because of… Non-Self : ( annata ): There is no solid, separate, single self. We have no core. We are simply the product of multiple causes and conditions. Impermanence describes how things are; non-se...