Buddhist questions

Why reject our biology? Community, relationships, sex, etc.

Nature and flowers are beautiful, why is there a rejection of relationships, sex, and holding . Historical celibacy and its propaganda use in creating a rich religious organization based on donations (and later feudalism, the tibetan buddhist example), where social reproduction is still done (new converts come in and inherit the wealth), rather than biological reproduction replacing the property-owners.

Over-focus on detachment from what makes us human, and what has dominated our nature for most of our history. Do we ask that birds not sing. Must a bird avoid singing to become enlightened? If the answer is no, then why do buddhist monastic orders ask people to abstain from sex and relationships, holding this up as an admirable example to lay people?

Reread will durants critique of schoepenhauer for this.

Reread the article on misogyny in buddhism.

If we can look on a flower without selfish attachment, then why are relationships shunned?

The focus on idealist, rather than materialist goals.

Isn't the biggest source of suffering on the planet hunger, starvation, the unequal distribution of resources, the fact that 20 men own more wealth than all the women in Africa. Buddhism limits itself to the spiritual realm, yet this is not the primary realm of suffering. Without social and political organization devoted to eliminating this greatest source of suffering, which must first be sati.

The only people with time and comfort enough to engage in meditation, are those who exist outside production, or are rich enough to have the free time to engage in it. The joke is, these people are happy not because they meditate, but because they are in a financially secure enough position to have hours of free time every day to meditate if they wish: not a luxury afforded to the masses of humanity.

Focus on isolated retreat centers, why not in cities?

Ultrasociality . To be the flower in the garbage, requires that one live where people are. 90+% of people in the world live in cities, and must work to

The topics of focus, why concentration and awareness, why not more metta?

McMindfulness, capitalist use of mindfulness. Our life comes from our mind, why don't we think about compassion more? Buddhist insight and concentration is used by samurai warriors, police, and militaries, and now by companies to increase performance to extract more profit from labor.

If there are enlightened beings, why aren't they solving the largest sources of suffering?

Dipa ma for example, even claimed to have many supernatural powers, yet she used none of them to undo the horrors of capitalism or colonialism.

If all these enlightened beings are doing is alleviating spiritual or psychological suffering, then they aren't doing anything remotely as positive as someone doing work to fight poverty. All their thousands of hours spent on the cushion aren't as worthwhile as a single flawed person giving food to the homeless, or organizing against capitalism.

If you replace god with enlightenment, then why is enlightenment causeless, or outside of samsara? IE to the childs query, who created god? can't the same criticism be applied to who created nirvana?

Why is dancing, music, art, rejected?

The buddha made rules for monks to not engage in these things, making a negative value judgement on art, creativity and the diversity and beauty of human experience.

https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/10172/what-did-the-buddha-say-about-music

would an enlightened bird still sing?

Why

Defense of feudalism, and not challenging the power of kings, who keep most people subjugated.

Misogyny:

https://tricycle.org/magazine/buddhist-renunciation/

Buddhism and violence / bullying

Whenever the buddha encountered bullies or violence (devadatta, ashoka, the serial killer who became a monk), its resolved via psychological tricks, never real-world solutions, because violence is required to fight back againstt bullies.

Bullies inflict much suffering on the world, and no amount of compassion will entice them to give up their power, or reduce the suffering they inflict on their subjects. (link pacifism article).

Buddhism and inequality

He never challenged the kings to give up power.

In fact he helped king ajatasatu conquer the lichavee people, by advising him that the ppl could not be conquered while they were unified, so based on this advice, the king's ministers hatched a plan to disunify, and conquer them, and the rest of the confederacy. This story is told as a warning against gossip and unwise words, yet ironically the buddha's words proved here to be the unwisest, naively aiding a warlord and indirectly causing death and destruction.

Only monks can achieve enlightenment?

In several places, the buddha says that lay people can become enlightened. In others, only celibate monks. In others, only the celibate.

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