Buddha - a Vishnu's incarnation??
It is well known that Hindus revere and worship Buddha as an Avatara of Vishnu. Many commies rubbish this and paint it as a "brahmin conspiracy" to end Buddhism. I don’t understand how worshipping a Saint and revering his teaching can be branded as "brahmin conspiracy". But hey, we are talking of commies here, so don’t expect logic. This was a nice reply posted by another guy on orkut which nicely summarizes the hindu attitude.
----------------8<---------------
"Howard, why do you hate me?"
"I don't hate you."
"Well that's it! Why don't you hate me atleast?"
"Why should I?"
"Just to give me something. I know you can't like me. You can't like anybody. So it will be kinder to acknowledge people's existence by hating them."
The commie talk about the so called "brahmin conspiricy" is also typically like this, which with some changes may sound like this:
A: You Hindu, why do you hate Buddha
B: No I dont hate Buddha
A: Why dont you even hate him. You are supposed to hate him. He has pointed out some mistakes in your previous systems.
B: Yes he did, but why should I hate him for it; in fact I am very thankful to him for his great teaching
A: But how can you accept his teachings, you cannot. You are a Hindu and not a Buddhist, so you cannot revere him and at the same time also revere Hindu philosophers.
B: But I do revere him, whether you like it or not. Infact I feel he is divinity personified who came to guide us.
A: But you cant, I know you cant. I know that you are supposed to hate Buddha, but you are implementing a big conspiricy by not hating him.
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BTW, you can check out the BIG thread about the Hinduism vis-a-vis Buddhism on orkut here: http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=428&tid=18673492
posted by S at 10:37 AM
1 Comments:
Some later texts says the Buddha is the incarnation of Vishnu, and that he came to mislead the "demons". This implies that his teachings are meant for demons.
In the Maha-samya Sutta there was an occasion when the devas from almost all the planes came to see the Buddha when he was dwelling in the Great Wood together with 500 bhikkhus, all of them arahants. The Buddha introduced their names to the monks, Vishnu was one of those present. The Buddha mentioned him by the name Venhu.
The Venhu Sutta shows Vishnu as one of the young devas who came to visit and talked with the Buddha:
At Savatthi. Standing to one side, the young deva Venhu recited this verse in the presence of the Blessed One: " Happy indeed are those human beings attending on the Fortunate One. Applying themselves to Gotama's Teaching, who train in it with diligence."
The Blessed One said: "When the course of teaching is proclaimed by me, O Venhu," said the Blessed One, "Those meditators who train therein. Being diligent at the proper time. Will not come under Death's control."- The Connected Discourse of the Buddha" A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya by Bhikkhu Bodhi ,page 432)
According to "Hinduism and Buddhism An Historical Sketch" (Vol. 2 page 746) , Sir Charles Elliot who was a British diplomat mentioned that this correlates with the Rig Veda text before Hinduism started. Both texts mentioned that Vishnu and Shiva are minor deities instead of the Lords of the Universe as popularly known by worshippers:
" Vishnu and Rudra (Shiva) are known even to the Rig Veda but as deities of no special eminence. It is only after the Vedic age that they became , each for his own worshippers, undisputed Lords of the Universe…..The Pali Pitakas frequently introduce popular deities , but give no prominence to Vishnu and Siva. They are apparently mentioned under the names of Venhu and Isana, but are not differentiated from a host of spirits now forgotten. ….The suttas of the Digha Nikaya in which these lists of deities occur were perhaps composed before 300 B.C. "- Sir Charles Elliot
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