Honest question: Is buddihsm real? Does it have any basis in scientific and objective reality? Or is it fiction? I don't mean side stuff like meditation improves your IQ I mean does the fundamental point of buddihism have any basis in reality.

If it is fiction, why is it so popular among technical people like people who come to HN? Are the people on HN who are interested in Buddhism aware it is fiction/real?

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_doctor_love 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Is buddihsm real? Does it have any basis in scientific and objective reality? Or is it fiction?

These are Buddhist questions. :)

The Buddha famously told his followers not to accept his teaching merely because he said it, instead he told them to "go and see for yourself." The point is that if you want to know if buddhism is real, try out the practices and see if they make sense to you and make a difference. If the practices work, adopt them, if you find them worthless, abandon them.

You get free will and karma in Buddhism. Great 2-for-1 special.

Another way to come at it is to consider the good old Four Noble Truths. There are different ways to say them but this is how I learned them:

* Life is full of suffering

* Suffering is caused by attachment to desire

* There is a way beyond attachment

* Meditation and Buddhism is the way beyond attachment (or to Enlightenment, if you prefer)

	▲	thinkling 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		+1 on most of this. A small note: I think “suffering” is an unfortunate translation as it connotes dire circumstances or real pain, whereas I understand dukkha to include simple discontent, dissatisfaction, and stress. I take the Buddha to have said roughly, “I teach the origin of unhappiness and how to liberate yourself from it.”

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Mathnerd314 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Well, if you come at it from the mindfulness angle, there are real studies showing that mindfulness works. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8083197/ and similarly, if you come at it from the religious angle, you can trace a lot of the aspects of mindfulness back to the Buddha's original teachings as recorded in canon. And if you ask if there is a fundamental point beyond those, I think the answer is that there is none recorded - the best description I have been able to get of Nirvana is that it is a state of perfect mindfulness.

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satvikpendem 19 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is a strange question. It's like asking if Christianity has any basis in scientific and objective reality, which as a religion it does not, none do. It doesn't even make any sense to ask the question, like what does an objective reality of a religion even mean? You explicitly disclaimed discussion about the cognitive benefits of its practice so I'm not really sure what else you could be asking concretely.

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vjvjvjvjghv 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Like other religions, buddhism can help reach a better state of mind. But there is no proof for the idea of repeated rebirths and karma.

	▲	trane_project 18 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		There is plenty of proof, just not the type of proof likely to be accepted by people looking for a measurement from an external device, which precludes scientific proof until consciousness can be measured. Given that science cannot identify consciousness in live organisms at this time, you are going to have to wait a long time. In general, there are three commonly accepted methods in Buddhist epistemology to know if something is true: perception, inference, and testimony. For the specific case of rebirth, common proofs use either perception, or inference. - Perception: You train in states of concentration and use those to gain direct knowledge of past lives. Maybe some people would find this unconvincing even if they had the experience. Certainly not something likely to be accepted as scientific as Ian Stevenson's research has shown, even if the case presented was iron-clad. - Inference: This uses Buddhist logic and an understanding of dependent origination. This specific argument comes from Dharmakīrti. - Every moment of consciousness must have a substantial cause. - Physical matter can serve as a cooperative condition for consciousness, but it cannot be consciousness's substantial cause, because matter and mind are fundamentally different in nature. Matter is extended, non-luminous, non-aware and consciousness is luminous and aware. If you are a scientific materialist, you will not accept this, but it must be noted that there is no scientific evidence of any kind for dead matter gaining awareness. - Therefore, each moment of consciousness must arise from a preceding moment of consciousness of similar type. - Then you trace this chain to the first moment of your present life. The chain must have been preceded by a moment of consciousness of similar type. The same logic applies to the last moment of your present life. - Therefore, consciousness must be a stream that transcends physical birth and death. Again, I am aware many people won't find this convincing, but to say that Buddhism does not attempt to prove rebirth and karma is not true.