Reading Notes: the Stories of Buddhism and Buddha edited by Brian Brown.Part C

These are reading notes over the Stories of Buddhism and Buddha edited by Brian Brown. The beatitudes are kind of like poetry, which I have been enjoying in this class! They got me thinking about the stigmatization of desire. Monks are sort of seen as these dry, lifeless beings that don't have any fun. This poetry certainly showed that this was not the case; there was so much joy behind the freedom in the desire that they expressed, so much life. It was like sifting through all the unnecessary feelings got them to the joyful feelings and brought them closer to reality. I also liked the section on rebirth; this is very relevant to my storybook. I thought it was very true that simply deciding that rebirth is true makes one see the world completely differently. Suddenly, it is all on you. There is no magical greater power that is going to save you if things go wrong. You are in charge of your own liberty and fate, which give a huge amount of freedom back to humans. People also have to be accountable for the world they live in because they created it and are reborn into it each life. I liked how a Christian saint was cited to make the argument that people have to pay for their actions. Truth knows no one religion!

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