From: nguyen@enbp.cs.fsu.edu (Lucy Nguyen)
Subject: Re: Gia'o Ly' -Da.o Pha^.t
Organization: Florida State University Computer Science Department
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 92 15:06:49 GMT

In article <1992Sep9.020122.11501@ultb.isc.rit.edu> tdn7039@ritvax.isc.rit.edu writes:
>
>>What we believe is of very little importance unless we live in the way that 
>>Buddha taught us to live.
>  I  agree with you. Not many people realizing this philosophy.

This is true for any religion. I've found that the basic priciples of the
great religions are the same: peace, love and brotherhood. Bad interpretations
have muddied the messages from many religions.

>>The entire Buddhist teachings rest on the basic teaching that "nothing" in all 
>>the world happens by accident. Buddha taught us that everything comes from a 
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>cause.
>^^^^^^
> okay. Then where(what source) does  the cause come from?
>please, I would be disappointed if your answer is "effect is the beginning 
>of the cause".

>>>   2.  Who/what gives birth to the soul ? (in buddhist's point of view)
>>>   3.  or is it from "nothing" gives birth to every living things?

>>This touches upon another trait of Buddhism. There is no beginning nor end to
>>birth and death.                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>   then what is the meaning of nirvana?(say, in Buddhism's terminology)
> I think we are running in a circle and trapping inthe concept of ying and yang.

Yin and Yang are a circle. There are many cycles in life. day-night, seasons
of the year, etc.

>From  Ford's Model-T, Lamborghini and Lexus evolved.
> you can trace back the history of cars to the model T.
>    but some one has got to invent and to make  Model T in the first place.
>right??

I would say that the model T evolved from horse-drawn buggys, which evolved
from wagons, which evolved from the plain carts, which couldn't have
been developed without the wheel.

>I am puzzling and asking a simple question: who is making the soul 
>in the first place?
>It seems to me that this silly question has no satisfying answer so far?

Why didn't you ask what is a soul? If you know what it is, you probably can
find/figure out who/what is making it. Perhaps you'd like a more concrete 
answer. My personal favorite is that the soul is the fourth(maybe higher)
dimensional creature of which we are only the 3-d shadows. As our 2-d
shadows are epherimeral, so are we(but for a longer time compared to our 
2-d shadows, but not in universal terms.) We aren't really able to sense our
souls any more than our shadow can sense us. Our shadows have only 2-d
senses, we have only 3-d senses. And just as a drawing of a 3-d object on a
2-d surface can have more than one view, a 4-d object manifested in a 3-d
world can have more than one view. It sort of explains people who just click
together, and our continual search for something. 

>> If we want to know what kind of life we shall have when we die
>>and leave this world, we need only look at our present lives.
>Could you please  shed some light into this? I am not sure
>I understand what you are saying.  by looking at the wealthy, 
>can one conclude that these people  must have done something
>good in their past life?

Monetary wealth can be a real burden. I've found that the less you hold on
to things, the more free you are. Some things are worth holding on to, and 
sacrificing some freedom, some are not. 

Lucy
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