Dark side of Buddhism

Overview of Buddhism

Let's analyze Buddhism, in the style of Stephen Prothero in his God is not One (2011)! According to Prothero, every religion has a problem, a solution, a list of techniques for solution, and a list of role models.

1. Problem: life is full of suffering (dukkha). There are four great life events, and every one creates great suffering: birth, old age, sickness, and death. Further, the suffering doesn't stop at just one life, because souls are reincarnated endlessly.
2. Solution: achieve nirvana, which is freedom from life, time, and the cycle of rebirth, by becoming absolutely nonexistent. The word "nirvana" literally means "blown out", and a person achieving nirvana is like an oil lamp blown out. They aren't gone to a heaven, but completely nonexistent. No thought, no nature, no self, absolutely nothing.
3. Techniques: varied, but the most famous ones are in the The Noble Eightfold Path, a list of eight practices that allows one to see through the illusion of existence, realize that everything is fundamentally empty, and achieve nirvana.
4. Role models: all the famous Buddhists and their stories. One example is, of course, Gautama Buddha himself. Another is a certain god called the Medicine King, which would be a role model for many Buddhist self-immolators, as discussed later.

If Buddhism is a video game, there would be many, many levels. Every time you die, you are respawn at a certain location with a certain level. Where and how you get respawn depends on your karma-meter, and you gain or lose karma depending on your actions and experiences. You gain karma by doing moral things or suffering. You lose karma by doing immoral things or enjoying nice things.

You can play six kinds of character, each having a different play-area.

1. Gods: the world of gods is full of pleasures and powers.
2. Humans: the world we know, full of pleasures and pain.
3. Titans: titans are kind of like gods, but they are angrier and often fight with gods. They are too occupied with war-making to think about nirvana. This level is controversial and many Buddhists think they don't exist.
4. Animals: the world we know, but as a non-human animal!
5. Hungry ghosts: they live in our world, but we can't see them. They are constantly hungry and thirsty.
6. Hell-beings: hell, basically. There are many sub-levels of hell, too [click for a post all about them]! From painful to extremely painful.