So, I'm a Buddhist now.

[Agent]

so you pikced a religion where you dont hav to do anything pretty sneaky sis

[Despanan]

Nothing but chanting "Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo" to the Gohonzon, and occasionally doing a chant called Gongyo: http://youtu.be/O-Cg8xh62Ps

[Agent]

why dont you just not do that

[Despanan]

Sometimes I don't but overall, I like to do it. It's surprisingly good for managing your mood and staying focused.

Like, I literally feel anxiety in my body, either as a burning feeling in my chest or a...I guess rising feeling in my stomach. It may be because of the way that I learn. I'm kinesthetic and we make up like 5-7% of the population or something like that.

Like remember whenever we'd have arguments on here about, I dunno - movie adaptations or writing and I'd go on and on about how it was most important that something have the right "feel" and how you could change everything about a movie but if you could maintain that "feel" it would be a successful adaptation, and ya'll would (I assume) look at me like I was nuts? Lately I have realized that not everybody experiences this shit in the same way and I'm kinda in the minority.

Anyway point being is I've dealt on and off with the burning feeling in my chest and in situations of extreme stress (like a relative has died or something) the rising feeling in my stomach. It's gotten worse in recent years and I've found, that I get real tangible benefits when I chant to the Gohonzon. I feel that burning, or that rising feeling and I chant and it goes away, sort of "resets" my stress level to zero and gives me time to reflect upon what I want out of life and what I need to do/have done for the day.

Which in turn makes my day better and helps me to achieve my goals on a daily basis.

I mean some people will think that literally the Gohonzon is magic, and if you chant to it...I dunno, it's like "The Secret" or something, you sort of "hedge your spiritual bets" but I don't think that's how it works, and Nichiren will tell you straight-up that's not how it works. I think it's just a piece of paper with some crazy squiggles that no one can read because it's Kanji from the 13th century and not even modern Japanese people can read it, but that's the beauty of the Gohonzon, because it's so abstract it becomes whatever you want it to be, whatever meaning you instill in it.

And it's a picture of your Buddha Nature, customized to you - essentially a spiritual mirror that reflects the ideal of your "Best Self", except it's not really an idealized version of you because the "Best you" (Note: not the perfect you) can and does exist in reality - and according to the Buddhist outlook on time and space, it actually exists right now.

So you just keep chanting this mantra at it, "Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo" and that reminds you that you have an inherent Buddha nature, and that's you right now, as you are, you just couldn't see it before.

And this, at least for me, really helps conquer alot of the self-imposed doubt, and fear, and frustration, and anger that I have on a day to day basis. Essentially all this negative, illusory shit that was tripping me up, just sort of dissipates after enough of this active Transcendental meditation and as a result I'm happier and much better at doing all the shit I need to do to get through the day and achieve my goals. Then I chant at the end of the day and this helps me feel fulfilled and accomplished.

And the thing is, it's not just an empty feeling - because I actually did do more than just what I had to: instead of just struggling to get through the day I have the energy to reach out to agents, or do a little writing, or just send additional emails to people I'm working with.

The pitfall of religion is when it disconnects you from reality and tricks you into serving it - when it gets you to trade your real happiness now, for hypothetical happiness, either in the future, or more often than not in some imaginary afterlife, and then it uses this desire to get you to serve an organization and neglect yourself. The pitfall of secular individualist philosophy is that it puts so much emphasis on you as an atomized individual and the fact of the matter is, each of us individually is extremely weak - if you want to do anything in this world, you need collaborators, you need other people to help you. So like, Randian shit and the like builds you up by telling you all these lies about your own personal power and then all that negativity gets turned back on yourself when you fail to live up to the idealized version of a person that Rand told you you were - because again, I deals by definition do not and cannot exist in reality.

But Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo as a mental exercise does neither. Instead it centers you and keeps you firmly connected to the real world and your own personal goals and ambitions, but in a healthy way - and the ritual of it is fun, and the organization and community which comes with it, while a bit over-enthusiastic for my taste is really healthy and that kind of positivity can win you over in spite of yourself, even when it's a little corny (like the anime-style singing).

Plus, they don't make any weird demands on you and they don't hate gays and there's no formal leadership or priest class that grows fat off of your labor. The extent of their political activities is world peace and anti-nuclear arms proliferation and overall they're really focused on making sure that each and every member is happy and "winning" at life and achieving their goals.

So I dunno, chanting is fun as shit, I like the community and the people involved, and I feel I get real tangible benefits from doing it. Plus I don't have to believe any silly stories about magical people, and when I ask them if it's a cult, rather than getting defensive they thank me for the question and answer earnestly and honestly without fear or the need to silence me.

And I like that - plus I get a cool little shrine in my apt. and when Jehova's Witnesses come to my door to convert me, I can grab my Buddhist stuff and try to convert THEM, which, I cannot stress this enough *is HILARIOUS.*

[Agent]

so you would not recomend religion for 95 percent of the ptopultion

[Despanan]

I'd probably recommend some form of religion to 100% of the population, just not this form necessarily - though SGI is really big about it's mission of "worldwide Kosen Rufu" which is basically getting the whole world to chant this and become happy and enlightened and create world peace as a result. Which is an admirable goal, but I'm a bit skeptical that it will work for everyone.

I sort of have this theory that different religions appeal to different learning and information processing styles - and really what religious tradition is, is a series of mental and physical excercises people have developed over the years to hit a "religious experience button" in their heads, which tends to make us happier and helps us to survive.

It just doesn't always work right, hence the dark side of religion.

[Despanan]

Hence why God never talked to me, but I feel it via Buddhist practice. I may actually be "deaf" in the sense that standard Christian religious excercises don't stimulate my brain in the way they do with most people.

[Agent]

so you are saying im an antheist because i havent found the right flavor yet

[Rip]

He's saying that we all need spirituality, and that his new cult let's him remember the correct version. He says the correct version varies by person though, but that yes, we all need/secretly desire our "religious experience buttons" to be pushed, which he may ALSO be saying is proof of this theory, but I hope not because that fallacy is just all over the place now and it looks embarrassing, such a sloppy mess.

I'm pretty sure the simplest explanation here is that Despanan has had his "comfort" button pushed in his primitive ape-brain and it made him feel good, which is cool. Since man-apes tend to see all things in terms of themselves first as a by-product of our bio-social evolution, he has transferred his Christian God comfort to chanting comfort and thinks all humans would feel better if they just "remembered" they were spiritual special things instead of apes, not realizing that pretending to be special is what apes have done forever in varying directions.

wait, nm. tl;dr self-aggrandizing monkeykin <3

[dexeron]

I think we've evolved to enjoy when certain buttons are pushed, although evopsych is such an easy field to quickly go from real science into complete horseshit. But indulging in that button pushing can often be a good way to release stress, calm the mind, maybe get the brain to re-examine problems from a fresh angle. There's certainly something of value at play here, and I don't even really see it as harmful, though I don't think one needs to chant to accomplish it. The only real harm with it, really, is when people start insisting that they aren't just talking to themselves, but to some all-powerful force that also demands that we talk to it too.