Buddhism: Things I Find Interesting

Buddhism: Things I Find Interesting

As I was reading the selected portions of the book for this chapter, I came across a few things that I found interesting. At first I did not catch them, but after I went back and reread the selections, I found these things, that I thought were intriguing.

Buddhism is supposedly a non-theistic religion. However, in the reading titled "The Majjhim-Nikaya: Questions Which Lend Not to Edification" (5.1) and in "Realizing the Four Noble Truths" (5.3, the Buddha is continually referred to as "The Blessed One". If he is only a man, why is he referred to in such a way? Other Buddhists have the potential to become Buddhas, so would they also be referred to as "Blessed One"? If this Buddha was not the first, and not the last Buddha, why are other Buddhas also not referred to as "Blessed ones"? In my opinion, if this Buddha is not considered to be a god, then he should at least be referred to as "One of the Blessed Ones" instead of "The Blessed One".

Another concept that I found interesting was the idea of duality that was discussed in "The Majjhima-Nikaya: Questions Which Lend Not to Edification" (5.1). I do not quite understand it, so I was intrigued it. The selection says that the