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Buddhist assassin at Navy Yard prompts debate about stereotype of peaceful faith
Washington Post ^ | 9/18/2013 | Michelle Boorstein and Elizabeth Tenety

Posted on 09/18/2013 3:12:41 AM PDT by markomalley

In the aftermath of the Navy Yard shootings, gunman Aaron Alexis’s interest in Buddhism seemed at odds with conventional Western stereotypes of blissed-out meditators.

Buddhism scholars and bloggers were quick to note that Alexis’ spiritual profile didn’t fit with the image of someone unloading a gun and killing 12 innocents in a crowded military office building.

Yet some saw a chance to challenge the peaceful stereotype and unveil some topics Buddhists discuss amongst themselves. Is the peaceful Buddhist an illusion? Do Buddhists and Buddhist temples deal directly enough with the topic of mental illness? And in fact might Buddhism in particular attract the mentally ill?

“As Buddhism has spread in the West, it has put forth and maintained an image of being a peaceful religion,” Buddhist ethicist Justin Whitaker, author of the American Buddhist blog, wrote Tuesday. “This is a myth.”

Buddhism can seem particularly appealing to “mentally unbalanced people seeking to right the ship of their lives, to self-medicate, to curb their impulses, or to give them a firmer grip on reality,” Clark Strand, a contributing editor to the Buddhist publication Tricycle magazine and a former Zen monk, said in an interview.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: aaronalexis; buddhism; faith; navyyard; navyyardshooting
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To: markomalley

it’s equally likely that he was a moslem posing as a buddhist for cover. the moslems are commanded to lie if they can gain advantage by it.

But it’s more likely it was black on white hate crime.


41 posted on 09/18/2013 5:59:00 AM PDT by John O (God Save America (Please))
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To: markomalley

Paranoid Schizophrenia trumps Buddhism.

Who knew?


42 posted on 09/18/2013 6:08:52 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Why haven't we heard from the 30 Benghazi survivors?)
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To: EricT.
Buddhists have been well documented to perpetrate violence on Christians. Same with Hindus and Muslims.

What effect do you think paranoid schizophrenia and auditory hallucinations had upon the shooter's actions?

43 posted on 09/18/2013 6:13:47 AM PDT by NautiNurse (Obama sends U.S. Marines to pick up his dog & basketballs. Benghazi? Nope.)
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To: John O
it’s equally likely that he was a moslem posing as a buddhist for cover.

Why would a muslim call the police to report persistent voices through the floor, ceiling and walls, following him to three different hotels in one night?

44 posted on 09/18/2013 6:17:04 AM PDT by NautiNurse (Obama sends U.S. Marines to pick up his dog & basketballs. Benghazi? Nope.)
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To: markomalley

This is just plain crap. This man was a dabbler in Buddhism. Converts do not count in this story. Hundreds of millions of Buddhist are peaceful - not doing crazy stuff like suicide bombings, shootings and killing other people to impose their beliefs on others. And Buddhist are certainly not flying airplanes into buildings in the name of Buddha.

Anyone who even remotely thinks Buddhist are a danger to the world are just plain ignorant and fools to say it.


45 posted on 09/18/2013 6:17:18 AM PDT by ICCtheWay
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To: markomalley

“Serenity NOW!”


46 posted on 09/18/2013 6:25:47 AM PDT by toothfairy86
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To: ICCtheWay
I just think it's amazing that some mentall ill black guy, who may have had a grudge against whites, and who seems to have some sort of tenuous relationship with Buddhism -- the guy freaks out and kills people -- and the media rushes into print with a story exploring Buddhism and how it may be a source of violence in the world.

Islamic crazies have been killing people for centuries. They yell Allahu Ackbar while they do it. They say they will kill people. And then they kill people. Happens all over the world, all the time. It's central to their whole belief system. Kill the infidel.

And every time it happens, the media rushes into print with a story explaining that Islam is a RELIGION OF PEACE.

Something seriously weird here.

47 posted on 09/18/2013 6:28:25 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (21st century. I'm not a fan.)
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To: markomalley
Except that Buddhism is more of a philosophy. Most hard core Buddhists I have met are more atheist than anything.
48 posted on 09/18/2013 6:29:18 AM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: ICCtheWay

Really, I wonder how much this guy actually knew of the tenets of Buddhism.

The Dharma Wheel, all of those old Buddhist manuscripts.

Buddhism is probably so passive, this is why the Communists could rise to power in China, other places.

http://www.amazon.com/Bones-Master-Journey-Secret-Mongolia/dp/0553379089

Bones of the Master is a good story about a Monk in Manchuria around the time of the Great Leap Forward movement in China by the ChiCons. The troops invaded their Monastery, this monk escaped and traversed China all the way to Hong Kong for freedom.


49 posted on 09/18/2013 6:29:53 AM PDT by BeadCounter (Really? Syria?)
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To: redgolum

There are not suppose to be Gods in Asia but at least a Vietnamese man told me Buddha was like Christ to them.

I wonder if you actually met Asians who were Buddhists or American Buddhists.

You will find a lot of info saying Buddhism is atheistic but that concept even seems to be a bit of a Western interpretation to an Eastern Religion.

And let’s not forget, if this guy was a Buddhist and bought into Reincarnation, he’s going to have the worse in his next life time. And again, I add in, if one believed in that.


50 posted on 09/18/2013 6:33:05 AM PDT by BeadCounter (Really? Syria?)
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To: markomalley

Yeah. Let’s talk about the murderous tendencies of Bhuddists. Let’s ignore the elephant in the room of the world wide murderous acts of Islamists!


51 posted on 09/18/2013 6:36:53 AM PDT by Gritty (Nobody wants to hear about American exceptionalism when the issue is American ineffectualism-MSteyn)
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To: redgolum

“Finally, Tibetan Buddhist cosmology features a “vast number of divine beings (each with its own family, consort, and pacific and terrifying aspects), which are considered symbolic representations of the psychic life by the religiously sophisticated and accepted as realities by the common people.” ....

In view of the above factors, scholars and Buddhists alike tend to describe Buddhism as atheistic in the sense that it denies an eternal creator God {7}, while recognizing its theistic and devotional elements.

- http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/beliefs/atheism.htm

This is the thing, they basically still do have “divine beings in the faith.

They definitely have a lot of Spiritual Beings though the article seems to imply they are actually representations but probably not to the common man.


52 posted on 09/18/2013 6:38:34 AM PDT by BeadCounter (Really? Syria?)
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To: shibumi; TigersEye

This guy was about as much of a Buddhist as the Westboro Baptists are Christians.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Agreed. I wonder if he had taken refuge and who his teacher or preceptor was? I am waiting to hear.

But everyone should know that contrary to the liberal wanker ideals on Buddhism ( which began prior to WWII with European exploration access to Tibet and eventually contributed to the fall of Tibet), Buddhists traditionally wage war when necessary. Look at the history of Gesar of Ling, Ashoka Maharaja, and the present Kingdoms of Buthan and Thailand. Today its fight or be consumed by Islam for many Buddhist countries. And they will fight. Why should anyone have a problem with that?


53 posted on 09/18/2013 6:41:28 AM PDT by Candor7 (Obama fascism article:(http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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To: Candor7

.....And I think also there has been fighing in the country that goes by the former name of Burma as well by the Buddhists there.


54 posted on 09/18/2013 6:47:23 AM PDT by Biggirl (“Go, do not be afraid, and serve”-Pope Francis)
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To: BeadCounter

A mix of both. I work with a gentleman from Vietnam who is Buddhist, and he has told me that it tends to be atheistic. I do suspect that is him trying to put it into western terms.

Most I have met are Americans who were not born to it.


55 posted on 09/18/2013 6:49:32 AM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: Biggirl

Thats right about Burma. But every nation should have the right to defend itself. As a culture they have been resisting Muslim invasion for centuries.

Recently the liberals had an apoplectic seizure about it.


56 posted on 09/18/2013 6:50:59 AM PDT by Candor7 (Obama fascism article:(http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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To: Candor7
"Today its fight or be consumed by Islam for many Buddhist countries. And they will fight."

The same is true for the Sikhs of the Punjab.

Pacifist by tradition, they morphed into a martial people largely because of Moslem aggression.

A popular Punjabi singer, Gurdas Mann tells the story.
57 posted on 09/18/2013 6:53:18 AM PDT by shibumi (Cover it with gas and set it on fire.)
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To: shibumi

I think also too, over the centuries it was the same for the Japanese, whom if my memory is correct, combined Buddhist with Shinto practices.


58 posted on 09/18/2013 6:59:50 AM PDT by Biggirl (“Go, do not be afraid, and serve”-Pope Francis)
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To: shalom aleichem
Media is just trying to trash Buddhists in an attempt to show that “they all do it” to give cover to Muslims being such hotheads and animals.

Exactly......Don't fall for it, people!

59 posted on 09/18/2013 7:01:37 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: RadiationRomeo

He did it to get chicks.


60 posted on 09/18/2013 7:02:15 AM PDT by dfwgator
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