What do you think of Buddhism?
I've researched it over the last 6 months. It seems attractive to me, so I wanna know your take.
To the newbie, Buddhism is not about blind worship but exploring a method of teachings. These lessons come from a guy who figured it all out after many mistakes. They were not flawless, they had to persevere.
Here are the pros:
• No gods: you think for yourself. You can be critical of the Buddha. (In fact, it's encouraged.)
• You don't require being a monk. You can be a "layperson", most Buddhists are.
• It's deeply technical. It is only about the correct operation of a human being to its core.
• It respects other faiths, such as Judaism and Hinduism. There's never been a Buddhist war.
Here are the cons:
• Many canons (writings) seem ridiculous. Like the Buddha being able to make magic spells, convert people instantly, etc.
• There's a lot of stupid music and "prayer". DONG.. DONG.. DONG.....
• Many monks seem like idiots. They even call each other idiots. (That's allowed.)
• There is a huge amount of superstition and corruption.
Also, there is little intrigue into the advantages of suffering. This is my deepest problem. The central idea of Buddhism is not to achieve enlightenment, but to eliminate suffering. Yet suffering is not an utterly negative experience: it is required for any kind of achievement, including reaching to Buddhism. And if you "desire" for Buddhism, how can that be, when the Buddha is explicit that desire is the cause of suffering?
Thoughts on this extremely important matter please.