Buddhism in "Diary of an Immortal"
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Buddhism in "Diary of an Immortal"
More generally, what are your thoughts on Buddhism? Did you enjoy the use of the religion through out the story?
- greenstripedgiraffe
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I agree! I thought the author did a good job introducing and explaining certain aspects of the religion. It was an interesting addition to the story and I definitely learned some new things.greenstripedgiraffe wrote:I enjoyed reading more about Buddhism. This religion is something I have heard of, but don't know a lot about. I love learning about other perspectives, so while I might not agree with everything in the religion, it is fascinating.
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I've also heard of Buddhism, but don't know much about it. It was nice reading about something new and learning a bit. To be honest, I'm not sure how much I retained since my religion (Catholic) is so ingrained in my head, but it was a nice, brief exposure.
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- mratdegraff91
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I did enjoy reading more on it with this novel. It is portrayed in this story differently than others I have read. It follows the basic beliefs of Buddhism more than most other novels.
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I think it is wrong for him to ask another to do it. What's the quality of his heart? It's still the same if he does the action or someone else does the action for him. The hatred/motive is still there regardless. As a Christian I am learning that the teachings of Buddhism are closer to our ways than we realize. In this case we would say, "Thou shall not kill." Obviously we are miles apart on certain theological points, but there are some similarities that are pretty interesting. For instance, how we deal with people in our daily lives are not so far apart.We learn that Buddhist principles do not condone the taking of a life for any circumstance. In the story, Chow Li befriends Steven and wants help taking down Chang Sou, the antagonist of the story who is using his immortality and subsequent powers for bad. Do you think, given the Buddhist principles that guide Chow Li, it is right for him to ask this of Steven? Just because Chow Li is not taking a life himself, is it okay that he asks another to do it?
- Lest92
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So, I don't think killing the antagonist is wrong if it prevents harm to others - it's like healing a sickness.
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Coming to this book, it gives an interesting perspective on Buddhism. Where the intention is to prevent further loss of lives, violence may be an option. I liked how the author explored this dilemma. However, it did seem wrong at certain level to ask Steven to do something, that Chow Li himself wasn't prepared to do. Also, violence should only be resorted to when all options or recourses to peace have failed (this is my understanding of Buddhist idea of non-violence).
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-- 01 Apr 2017, 02:20 --
I'm fun of reading world religions and one of which is Buddhism. If your action condone now your religion of if it speaks for your belief system then so be it. Why should I contradict it? It's very enticing.
-- 01 Apr 2017, 02:32 --
I'm fun of reading world religions and one of which is Buddhism. If your action condone now your religion of if it speaks for your belief system then so be it. Why should I contradict it? It's very enticing.
-- 01 Apr 2017, 02:32 --
I'm fun of reading world religions and one of which is Buddhism. If your action condone now your religion of if it speaks for your belief system then so be it. Why should I contradict it? It's very enticing.
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You make a good point that we have to kill in order to feed ourselves-whether our food is animal or plant based. I think that we have forgotten this basic truth significantly contributes to a lot of our ecological problems. What we do to the plant and animal kingdoms ultimately reverberates back to ourselves. In terms of Buddhist principles, respect to all forms of life would seem to apply.Lest92 wrote:Buddhism is a thinking religion - I knew one at university and we had long discussions about the philosophies of Buddhism, and strangely enough the topic of killing things. The thing is, killing anything is unavoidable - even if you don't kill animals for their flesh, you do kill plants and their bugs and parasites when you harvest them. It's the intention of the killing that matters, I think - murder/genocide is obviously immoral, but euthanasia for those who suffer makes sense because suffering is an intolerable existence, not life.
So, I don't think killing the antagonist is wrong if it prevents harm to others - it's like healing a sickness.
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MarisaRose wrote:Religion plays a big role in Castello's "The Diary of an Immortal (1945-1959)." The author especially focuses on Buddhism with the characters Chang Sou and Chow Li. We learn that Buddhist principles do not condone the taking of a life for any circumstance. In the story, Chow Li befriends Steven and wants help taking down Chang Sou, the antagonist of the story who is using his immortality and subsequent powers for bad. Do you think, given the Buddhist principles that guide Chow Li, it is right for him to ask this of Steven? Just because Chow Li is not taking a life himself, is it okay that he asks another to do it?
More generally, what are your thoughts on Buddhism? Did you enjoy the use of the religion through out the story?
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