Week 8 September 10 2018: Reflections on Religion and Race
This is going to be a reflection of my thoughts on Sri Lanka so far. It might be a bit of a ramble. Again. Please leave comments. Buddism : (Disclaimer: I don't know the actual teachings of Buddha. I don't know if I fully understand Buddhism. I will only speak to the strain Buddhism in Sri Lanka.) In Sri Lanka, I've noticed that there are a lot of stories of Buddha vanquishing some evil spirit or Yakka etc. The number of places and times it's believed Buddha did so, in Sri Lanka, is impossible, especially since he lived most of his life in India. People pray and discuss Buddha as if he were something similar to a Prophet, rather than a philosopher or teacher. Basically a lot of small folk myths and legends replace what ever deity used to be there with Buddha. Many Buddhist here also believe in all the older Hindu Gods, that predate the arrival of Buddhism to the island, however all the gods bow before Buddha (this was literally told to me by a monk at a temple...