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Originally Posted by NYCSPITZ
nice answer. I'm still put off by the commonality between buddhism and the judaic traditions which all lead to a certain negation of life mentality. Christians live for heaven and Buddhists live for nirvana some 503409304943 lifetimes away. Both are corrupt constructs of thinking and at odds with living happily in the moment. Again I know many buddhists are all about that but so are many christians etc. and it all morphs into a huge ball of people equivocating about religion while their practice remains undone.
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Fair enough. I'm also not trying to convert you the way. Just a simple discussion is all. Anyhow, I can see why you think Buddhism rejects life. This is due to modern understanding of Buddhism. Sure there were renunciates, i.e. monks who left the common world to practice. Buddhism doesn't really preach asceticism by the way. However, when this monks arrived to the temple, they realized they were still in the world. They didn't really abandon it.
Buddhism at its core is not about conceptually negating or accepting anything, even Samsara. In the beginning yes one acknowledges that one doesn't want to be in it anymore. It's an important step, not just in Buddhism in anything that speaks on relieving suffering. One has to know one is suffering, in order to take an initiative to resolve it.
And yes for the very laymen yes the Buddha taught them not to do certain things for their own peace of mind. But again that's not really what the historical Buddha was really trying to teach. And the idea that nirvana is "503409304943 lifetimes away" is for those who don't practice at all. Albeit, what people call enlightenment in Buddhism that's just the beginning of the journey. And once enlightened initially one sees that even millions of years is akin to a blink of an eye because one is not bounded by space and time anymore. One begins to become aware of one's true body. But with practice one should see results in this lifetime, gnosis, not when one is dead and therein hopes to reap the rewards in some type of paradise. There are sects of Buddhism that do believe this, i.e. the Pure land sect. But if one goes and reads those who founded those sects, one will see that the Pure land is actually one's mind and heart, and therefore this Earth.