MovieChat Forums > Bulletproof Monk (2003) Discussion > Buddha's plagarism from Hindu texts

Buddha's plagarism from Hindu texts

posted 20 years ago by akshaychopra85
11 replies | jump to latest

When people think of indian religions 2 things come 2 mind hinduism and buddhism,
the former being the paganical , mystical one and the latter the wise, blessed one ... well heres some info for you.

Buddha was a hindu prince who went to 2 diferent gurus for the path to enlightenment.One told him it was starvation and the other said it was self-denial.He tried them both , didnt work out and so he came up with the 'middle path' he is so famous for. problem is, NO HINDU TEXT MENTIONS STARVATION/SELF DENIAL AS THE PATH TO MOKSHA/NIRVANA.
the problem was his gurus,they were misleading him/were phoneys.If only he took the trouble to read up the texts himself, he would realise that the middle path he preaches and passes off as his own has been around for 3 millenia before him in the bhagvad gita as 'sankhyayoga' along with 4 other means including karmayoga, jnanayoga etc.

contrary to what u might have heard in american pie 2, tantra is a hindu principle, not buddhist and so is yoga, mantra,yantra,sutra,strota,CHAKRA,karma,dharma,veda and all.The buddhists only published their own prayers, tantra and all were there 3 millenia before buddha was born (hinduism is the world oldest religion, dating back to 4500 bc).
Tantra is by definition associated with shiva, the oldest of the hindu trinity.

His phallic symbol is still worshipped today, the word phallus comes from the sanskrit phal-esh, meaning fruit of god (fertility symbol).It was taken with the aryans to greece, along with the swastika.

Typically american, anything indian/eastern is automatically 'boodist'.

Dont you think its odd that the country where buddha was born, rasied, preached ,died, where ALL the lamas including Dalai lama live has less than 1% buddhists ans 850 million hindus!!
the only other country he ever set foot on, nepal (country with the everest) is the world's only hindu kingdom.
The only reason why buddhism spread to south east asia, china etc was because of the indian king ashoka (255 bc) of the maurya dynasty , who had the largest kingdom in indian history, stretching from afghanistan to indonesia.He took up buddhism after he finished his conquests because he fell in love with a buddhist girl and the son of a non-hindu mother was not allowed to be on the throne, so he converted his whole kingdom to buddhism.But this was a bloody big mistake, because 15 years after, the grandest kingdom in asian history collapsed internally.
Buddhists still have names from the hindu texts, in sanskrit (the hindu mothertongue and the oldest recorded language) and so do most south east asian muslims.

By the way,Hindus are not idol worshippers, the idol in hinduism has the same significance as the crucifix or the plethora of angel/cherub/mary statues in a church, it is a pictoral depiction of god.we worship the god, not the stone idol, as do you. Extending this logic of 'paganism' chirstianity along with all religons (incl. islam-kaaba stone and buddhism-giant buddha statues) are idol worshippers.

There r more hindi speakers in the world than english speakers...look it up.

[–] towerofangels 20 years ago

And the point of this was...?

[–] SEOD_Rohan 20 years ago

Yeah....I was born and raised in a Hindu household, and I spent months living with Tibetan Monks in India. I even met His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I understand that some people may not know the religions but why try to show off?

[–] sunny-29 19 years ago

I don't think it's such a big deal. It's pretty cool in my opinion that they used verses from the Geeta to illustrate the point of the movie in the final handover scene. I presume that Deepak Chopra (father of one of the producers had something to do with that!)

[–] mansoorz2003-1 16 years ago

well looks like he is here to give a history lesson and on the way making some other points as well..

[–] writer_cb 18 years ago

I believe the point of this point (someone earlier asked why this little essay was being posted) is that this movie has misconceptions about Buddhism and Hinduism, and the thread maker is trying to clear up such misconceptions and enlighten the viewers of "Bulletproof Monk."

akshaychopra85, this essay was very interesting. I am part of a movement that follows Hindu beliefs, and so I appreciate a lot of things that you said. Also, the information you said about King Asoka is especially interesting since I saw a movie about him a while back.

And THANK YOU for your mention of idols! It is true, we are not idol worshippers, the idol is not a statue made of stone/wood/etc., it is God giving us a form to worship Him in that we can comprehend. I hate it when the fanatical Christian wave their signs at my religion's festivals saying that we are evil because we are idol worshippers. It is awfully mean-hearted of them.

Question: Why do you say that Shiva is the oldest of the Hindu trinity? Isn't Vishnu the oldest? Brahma was birthed from the navel of Vishnu, and isn't Shiva after Brahma? I could be wrong, but I thought Vishnu was the oldest of the "trinity."

[–] vegadantay 18 years ago

Yeah its a good essay but it does seem a little derogatory to us Buddhists. Whilst what you wrote is apt, Buddhism is more important than you think and less hindu inspired than it appears on the surface.

Buddhism is focussed on the ending of suffering and discovery of ones true self, loss of ego and understanding of emptiness and the meaning of emptiness. This is all very much ignored by Hinduism, it doesn't matter though, to each his own. I believe Buddhists get as annoyed when Buddhism gets mixed up with Hinduism as Hindus do when Hinduism gets mixed up with Buddhism.

Overall, I would say that Bulletproof monk has some Buddhism sentiment and the script seems to be in line with the Buddhist martial arts schools- such as the zen buddhism of the samurai or the rinzai buddhism of the shaolin, that considered, the film could have been far better. I do however not believe that it shows buddhism as it is fully, he says the word "soul" a few times which doesn't seem very Buddhist, too much dualism for it to be right. Also, for a supposed Buddhist master, he seems to take things a bit too seriously.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] chaoslaw8 16 years ago

dont argue about history please, nobody will ever know for sure, so what is the point?

plagarism? truth is truth, u think buddhists should have been more original or something? lol :p

FYI, i believe the Jains teach that starvation can help you on your path. to refuse to eat until you die, for example, would take so much self discipline... ill let u draw conclusions about that for yourself. ^^

IMDB – where all the spastics come to display their hatred for works of art. Time well spent...

[–] Tyrione 15 years ago

And anyone who has utilized the Kundalini Force via Pranayama, Hatha and other forms discover that starvation is the antithesis of what one should do to release it.

The OP has every right to clear the table of Falsehoods and to hold Truth [in it's relative paths of opposites] above All.

[–] corek1949 14 years ago

chaoslaw8: You must be an American because if a Brit used a term like Spastic he would be flamed so bad he would need hospital treatment. Assume, for your own protection, that this S word is like the N word, which is why the latest Transformer movie is having a major re-write before it can be released in the UK.

[–] 16 years ago

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