Any Buddhists Here?

yesandno said:

I'm working on a sci-fi novel that incorporates Buddhism as a framework for exploring a race of aliens and the future of the human race.

If there are any Buddhists here, can you tell me if this will somehow be offensive to Buddhists?

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I'm a Buddhist in the Theravada tradition, and my epic fantasy series also incorporates Buddhism and Asian philosophy. But since true Buddhists avoid violence of any kind, I don't claim that my series is a work of Buddhism, but rather that I am influenced by the wisdom of the religion.

I'm not a Buddhist, but I have a decent knowledge of the Tibetan tradition: Tibetans Book of the Dead, the noble truths, the denizens of the various worlds, Emptiness etc.

To answer your question. It's definitely not offensive. The Buddhist (Tibetan) has a pragmatic outlook on the world. They have no dogmas.

Not a Buddhist either, but I've known some: the issue there is Western folks who become Buddhist are already open-minded enough that they've found Buddhism, so they may not be a good example?

I'd suppose that the way you "offend" anyone's religion is if you MIS-REPRESENT it unfairly.

People unfairly slam "all Chrstians" with unfair stereotypes or mis-characterizations of Scripture. Certainly it's an insult to a billion peace-loving Muslims, to depict them "all" as anti-semites or fanatics or hate-filled terrorists waiting to convert the West with sword and suicide-bomb.

Sometimes people DO confuse their "religion" with their own cultural prohibitions, and then in error take "religious" offense
(an example might be how some Muslims are extreme about women wearing the veil -- to the point of violence -- but then you hear other Muslims say that nothing in the Koran even demands a veil, that's just one segment of Middle Eastern culture trying to impose itself on everyone's Islam)

What is it about your story that you fear might 'offend' Buddhists?

Buddhists seem pretty cool, pretty laidback. C'mon: where a Muslim might issue a fatwa against you for depicting the Prophet (insert blessings here) in a movie -- even if you depicted him with utter devout respect --

Buddhists tell their kids stories "Well, when the Buddha was still an ox, in a previous lifetime ... When the Buddha was a monkey, he did this or that ..."

Anyway, that's my dos centavos of non-expert opinion!

yesandno said:

I'm working on a sci-fi novel that incorporates Buddhism as a framework for exploring a race of aliens and the future of the human race.

If there are any Buddhists here, can you tell me if this will somehow be offensive to Buddhists?

Click to expand...

If you're incorporating Buddhism, it would seem you should know enough about it to answer your own question, otherwise you should do more research. But I'll be nice and grant you that asking this question would be considered research.

I'm not a Buddhist myself and far from an expert on Buddhism, but from what I've read and from the Buddist(s) I've known (I recall one or two, I'm not sure...), a fully "enlightened" Buddhist would not be offended by anything whatsoever.

small axe said:

Not a Buddhist either, but I've known some: the issue there is Western folks who become Buddhist are already open-minded enough that they've found Buddhism, so they may not be a good example.

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I am a Buddhist but also a Western caucasian, born and raised in the U.S. as a Presbyterian. So you bring up a good point. My open-mindedness (or at least it feels like open-mindedness to me) makes me sort of immune to taking offense to most things. I will say this, though. My series also is heavy in Buddhism, and I am concerned that Buddhists will be offended; only because Buddhism is an extremely passive, non-violent religion. Yet my series is loaded with violence. Therefore, I cannot market it as a Buddhist work.

yesandno said:

I'm working on a sci-fi novel that incorporates Buddhism as a framework for exploring a race of aliens and the future of the human race.

If there are any Buddhists here, can you tell me if this will somehow be offensive to Buddhists?

Click to expand...

In theory, you won't offend any Buddhists.

In reality, there's always someone.I was born and raised Buddhist; it's almost impossible to offend me, personally, via my religion. That isn't to say I do not have an epically short fuse about other things, but that's my own short coming.

I say: go for it.

The more specific you are, the more helpful I can be in this matter.