Plus, I Got Religion

[Cainad (dec.)]

Afterlife, yes. Ghosts and demons, depends on the flavor of Buddhism, I guess.

[Iron Sulfide]

i'm sure you know that depends on the branch of buddhism you cling to.

i'm gonna throw this out there:

religion(s) is/are emotional in nature, even if their mode of propagation is intellectual.

a "religious experience", for example, is not had intellectually IMO. you may describe it with intellectual aparratus, you may learn from it intellectually- but the core of the experience itself is emotional, so different cognitive patterns are used to interpret this experience.

you feel it, in short.

the problem with intellectualizing it for propagation (again, IMO) is that communicating the experience taints the means by which someone else will experience it, i.e. sabotaging a psychological experiement with expectation, either on the side of the experiementer, or the subject, or both. So if i describe my emotional experience to you in christian terms, and you've never had something along those lines in any intellectualized system of belief, should you have that sort experience at any point, you chances of using my described framework are much higher than otherwise.

The Teachings of the Buddha, describing the illumination of the Buddha, essentially point out that all of the intellectualized concepts of gods, et al, do not exist except in the mind. Hell, et cetera, was a later creation, IIRC.

however, we all know how unprepared, unevolved followers treat such things. Is it any surprise that 90%+ of modern Christianity is paganism dressed in new(ish) mythology? but what were the teachings before the herd got on the scene?

[Iron Sulfide]

in short, i have religion, too.

but you'll never know what it is, because i refuse to describe it to you. it's my own, and you can't have it!