Japan Launches 'Buddha Phone' 212
CNETNate writes "The Japanese Odin 99 handset isn't a regular video-enabled phone. It's geared, perhaps somewhat ironically, towards the Buddhist geek. Aside from regular cell phone features, a dedicated button loads a private, customizable, animated altar on the phone's screen. The idea is to allow Buddhists to perform their dedications conveniently on-the-go. You can simulate incense burning, purification rites and play music to help you meditate wherever you happen to be. The question is, does such a device somewhat negate the values a Buddhist would stand for?"
Umm... (Score:4, Insightful)
The question is, does such a device somewhat negate the values a Buddhist would stand for?"
Yes.
Not quite (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, it depends on what tradition of Buddhism the practitioner follows, their personal path, his or her Guru or Teacher (if they have one), that guru's teaching style, and not least of all the individual's personality and life situation. I spent five years as a live-in volunteer at a Buddhist center where I practiced and received traditional training and met many Buddhists of many types, with and without cell phones; simple westerners that were ordained monks and Tibetan Rinpoches who drove Mercedes.
The idea that a Buddhist is some Vietnamese guy with saffron robes and a shaved head chanting "Ommm" all day is not quite in touch with reality. I am not directing this at you personally but at your posts blasé answer: I have found in my conversations that the majority of people who voice any opinion about Buddhism have gleaned their learning from pop culture and suffer greatly from the root cause of samsara: ignorance.
Re:Not quite (Score:5, Insightful)
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it seems easier to me to sell snake oil and useless consumer junk to spiritual people than to more secular individuals but that's just a hunch
Considering that most geeks think of themselves as secular, and have (or aspire to have) iPhones, iPods, Androids, Crackberries, multitools and just about the whole ThinkGeek inventory, I'd say that it's an invalid hunch.
Re:Not quite (Score:5, Insightful)
The funny part about this is that Buddhism IS SECULAR. There is no debate here either. Buddha specifically said he knew nothing about god, the afterlife, or anything spiritual. All he figured out was why humans suffer on earth and how to eliminate suffering. Life is suffering, wanting things makes you suffer, to end suffering end desire, and don't be a dick. Where's god? Nowhere. Just because the Tibetans hybridized his teachings with tantric yoga or because Asians like to burn incense and build gold Buddhas has no impact on his teachings and philosophy.
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Buddhism is not purely defined by what Buddha said. You cannot discount thousands of years of teaching and tradition as having "no impact".
The plain and simple fact is that the vast majority of Buddhists in the world today believe in spiritual things. Good luck convincing them that the religion they have followed all their lives is really a secular philosophy.
Re:Not quite (Score:5, Insightful)
Buddhism is not purely defined by what Buddha said. You cannot discount thousands of years of teaching and tradition as having "no impact".
The plain and simple fact is that the vast majority of Buddhists in the world today believe in spiritual things. Good luck convincing them that the religion they have followed all their lives is really a secular philosophy.
Well said. If Christians actually followed the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, the world would be a much better place. If Muslims actually followed the ethical code written down by Mohammed, the same applies. Every one of our great religious traditions (with the possible exception of Judaism) was founded by a great moral teacher with real and humane insights, and then corrupted into something almost diametrically opposite usually within the first couple of hundred years.
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its funny how their followers - the start . the ones others looked up too become drunk with power..
maybe humanity's greatest flaw is how easy we are blinded buy a sence of power.
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I just listened to a Art Bell Coast to Coast with Graham Hancock http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzKp2PeXeWI [youtube.com] where he argues that major religions are based on direct contact with the supernatural by the prophet but then the followers become rapidly divorced from that union through human power structures.
I live in the Gulf and I love to tell people that I think that the companions of the prophet and the apostles were for sure influenced by the devil to create the shitstorm that is modern region. I don't belie
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I am not saying that the world and or Buddhism is not supernatural, I am just saying he specifically did not talk about it. To quote Wikipedia... "The sutra was written in stages, beginning from at least 500 years after the death of the Buddha." So you point has no bearing on what the man himself did or did not believe.
One of my Yoga teachers pointed out that after the rise of aesthetic yoga practices there was a blow back that took India to tantra. Or in short, the Indians can't not drape flowers on things
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If it is also negating your ego and your preconceived notions, then it is sort of buddhist after all.
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The idea that a Buddhist is some Vietnamese guy with saffron robes and a shaved head chanting "Ommm" all day is not quite in touch with reality.
That is true. These days, Buddhists can choose from several different colors of robe.
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Sorry, but instead of buying a Mercedes, a buddhist with money should instead be financing an organization that feeds and clothes the poor... ...or maybe sending money to Ubuntu, I don't know...
Re:Not quite (Score:4, Informative)
pfft, most all the citizens you dealt with over there were Buddhists. Buddhists in business suits, Buddhists in swim suits, Buddhists in school uniforms, even naked Buddhist pole dancers......
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Nice try. Next you'll be expecting us to believe that Christians don't all have tonsures and habits.
Re:Umm... (Score:5, Insightful)
+1.
My experience with Buddhism (Chan / Zen) has been that the intention behind the practices involves becoming mindful and living in the moment. One of the key aspects of the training involves sitting in meditation and just "being". It isn't that a person lights incense for the sake of lighting incense. They might incense so that they can focus on the incense and meditate on it as it burns.
I personally meditate on the train quite often. My Blackberry doesn't meditate for me. I do the meditating.
Buddhism is like any other religion. There are a lot of people who get so caught up in the rituals of the religion that they don't fully understand the underlying reason for doing the ritual in the first place. It's not like once you've lit your 10,000th stick of incense, some guy named Buddha appears before you, smacks you on the forehead to open up your third eye and then you're suddenly enlightened.
Re:Umm... (Score:5, Funny)
It's not like once you've lit your 10,000th stick of incense, some guy named Buddha appears before you, smacks you on the forehead to open up your third eye and then you're suddenly enlightened.
That would be pretty awesome, though. I'd convert.
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It's not like once you've lit your 10,000th stick of incense, some guy named Buddha appears before you, smacks you on the forehead to open up your third eye and then you're suddenly enlightened.
That would be pretty awesome, though. I'd convert.
Screw that. Too much grinding. Couldn't they mix up the levels? Like sometimes you burn incense, sometimes rake rocks, take pilgrimages etc?
Re:Umm... (Score:5, Funny)
not like once you've lit your 10,000th stick of incense, some guy named Buddha appears before you, smacks you on the forehead to open up your third eye and then you're suddenly enlightened.
It usually takes several smacks.
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Buddhism isn't technically a religion. There really isn't a "god" to believe in, and some of the Western interpretations play down a lot of the actual parts which make it a religion and emphasize the personal growth aspect of it. You can believe in literal reincarnation and nirvana, or treat it as more of a metaphor and a way to teach a more meaningful life. There's nothing inherent to it which requires you to take it all on faith, and it's always up for debate if it p
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The kind of Buddhism imported to the West - secularized, made "not a religion," turned into a kind of set of technologies for personal development, stripped of any perspectives that generally clash with regular humanism - is very much unlike the Buddhisms of Asia, which are very much religions, which have real religious exclusivity, which have outright superstitions, rituals, etc.
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I'm sure you're right, but why does that matter? Conversely, if someone in Thailand wanted to take up Christianity, and asked m
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On the other hand eastern religions don't tend to be exclusivistic as the Abrahamic religions are and so what they practice as Buddhism is actually a syncretism of Buddhism with whatever other religions co-existed with it in the region over the centuries. They are not so concerned about where the boundaries are between real Buddhism and the other traditional religions they have incorporated into their faith.
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Tell that to the Tamils.
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Tamil's aren't Buddhist. That's the Sinhalese.
Cheers
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Um, that's the point. The Sinhalese (or at least, many of them, particularly in the recent past) were Buddhist nationalists quite disinterested in the non-exclusivity of which you spoke, and who wanted to maintain Buddhism as the national religion of the state, marginalizing the largely Hindu, Christian and Muslim Tamils.
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See, it's still Buddhism, and it's all compatible. At core, the same teachings are present in both -- The Four Noble Truths [wikipedia.org] and
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Wrong Sid (Score:2)
some guy named Buddha appears before you, smacks you on the forehead to open up your third eye
Try following Sid Arthur, not Sid Vicious. Whole different Sid.
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Yes."
Care to elaborate?
I would have to say no, because cellphones are no longer fancy gadgets for the rich, they're required for communication with the rest of the world, so if you have to have one, why not have one that caters to your religious beliefs?
C&E (Score:4, Insightful)
I suppose this represents a form of religion no more watered down than that practiced by your average "christmas and easter christian" over here in the states.
The world is full of people who don't take their professed religions seriously.
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The world is full of people who don't take their professed religions seriously.
Which seems preferable to a world full of religious extremists to me, but then I am an atheist.
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hmmm.....funny, the Buddha Gautama was an atheist, too...................
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And why can't one take religious seriously and not be a violent extremist, or even a bigot?
Re:C&E (Score:5, Insightful)
"And why can't one take religious seriously and not be a violent extremist, or even a bigot?"
I don't know. Why?
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Ah, the delicious^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hnoxious irony of "All people who take religion seriously are bigots!"
Re:Take Seriously (Score:2)
Ever notice there are almost no Buddhist Terrorists?
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offtopic - sig (Score:2)
Beautiful-scary sig.
It looks suspiciously like "Cheap Fast Quality - Pick two"...
Or is it more pointing to some version of the Godel flaw in Russell?
Re:C&E (Score:5, Funny)
The world is full of people who don't take their professed religions seriously.
On behalf of agnostics worldwide, I -might- be offended by that statement.
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Re:Agnostics (Score:2)
There's a meeting of Agnostics Anonymous next week. I think. But the group leader won't call me back to confirm.
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Maybe so; or maybe you just don't understand the religion or its practitioners.
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No, he's right. There are still a great many people who take their religion seriously, but I think they are now in the minority. I've spoken to many people who confess that they don't know much about their church, and only attend on Easter and Christmas.
Case in point: How many supposed-Christians view porno on the web with impunity? They either don't take their religion seriously enough to know about Matt 5:28, or don't care enough to live the lifestyle outlined by the religion. (I'm not even delving int
Buddha or Odin ? (Score:2)
The question isn't just whether being attached to this sort of material object is the kind of value a Buddhist would have, but also What Would Odin Do with this kind of phone? Is it a replacement for the ravens Huginn and Muninn ? Can you use the phone with only one eye?
Depends on your kind of Buddhism (Score:5, Interesting)
If you're talking about Tibetan Buddhism, then no, this doesn't really 'negate the values a Buddhist would stand for.' To wit [dharma-haven.org]: "His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said that having the mantra on your computer works the same as a traditional prayer wheel. Since a computer's hard disk spins hundreds of thousands of times per hour, and can contain many copies of the mantra, anyone who wants to can turn their computer into a prayer wheel."
A Zen Buddhist might look at it differently, though.
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Since a computer's hard disk spins hundreds of thousands of times per hour, and can contain many copies of the mantra, anyone who wants to can turn their computer into a prayer wheel.
What if you have a solid state drive [wikipedia.org]?
Re:Depends on your kind of Buddhism (Score:5, Funny)
Three Zen Buddhist monks standing on a hill on a breezy day observe a prayer flag flapping in the wind.
The first monk says "Flag is moving."
The second monk says "Wind is moving."
The third monks cell-phone plays the crazy-frog ring-tone as he gets spam SMS'd by his provider.
All three monks fail to achieve enlightenment.
Re:SMS! (Score:3, Funny)
The monastery provides the local service.
The SMS reads:
"Your Phone is Moving."
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I believe the correct answer was that the wind moves the flag.
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Re:Depends on your kind of Buddhism (Score:4, Informative)
In the traditional story, the 'third monk' is actually the teacher of the other two monks. Following their two inadequate answers, he rebukes them and says:
"It is the mind that moves."
The monks' answers are deemed inadequate because they are dualistic: they make a distinction, in a fundamental way, between the wind and the flag (and, in fact, movement as such), and then try to think whether movement begins with the one or with the other, or whether movement can be considered apart from that which moves.
But to distinguish 'movement', 'flag', or 'wind' as particularities of what is, beforehand, an unparticularised situation, is a movement of the mind. It is the monks' dualistically inclined minds which move towards a view, and any particular view is partial and therefore inadequate. So the master's answer is the 'correct' one, as it's the most accurate and apposite statement of what's happening.
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>A Zen Buddhist might look at it differently, though.
Heck, any Buddhist might look at it differently. Or agree. Or both. Or neither. :)
The phrase 'herding cats' springs to mind. Just as it should be.
This one thinks that prayer wheels are probably a bit silly, but they do look cool - 'rich and diverse cultural shiny stuff' and all that.
Not a patch on sorting out your own personal mind-junk, habits and general daftness*, though.
(*not the good daftness. Please leave that alone.)
(ps. why is proper formatting
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It was in the days of the rains that their prayers went up, not from the fingering of knotted prayer cords ... but from the great pray-machine in the monastery of Ratri, goddess of the Night.
The high-frequency prayers were directed upward through the atmosphere and out beyond it, passing into that golden cloud ... which is seen as a bronze rainbow at night and where the red sun becomes orange at midday.
Yama tended the pray-machine and the giant metal lotus he had set atop the monastery roof turned in its so
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It may be useless as a phone, but it would still be useful as a koan.
Not really (Score:2, Informative)
From a Buddhist perspective the physical act of doing their rituals is rather arbitrary, as the reality in which we live is an illusion. Thereby it's the end result on a spiritual level which is what is important. If you approach your rites on a physical altar, digital altar, or on an altar even in your own mind, it's all the same.
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Not all Buddhists think reality is an illusion. Now, if you want to talk about how our perception of reality through our senses and mental constructs can be illusionary... Perhaps that is what you meant, but the wording you used can often be misinterpreted as another school of thought. I agree about the rest of your point, though.
interesting (Score:2)
A niche market for religious 'phones, A phone that uses GPS to point to Mecca? a phone that changes background colour to suit the various festivals and seasons? First one to the patent office gets the prize.
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A phone that uses GPS to point to Mecca?
The iphone has an app (iSalat) that does this already.
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How appropriate that the Jesus Phone [gizmodo.com] would have such a feature.
Polly McPee (Score:5, Funny)
You can simulate incense burning, purification rites and play music to help you meditate wherever you happen to be.
You could, but only once, then you need to buy a new Buddha phone.
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Whose sensibilities is this supposed to offend? (Score:4, Funny)
A Jewish version (Score:5, Interesting)
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And who knows what other inventions will revolutionize it farther?
I'm looking forward to Akoonahs [memory-alpha.org] and embark on my own iVision-Quest.
Chinese not Japanese. Submitter should read TFA (Score:5, Informative)
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From TFA:
"Japanese 'Buddha phone' launches"
"The Odin 99 has landed on the streets of Japan"
Unless the submitter could read Japanese, how exactly were they supposed to be aware that this was a Chinese product? TFA clearly indicated it was Japanese.
This was a screw up by CNET (no surprise), NOT the submitter.
Man, Sometimes the Satire Writes Itself... (Score:5, Funny)
Other Models On Deck If This One's a Success:
1. The Muslim Phone: All Voice Mail Self Destructs in 5 Seconds
2. The Catholic Phone: Reaches Out And Touches... small children.
3. The Jewish Phone: Features downloadable "whine-tones"
4. The Hindu Phone: Comes in only Bright Blue, but six different models, one for each hand.
5. The Wiccan Phone: You can't actually answer it, it just has one big "ignore" button
6. The Jehovah's Witness Phone: Can be programmed to also ring your doorbell.
7. The Mormon Phone: Comes in His and Hers... and Hers... and Hers... and also Hers sets.
OK, that's top of the head, low-hanging fruit... the rest are up to you...
You are going to hell for that! (Score:5, Funny)
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The Hindus and Wiccans are both polytheists, so he's actually managed to piss off SEVERAL HUNDRED gods.
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Heck, gods aren't even always in 1:1 correspondence with themselves.
Indeed. While Judaism implements the simple 1:1 godding model, Hinduism implements a more flexible 1:M model, making it a much better choice for running your multigodded code.
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Russian Orthodox phone: It answers *you*!
Voodoo phone (Score:2)
8. The Voodoo Phone: It's black and experts operate it with the display turned off
Re:Man, Sometimes the Satire Writes Itself... (Score:4, Funny)
The agnostic phone: you're never sure whether it is currently vibrating in your pocket.
Actually, I was thinking - The agnostic phone: There's no earpiece, so while you can dial a number and talk into it, you're never sure if you've made a connection or if there's anyone listening at the other end.
where is my evolution phone (Score:2)
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This thread is about religion. Keep your science out of it.
Odin the War god (Score:2)
The handset is called "Odin 99". Odin, or Wotan, also happens to be a Norse warrior god that Germanic tribes worshipped by hanging people in trees and impale them by spears:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin [wikipedia.org]
Coincidence?
--
Regards
More importantly, what is answering the phone? (Score:2)
Does the phone have the Buddha nature? (Score:2)
Ring!
Unask this... (Score:2)
WWBD? (Score:2)
Well, when I am faced with these dilemas, I always ask: What would Buddha do?
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Mu? Meh.
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So would a phone geared towards Christians(surprised this hasn't happened yet...) have a bloody Christ figure on a crucifix?
Just add a paypal donation button every religion will be onboard in 5.4.3.....
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There's many things terribly odd about all religion/philosophy.
Fixed that for you.
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Where do you get the idea that Buddhism can only be enjoyed by "those sheltering themselves away from others through their wealth"? That's almost as abhorrent a teaching as the belief that sitting in peaceful meditation is akin to completely extinguishing the mind so that thoughts are completely absent.
John Safran vs God (Score:2)
> Buddhism can be as counter-intuitively and/or violently expressed as any of them.
Huh? Can be in theory, but usually isn't. Certainly far, far less than Christianity, Islam or Judaism. But like Christianity and Islam, there are different interpretations of Buddism. The Dalai Lama's version I'm afraid is not very nice. The man is a complete jerk. Yes, I know we in the west have an image of him as a peaceful lovely man but he's an absolute zealot. I recommend you check out the "John Safran vs God" TV Seri
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Does the tympanic membrance still vibrate in a corpse? If so does this mean that the ear has registered the sound?
Does the absence of - measureable - brain waves or other responses to auditory stimuli automatically mean that it is not registering?
Hmmm
Re:Seon (a korean sect of Zen) (Score:2)
Hi.
Do you know any info about Master Seung Sahn?
I like his book Compass of Zen.
Re:does a phone ... (Score:2)
Mu.
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