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[skmo]

Jew is a race, so of course you can be a Jew and a Mormon, just as you can be an Englishman and a Mormon.
Buddhism is a religion, so no you cannot be a Buddhist and a Mormon, just as you can't be a Muslim and an Mormon.

Outsiders define Mormonism as a cult, but we prefer our own definition. Buddhists do not consider Buddhism a religion. You may, but I ask: Who do they worship?

My brother-in-law is a Buddhist and has been for more than 40 years.
It's a religion.

I already knew you thought it was a religion
I noticed you didn't answer my question =P

I'll give it a try:

Themselves. They worship themselves. Not in a Hollywood king of way like "Look at me, I'm so beautiful, I'm so great, I'm so enlightened" because other than the last one there, Buddhism is all about not being great or beautiful or being anything other than enlightened. It's got a number of really great ideals and beliefs, and there are some very laudable practices with various forms of Buddhism.

They're not trying to rise to greatness, I don't mean they worship themselves like that, the goal is to give up yourself to goodness and virtue until you reach the state of Nirvana, enlightenment where you can become one and whole. It's kind of the opposite of many of the "Christians in the world: Pompous Christians are trying to go to Heaven along a hellish path. Buddhism is going toward a false heaven on a very heaven-like path.

I've always been an admirer to one degree or another of Buddhism since I started Tae-Kwon-Do when I was younger. However good it is, though, it still lacks the power of the priesthood and the purity of the Atonement.

[Robin Hood]

Jew is a race, so of course you can be a Jew and a Mormon, just as you can be an Englishman and a Mormon.
Buddhism is a religion, so no you cannot be a Buddhist and a Mormon, just as you can't be a Muslim and an Mormon.

Outsiders define Mormonism as a cult, but we prefer our own definition. Buddhists do not consider Buddhism a religion. You may, but I ask: Who do they worship?

My brother-in-law is a Buddhist and has been for more than 40 years.
It's a religion.

I already knew you thought it was a religion
I noticed you didn't answer my question =P

In my view, they worship themselves.
It is all about looking inwards, knowing oneself etc. And of course karma means their eternal project is themselves. No God to satisfy, just themselves. No rules to keep, just be happy with whatever you feel; make your own rules.
It's a very self-centred religion in my experience.

[gkearney]

If you hold a temple recommend you are asked whether you have sympathies with other religions.

This is not what the temple recommend question is asking. The recommended question is as follows: "Do you support, affiliate with, or agree with any group or individual whose teachings or practices are contrary to or oppose those accepted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?" That is not at all the same as having sympathies with other religions and nothing spoken of here about Buddhism would be "contrary to or oppose" the teaching of the church.

[passionflower]

Often people today get attracted to Buddhism because they have mental and emotional conflicts.

There are psychologically two parts to every individual. The "conscious and the subconscious", or As far as Buddhism is concerned, we can call these two traits "dominance/mastery and submission".

When these two parts of ourselves come into conflict, we experience a form of inner strife or stress. Stress is a common problem of living, and not just modern life, either. Tribesman in deepest darkest Africa and the Amazon Jungle experience even more stress than we do.

The Orientals realized that this form of inner strife and stress caused misery and destroys peace of mind. They considered the cause to be what I guess you could call "active desire", or in other words, striving for goals. So in their philosophy or religion, they advocate the complete avoidance of desire and attachment. " Make thou, in all the world nothing dear to thee," is a familiar Buddhist quote.

And you really can achieve a sort of peace of mind this way. But what a price you pay for it!!! IMO, the cure is worse than the disease, and the Buddhist destroys the wrong party to the conflict!

Many years ago I visited a Oriental cultural and historical exhibit which was traveling the world. The cultural achievements of the Orientals were beautiful and amazing to behold, but overall they were also culturally stagnant. Everything was beautiful, but over the centuries nothing never improved or changed in any way.

I would put forward that this is because Buddhism destroys the mastery impulse in people, stimulating the submissive trait. There is no "divine discontent" in the Buddhist mind which is a powerful stimulus to progress. Even though the Orientals truly made great discoveries, these discoveries never took off. The world remained the same world, day in and day out.

Buddhism is good in its' place, such as in erasing anxiety, worry, and other forms of negative thinking, BUT IN RELATION TO ACHIEVING GOALS, not as an end in and of itself. And to me, the goal of Nirvana is not a real achievement, just an escape.

There is another way to achieve inner emotional and mental peace. This is for the dominant/mastery/conscious part of us to take charge and for the submissive parts of ourselves to support it, or be sufficiently restrained. Intense desire, without conflict, is quite achievable. In fact, it is one of life's most sublime experiences. When we are unified within, and are one with our goal, when we have faith in it and positively assert ourselves toward it, we can seemingly do anything, and while all internal conflict seemingly and completely disappears

Buddhism only has the most superficial resemblance to gospel principles. God does not want us to be passive or inactive. He wants the conscious part of our brain to be operating at all times in purposeful action. He wants us to improve ourselves, our lives and the lives of all those around us and to always be moving forward.

In contrast to this quote, "Make thou, in all the world, nothing dear to thee" I prefer : " Believe you can do something, WORK for it and FIGHT for it, and WATCH that thing materialize in your life!"

I have been in a Zen monastery and have a friend who is a Buddhist nun, and apparently you can't be "attached" to anything or have a personal possession, in other words. And when it was time for "cleaning house" there were no assigned chores. You just had to find something to do, etc. Everything was like this. I agree with Joseph Smith that this kind of living creates confusion as does not line up with the Law of Consecration or the United Order. What is done in a Zen monastery is not in the spirit of these higher laws at all and bears only the most superficial resemblance to them.

[gardener4life]

You know when I was listening to the Book of Mormon this morning I realized that 2 Nephi Chapter 29 is a type of answer to this question!

You have all heard the verse of scripture; 'A Bible, A Bible, we have a Bible, we have no more need of another Bible'. (The rejection of the Book of Mormon is serious! But it also represents that we have to do anything further or that there can be things of God given to others. Indeed, the verses in Chapter 29 suggest this.)

7 Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth? (we aren't the only ones given spiritual gifts of God. Any gift of God is wonderful, PROVIDED that it is USED correctly.)
8 ...Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another....
9 ...And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever. (Wow think about what that means. That means there is so much more interesting things for us to learn in the eternal perspective.)
10 ....neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written....

13 And it shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel; and the lost tribes of Israel shall have the words of the Nephites and the Jews.

OK, so here's an interesting question. If that above is true then is it possible for us to train ourselves to be closed off from accepting new truth by being stubborn if we refuse to accept that God can bless other people to? And how do we prevent ourselves for setting ourselves up for a failure to endure to the end?

(I don't personally think Buddhism is something we should accept. But its the idea of small individual nuggets of things in other cultures that can better our lives that I think is important. We will still keep our eyes on the prophets, seers, and revelators of our day. But we will train ourselves to think...if more truth comes someday how will I train myself to recognize it. Today I realized you know...accepting truth from the past is sort of easy in a way because we've been trained since birth to do it or from daily scripture study. But if something new came out tomorrow...I'm not sure I'd know right away if it was inspired or not. Sometimes when people bring up new ideas here I actually think....I don't know if everything that person says is true. I know parts of it are true, and I might not agree with what that person says. What that means is, I have to still be able to get on my knees and pray for help to sift through the sand to find what's valuable. I'm not all powerful or all seeing. I must rely on everyday accepting truth and keeping an open mind that someday God could give us more. It's scary in a way to think how easily we could shut our mind to something good just by bias.)

[Thinker]

Outsiders define Mormonism as a cult, but we prefer our own definition. Buddhists do not consider Buddhism a religion. You may, but I ask: Who do they worship?

My brother-in-law is a Buddhist and has been for more than 40 years.
It's a religion.

I already knew you thought it was a religion
I noticed you didn't answer my question =P

I'll give it a try:

Themselves. They worship themselves. Not in a Hollywood king of way like "Look at me, I'm so beautiful, I'm so great, I'm so enlightened" because other than the last one there, Buddhism is all about not being great or beautiful or being anything other than enlightened. It's got a number of really great ideals and beliefs, and there are some very laudable practices with various forms of Buddhism.

They're not trying to rise to greatness, I don't mean they worship themselves like that, the goal is to give up yourself to goodness and virtue until you reach the state of Nirvana, enlightenment where you can become one and whole. It's kind of the opposite of many of the "Christians in the world: Pompous Christians are trying to go to Heaven along a hellish path. Buddhism is going toward a false heaven on a very heaven-like path.

I've always been an admirer to one degree or another of Buddhism since I started Tae-Kwon-Do when I was younger. However good it is, though, it still lacks the power of the priesthood and the purity of the Atonement.

That’s a good point. They might make an idol out of “be still & know that I am God.” I mean, yes some meditation and prayer is good - but “faith without works is dead.” And a life without love (to share & receive) is not fulfilling our purpose of joy. I’ve also disagreed with the contradictory idea of prioritizing limiting suffering to the point of (Dali lama) encouraging abortion when a child could have some disability (ie blind opera singer Andrea Boseli who’s mom refused to abort despite doctors urging to). Suffering serves a purpose - as do people with disabilities. I’ve seen over & over again how people with downs’s syndrome have loved so powerfully to melt the hardest hearts.

As with all things - take the best and leave the rest. One thing I love about Buddhism is the active soul-searching applied to meditation - really can help in seeing the world better to love others & ourselves better.