Trouble in Texas

[Brian]

Questions:

Hello, I am pretty new to Buddhism, I have been Zen buddhist for a
year, before that, I was a Christian, I left due to the people who are
conservatives, and I disagreed with it. I was born in California, now
in Texas, so as you guess, I get no gain here in Texas.

Besides that, My questions are that, I'm a proud supporter of Gay
marriage and I support Stem Cell Research, and I'm pro choice, do my
beliefs check out with Zen Buddhism, or is what I believe sinful?

I also am studding Che Guevara, he turens out to have been a great
guy, studing the Buddha and Marx, is it wrong to agree with Che or is
it okay?

Also I read a great book recently titled, Siddhartha. It was about his
life, in the book he states that there is another buddha, Gotma, is
that true? Is Siddhartha a true book based on the real life of the
buddha?

Last but not least, due to the ignorance of others here in Texas, I
get no leverage and I try to remain peacefull, but its very hard, I
get frustrated. What should I do to ignore these conservatives and
reach enlightment?

Answers:

Wow- There's lots to work with here. I'll warn everyone ahead of time
that everything that follows is MY opinion. Feel free to add yours in
the comment section, especially if you disagree!

1) Let's start with the easy part. The book Siddhartha, by Herman
Hesse, isn't really about the Buddha. It's about a regular man named
Siddhartha who lived in the same region at the same time as "The"
Buddha. The "Gotama" character in the book is the person we call
Buddha, Siddhartha is just a character in this book of historical
fiction. It's a great book, but none of it is considered to be true.

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1934648035?tag=askdrarca-20

2) I see nothing wrong with studying Marx; he IS one of the world's
major philosophers after all. You'd be cheating yourself to not
understand what it was he was saying.

I'm not here to promote my own political beliefs, but Che Guevara is
NOT on my list of admirable people-- quite the opposite in fact. You
won't be finding one of those T-Shirts in my closet. Rather than turn
this post into a rant, I'll stop there.

3. As far as the acceptability of gay marriage, stem cell research,
and pro choice, that varies from Buddhist to Buddhist just as it does
with any other group. For the most part, I think the majority of
Buddhists are probably OK with gay marriage but against abortion. I
don't really understand the stem cell argument well enough to comment
on that. Every individual has their own opinion on these topics.

4. I have addressed the topic of "Dealing with Hatred" in the past.
Check out http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1343 for the whole
story (and especially the comments) on that post.

Please add your thoughts and comments at: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1392