Hi all,

I'm by nature a bit of a skeptic and a rationalist. I kind of feel that I fit in well enough here on the Treeleaf forum - with Jundo "Just-sit-zazen" Cohen. :wink:

But a while ago, I visited another popular Buddhist web forum, where questioning the supernatural got me in quite a bit of trouble. I believe that I said something about having difficulty with the descriptions of the 31 planes of existence. For starters, the term "tongue-stretching hell" (I think that's where the liars go!) gives me a very Tom & Jerry mental image. I also have a hard time with the heavenly palaces of lapis lazuli.

I wasn't universally condemned, but some of the people there did say that anyone who doubted the doctrine of these planes isn't a proper Buddhist. And I was called a "scientific materialist," but I don't know what that is.

So... what do - or what should - Buddhists believe in anyway? I mean proper Buddhists, not yours truly!