streaming consciousness…

Updates from November, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• 

  hardie karges 4:40 am on November 24, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ashrama, Buddhism ( 456 ), dana ( 8 ), Hardie Karges ( 268 ), Hindu ( 9 ), homeless ( 2 ), India ( 15 ), meditation ( 216 ), mindfulness ( 35 ), religion ( 167 ), rishi ( 7 ), sannyasin, spirituality ( 27 ), Thailand ( 76 ), Theravada ( 53 )   

  Buddhism 399: Homelessness and the Joy of Giving… 

  

  Give more than you take. That will be more than enough, and the world will be a better place. That is the essence of almost all religions, Buddhism included, regardless of whether you consider Buddhism first and foremost a philosophy, as I tend to think. But philosophies don’t usually include a call to action, whereas religions usually do. Buddhism doesn’t do that, though, not specifically, but it is implicit in the practice, the original practice. That’s why you’ll see orange or yellow-robed shaved-head monks walking through the markets at daybreak in almost every Theravada country in SE Asia, requesting alms for subsistence, usually food. This giving is usually known as dana.

  This harkens back to an even earlier practice in India wherein long-haired rishis and sannyasins wearing similar saffron clothing but usually without a group of like-minds, would make similar rounds, a practice which continues to this day. The difference is not only that the former are Buddhist and the latter Hindu, but the former have rules and regular routes, and are often registered for this activity, whereas the latter are more likely free and on their own, often in the last phases of life according to the four Hindu ashramas of student, householder, forest dweller, and renunciant—nice.

  But the important thing is the giving. So, instead of seeing a renunciant as a societal parasite reduced to begging, we should see them as symbols of purity, offering laypersons the opportunity to experience the same bliss of renunciation that they not only symbolize but incarnate. It’s only ironic that they themselves often consider themselves—and call themselves—homeless, no pun intended. Because that is the little joke they play on all of us, that the poorest people of the West are linguistically identified with the holiest of the East. I only wish that Western practitioners would follow the same precepts. The food is usually pretty good, at least in Thailand.

   

  Reply Cancel reply

  Required fields are marked *

  Name *

  Email *

  Website

  Notify me of new comments via email.

  Notify me of new posts via email.

  Δ

• 

  hardie karges 3:59 am on November 17, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddha ( 49 ), Buddhism ( 456 ), Hardie Karges ( 268 ), language ( 163 ), meditation ( 216 ), philosophy ( 113 ), religion ( 167 )   

  Buddhism on the Half Shell: Dharma without Dogma 

  

  Beware stir-fried spirituality, vague ideas tossed in a pan and stirred ‘til piping hot. Buddhism is an open doctrine, true, but it needs a compass. And the Eightfold Path is that compass, of course, the prime phenomena of our lives listed and pointed in the direction of ‘rightness’, i.e. the correct and appropriate versions of the main foundations of our lives: thought, intent, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. If non-duality can fit into that simple list, then fine; it is welcome. If not, then reshuffle your deck to find your place in lives where things actually exist and thoughts actually occur.

  For better or worse, Buddhism must live with the titles of its popular books, regardless of whether those actually describe the philosophy accurately or not. So, we must spend time explaining why ‘Buddhism is True’, and why there are a ‘Buddha and the Badass’ and how we can have a ‘Universe in a Single Atom’, whether any of that has anything to do with Buddhism or not. For the most part, those titles are just the consumeristic fantasies of book publishers, and the ideas inside their covers have little or nothing in common with them.

  But that’s a compromise we make. The real problem occurs when the ideas themselves get breaded and fried in almost total opposition to the original concept. So New Age Buddhists remind you to love yourself without bothering to explain, or even acknowledge, that we have no intrinsic Self, or even selves. Then they’ll tell you that our thoughts are not our own, while giving no clue as to where they actually come from, apparently just floating around, soul-like looking for a body to inhabit. But these are only minor inconveniences. The dharma can easily transcend most of that. I persevere.
   
• 

  hardie karges 4:13 am on November 10, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: anatta ( 22 ), atman ( 5 ), Brahman ( 3 ), Buddhism ( 456 ), emptiness ( 31 ), EVOLUTION ( 21 ), Hardie Karges ( 268 ), Hindu ( 9 ), Jain ( 5 ), language ( 163 ), philosophy ( 113 ), self ( 20 ), skandha ( 2 ), soul ( 10 )   

  Buddhism 202: Anatman on the Installment Plan 

  

  The fact that I’m not the same as I was before is at least partial proof of anatta, non-self, i.e. a heap of adjectives in evolution. The Sanskrit word skandha means something like ‘heap’, of course, that of which we are composed, without clearly defining exactly what that material is, though it would appear to fall in the category of ‘causes and conditions’, so more mind than matter, more substantial than material. Thus, I prefer to think of them as adjectives rather than nouns or even verbs, mere descriptions of what is to become.

  But this is immaterial (pun intended) to the substance of the original debate, mostly between Hindu Brahmins, Jains, and Buddhists, as to the permanence—or not—of a supposed ‘self’ or ‘soul’. For Hindu Brahmanists this was a cosmic ‘soul’ on a par with a God-like ‘Brahman’, while for the Jains this was an atomic soul that inhabited everything on a granular level. In response to these two choices, early Buddhists basically said, “Naah,” then moved on to bigger and better considerations.

  And, if this seems like a severe diminution of personality to the point that we (who are writing and reading this humble script) have no intrinsic existence, then I prefer to think about the freedom that this gives us rather than the limits imposed upon us. Because this emptiness is as close as we can come to infinity or eternity, and so the very opposite of limitation. There’s only one catch, though, already mentioned. It’s empty. There can’t be any sort of unlimited physical stuff. It’s simply not possible, sorry. Look on the bright side; there appears to be no current shortage of anything important. And we are a very conscious heap, in the process of evolution.

   
• 

  hardie karges 4:35 am on November 3, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 456 ), determinism ( 4 ), free will ( 6 ), Hardie Karges ( 268 ), Middle Path ( 56 )   

  Buddhist Middle Path and the Problem of Free Will… 

  

  The path is not straight and narrow. It may be long and winding. It may go in circles. It may go up and down. But it’s best somewhere in the middle. Let’s call it that ‘sweet spot.’ Let’s call it ‘that special blend.’ Let’s call it ‘the Middle Path.’ It’s all alluding to the same thing: avoidance of extremes—and rigid definitions. Because those are two recipes for disaster. The current debate over free will is a perfect example (can you believe that there’s a debate over free will in the year 2024?).

  The determinist side says that there are all these preconditions that make absolute free will impossible. Duh. But who’s talking about absoluteness? The free will side says that man’s free will is unlimited. Huh? There’s only one problem; nothing is unlimited. Oh, dear, what to do? There seems to be clear evidence of free will and clear evidence of determinism at the same time. But how is that possible? What is the solution to such an obvious existential conundrum?

  Bingo. The Middle Path to the rescue, i.e. there must be some free will, but not absolute, and there must be some determinism, but not unlimited, and they just might be able to coexist at the same time, doing the do-see-do, doing the hootchie-koo, doing the I-love-you with the best of all opposites that feel inclined to mix and match and see what life can bring amidst all the hardship and suffering that we must endure in this Godforsaken world. It’s only a tribute to the brilliance of life and culture that this simple truth is the foundation to something much larger and lasting at the same time. And that is Buddhism, pure and hopefully simple, on a good day.