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  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 8:29 am on February 21, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Buddhism, , , , , secular humanism   

    Secular Humanism? Yeah, right: Gimme Religion, and ASAP… 

    IMG_1184

    Buddhist shrine in Sri Lanka

    For better or worse, Bernie, “We’re-All-In-This-Together” is not a religion. Spirituality? Maybe, but I doubt it. Nice try, though. It’s okay to be Jewish, you know. It doesn’t mean anything bad, as long as you’re not a tool of the modern state of Israel. So feel free to clarify that, ASAP, but obscuring your ethnic origins by muddying up religious waters is not helpful…

    So Bernie sounds like a ‘secular humanist’ to me, and not a ‘practicing Jew’. But I’m not interested in politics right now. I’m interested in religion. So is ‘secular humanism’ a religion? Naah, not really. Why not? They’re all just belief systems, aren’t they, ‘secular humanism’ and every religion? So what’s the difference? Does a religion have to have a God? Buddhism doesn’t really have a God, and Islam allows no images of one. Hinduism has loads.  So what’s the difference?

    Short answer: plenty. In fact, secular humanism DOES have a God, and its name is mostly ME. That’s the difference, and that’s the opposite of what religion is all about. Religion is all about being a part of something bigger than you, and secular humanism is all about individuality, and individualism, specifically this individual, and all too often (drum roll here, please): ego.  God help us. (More …)

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 9:41 am on February 14, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Buddhism, ,   

    Buddhism: the Path to Compassion… and Conciliation 

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    Buddhist shrine in Sri Lanka

    Buddhism is well-known for its compassion, but actually: shouldn’t they all be? In fact, yes all religions are pretty equal in that regard, to their own adherents, at least. Christians who rejoice in their style of communion might be surprised at the joy of two Muslims meeting at the unexpected random encounter in some disparate (and not necessarily desperate) country.

    So that’s the challenge, really, then, isn’t it—to expand the umbrella of inclusion, so that people can feel that feeling of brotherhood whenever and wherever and with whomever? Unfortunately it doesn’t always work out that way, as cultural baggage weighs heavily and racial and facial considerations rear their ugly heads in calculated derision… (More …)

     
    • Dave Kingsbury's avatar

      davekingsbury 1:53 pm on February 15, 2016 Permalink | Reply

      An insightful blend of philosophy and personal experience which hits the nail on the head … I shall remember your phrase ‘umbrella of inclusion’!

  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 9:37 am on January 24, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Buddhism, , , ,   

    Religion 101: Christianity is all about Passion; Buddhism is all about… 

    …’getting over it’, of course, as if you didn’t know that already, you who’ve probably fallen in love more times than you care to admit and probably never ‘got it right’, or maybe just once or twice, depending on how you count and who you ask, not that you let that stop you for one moment, reaping maximum rewards from a face, or a glance, or an imagined encounter while waiting in line for coffee, just waiting for something—anything—to ‘kick in’, and not just caffeine…

    Or maybe you followed his/her activities closely enough to know where he/she might be at any given time of day on any given day of the week, and you just happened to be there, too, with an enigmatic smile and a pithy salute, full of vim and vigor and whatever comes later, counting the babies by the look in his/her eyes, or at least the efforts to be made if not dying then at least trying, lucky if you don’t end up at the keyhole on your knees…

    We’ve all been there and we all understand, of course, unless you’re lucky enough to have been born so rich or so pretty that they all come to you and you can pick and choose from the daily queues—yeah, right. This is the likely origin of ego, even, that mustering of personality and passion that makes brakes squeal and hearts break. Ah, passion! That’s the word, embodied in Christ and emboldened by religion, enshrined by the centuries and embedded with our remains… (More …)

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 9:29 am on January 10, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Buddhism, , , ,   

    Love is Religion, Love is a Drug… 

    To love or help family is an obligation, to love or help friends is a pleasure, to love or help your partner is reproduction, but to love and help complete and total strangers is religion. Accepting a certain risk for no uncertain reward is the fruit of forgiveness and the essence of religion, participating in the universality of truth, beauty and goodness and propagating its continued existence and florescence. The only reward is itself. Everything else is business, politics. Everything else is trivial.

    Love is not the only worthwhile activity to engage in here in this world, but almost. Doesn’t almost every other worthwhile activity ultimately come down (up) to love, e.g. faith, hope and charity? Trust is another matter. Trust is an act of possession disguised as love, involving a transaction ultimately reducible to numbers. Trust is a contract; love is not. I try to love everyone, but I’m not sure I trust anyone. There’s no reason to. (More …)

     
    • Dave Kingsbury's avatar

      davekingsbury 1:54 pm on January 11, 2016 Permalink | Reply

      Didn’t Plato say you move through attraction to one towards love for all? Not a fan normally, but reckon he (or was it Socrates?) got that right. You could call it personal evolution, I suppose, though age-related testosterone die-back helps! Thanks for the thought-provoking post …

      • hardie karges's avatar

        hardie karges 2:10 pm on January 11, 2016 Permalink | Reply

        Plato definitely said that you love what you don’t have, re: from attraction to love, I’m not sure. Thank you!

  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 10:18 am on January 3, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Buddhism, , resolution   

    New Year Resolution: Get Religion—Quickly… 

    I only have a few years on this planet—we all do—what with mortality and all that jazz, inevitability and all that rap, just a few seasons to sow and reap and sock away the harvest, for somebody’s grandkids, if not our own, making hay while the sun shines, making love while the sap rises, win or lose or learn how to draw; and the question always arises, especially at this time of year: what have we accomplished? What have we done? What does it all mean, if anything, when the scores have been tallied and the races all run?

    If you’re like me, then maybe you’re too often thinking: not much. But should it? Is anyone keeping score? The Eternal Now human contingent likes to maintain that life is not meant for meaning, anyway—tautology noted—but for enjoyment: constant eternal infinite bliss. Sounds good, but is it really any more accurate? It might just depend fundamentally on whether you’re a rationalist or an empiricist, a thinker or a doer, Latino or Germanic, tranquilo or a bit manic… (More …)

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 7:43 am on December 26, 2015 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Buddhism,   

    Buddhist in training… 

    When you start ENJOYING meditation, rather than struggling with it, then I think you’re getting somewhere…

     
    • Sven Johnson's avatar

      Sven Johnson 10:43 am on December 26, 2015 Permalink | Reply

      Hi Hardie,
      I have been a couple of times to the Farang Buddhist meditation meetings here in Chiang Rai. Nice people and a great place. But I found out after a couple of times, hearing the discussions about suffering etc etc that I am probably too happy to be able to get something from this meditation. We will see, maybe try it ater a couple of years. Merry Christmas and have a Great New Year!

      • hardie karges's avatar

        hardie karges 11:47 am on December 26, 2015 Permalink | Reply

        There are worse problems to have than that, Sven, to be one of the lucky ones… 🙂

  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 10:31 am on December 13, 2015 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Buddhism, ,   

    The Perfect Religion: 10 Commandments, 8-fold Path, 5 Pillars, 4 Noble Truths, 1 Creator 

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    Christian church in Ethiopia

    Okay, so back to the grind: creating, or let’s say ‘distilling’, the perfect religion. After all, we’re not trying to create something from scratch, quite the opposite, in fact, we’re trying to reconcile religions—all religions—and science, too. Contradictions, in my view, are only apparent, not real.

    If we all love our kids, then we all love God, however that’s defined. All religions have central tenets, and articles of faith, of course, and so does my hypothetically perfect one, as previously noted, and most of them gleaned from the major religions.

    The Five Pillars of Islam are: faith, prayer, alms-giving, fasting, and pilgrimage, all pretty basic, of which pilgrimage to Mecca might be discarded for our general use as too cult-specific, non-general, and non-attainable. Visas to Saudi Arabia are hard to come by, even for Muslims. (More …)

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 8:32 am on November 22, 2015 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Buddhism, , , , Paris   

    In Memoriam: We Are All One, Like it or Not… 

     

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    Spires In Thailand

    “If you love your life, you will lose it…If you give it up in this world, you will be given eternal life.”

    –John 12:25

    For some reason, that sentiment resonates with me, and many others, I think, that the rewards of this earthly existence are transient and ephemeral, and that there are bigger and better things to do here than getting and spending and counting our money. This is but a brief interlude, by any measure, and it’s a real shame to waste it in mindless murder—or even mindless multiplication. But we’re only human; that’s what we do. We possess. We accumulate. We go forth and multiply… all of which is fine, as long as we don’t get too attached to it, or even worse: ‘fall in love’ with it.

    The events of Paris last week are a good example. Now that the dust has settled and some scores have been settled over the ownership of the land that was settled by our progenitors, it’s not hard to see the vicious circuitry to it all, the battle for one-up-man-ship that pervades all human interactions from the seminal act of sex to the terminal act of death, the jockeying for position and the positioning of jockeys for maximum exposure and maximum penetration. Pounds of flesh have been demanded as retribution and paid in kind over centuries, but nothing has really changed, has it? (More …)

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 8:03 am on November 8, 2015 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: alcohol, Buddhism, , ,   

    Building the Perfect Religion: Humility, Moderation and Sobriety? Ouch… 

    Well, I guess sex is no big deal, after all, in my perfect hypothetical religion, basically just: cover your genitals, please. And don’t do it in public. And hide it from the kids. Dress moderately. Homosexuality is okay, as long as you don’t demand the right to march down Market Street in only your jockstrap. Abortion is a horrible thing, but ultimately a woman’s right to choose, for lack of better options. I would only say to women who see this issue as only an issue of women’s health: we’re talking about a human life here, okay? At some point it becomes murder, which is not okay… what else?

    Like sex, most religions don’t deal with issues of sobriety directly, but many do, being prohibited outright in some. Once again I see no clear path either way, but it has certainly been an object of contention over the years. To this day, many counties and cities in the USA are ‘dry’, not allowing any sales of alcohol; and many others are so restrictive that they accomplish much the same purpose, allowing mixed drinks only in eating establishments, for instance, the only stand-alone bars limited to beer.

    But mention Christianity or the West to much of the world, and the first image that comes to many foreigners’ minds is alcohol—and drunkenness. It’s pretty accurate, really. Historical scuttlebutt is that the Celts invaded the Roman Empire looking for wine, long after they themselves had had a reputation for beer, from which the Spanish word for it—cerveza—comes, apparently. They likely invented wheels and pivoting axles, too, so the buzz is not necessarily bad, just disgusting for a lot of people, it seems. I concur. It’s messy. There are cleaner highs, if you just gotta… (More …)

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 9:26 am on October 18, 2015 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Buddhism, ,   

    Modern Religion: Waiting for Godot, or ET, or the Eternal NOW… 

    Buddhist Temple in Laos

    Buddhist Temple in Laos

    I’ve always marveled at how certain songs just feel good, regardless of whatever words are being sung, while other songs are sad for the same reason, something about minor keys, I think. Words are the same way, it seems, especially when you’re trying to get all philosophical. I mean: nobody really wants to hear about categorical moral imperatives—borrrring. But everybody loves to hear about the ETERNAL NOW, philosophy in a spray-can, shake well before using, get in touch with your energy, etc. Why are such words and ideas attractive?

    Simple, dahling: because it feels so good, and it can’t be proven or dis-proven—nice touch. We Western Europeans used to exult in our rationality, our Age of Reason, beyond superstition and the dictates of the Mother Church. And it worked fantastically—up to a point. We still love the fruits of such labor, but not the labor itself, and the discipline that achieved it in the first place. Now we want all that and superstition, too, but without the church, thank you. That means New Age fad religions and pop psychology and life-coaching: people who can’t run their own lives will try to tell you how to run yours. Isn’t it wonderful to be alive in 2015 with so many options? (More …)

     
    • mary's avatar

      mary 11:19 am on October 18, 2015 Permalink | Reply

      serendipidy, now that is a good word, joe powers told me what it means, i still miss him.

      • hardie karges's avatar

        hardie karges 11:33 am on October 18, 2015 Permalink | Reply

        Tales of Serendib, ancient Sri Lanka, world’s oldest continuously Buddhist country… .

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