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  hardie karges 2:16 am on June 2, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: CHRISTIANITY ( 160 ), devotion, discipline ( 4 ), doctrine, Hardie Karges ( 239 ), koan ( 7 ), language ( 144 ), shunyata ( 22 ), Zen ( 31 )   

  Buddhism Basics: Discipline, Doctrine, and Devotion  

  

  Some people prefer devotion over discipline or doctrine. That’s fine, if the object of devotion represents truth, beauty and goodness. It’s all dharma. The simple fact of the matter is that devotion is a simple act for many people, much simpler than the ‘mind-training’ of original Buddhism or the intellectual rigor of much of later Buddhism, somewhat the opposite of mental training in fact, with verbal tricks and koans carefully selected for the very lack of logic which commends them. 

  And those Three D’s can work in any religion, Christianity included, and probably most especially, since Christianity is nothing if not a devotee cult, ditto Sanatana Dharma, i.e. ‘Hinduism.’ But for Buddhism it’s very arguably the lesser of the three, what with the Discipline orientation of Theravada, and the Doctrinal not-so-dictates of Mahayana, and especially Zen. In fact, Devotion typically defines the religious orientation, i.e. devotion to an all-powerful God, in the Abrahamic religions, often symbolized by the patriarch himself’s willingness to sacrifice his only son to show his fealty to God. Now that’s Devotion. 

  But’s it’s much to Buddhism’s credit that it has other options. Because anybody can do devotion, no matter how demanding the devotional object or subject. And in Buddhism’s full embrace of the 3D’s, not only can Buddhism be philosophy AND/OR religion, but it can also be art, and poetry, and therapy. Because that’s what Zen koans are.  

  And while that may not work for even ten percent of the Buddhist community, well, that’s an important ten percent, because nothing less then the Buddhist high concept of shunyata ‘Emptiness’ is on the line here, and that’s a tough row to hoe. The koans help. Put all the different aspects of Buddhism together and not only is it not self-contradictory, but it packs a powerful punch. That’s what’s needed.  

   

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  hardie karges 11:49 am on October 4, 2020 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Asia ( 17 ), Buddhism ( 428 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 160 ), devotion, Europe ( 19 ), Hinduism ( 28 ), India ( 15 )   

  Buddhism and Christianity Occupy Different Realms of the World and Mind.. 

  

  The best religions unite us. The worst religions divide us. Most do nothing at all—except give a momentary feeling of satisfaction, at a job well done, vindication for following a path, any path, and somehow defining one’s life in the process, even if the changes are subtle.

  We can snicker now at the circumstances surrounding the split between the universal Catholic church of Rome, as it splintered into a thousand Protestant denominations—names—as if, ‘What’s the big deal?’ But at the time it was a very big deal, even if the results and ramifications would not be known for a century or two, just like Athens and Rome before it, and those are the lessons, contained in the names, as each country tries to personify itself in the religion of its choice.

  But one of my favorite themes is that at its origins and Sunday best, a religion should try to change you into something better, so not necessarily what you want to be, but what you should be, as determined by the high priests of your subconscious. But I’m not sure that works. Has Christianity made Europe and America less violent and aggressive? Good question. Has Buddhism made Asia less possessive and grasping? I’m not sure.

  What I am pretty sure of, though, is that it makes us feel better, if only for a day, week, month, or year, and serves as a constant reminder of what we should be doing, even if we fall so unfailingly flat so often. But if our feelings of guilt once pushed us toward religions that chastised us for our failings, now we tend to gravitate toward those that make us feel good in spite of them, best not to even mention them, lest someone should feel a twinge of regret for not doing better.

  So at the same time that we now feel less guilty, our societies and families continue in a downward spiral, those who can’t be bothered to improve themselves, at the cost of a moment’s self-sacrifice. And that is a shame, because instant gratification is a cheap trick at best, and a descent into the abyss at worst. And as it is with Christianity, so it is with Buddhism, and other Eastern religions.

  Buddhism often gets written up as the export version of Hinduism, and if I can’t really agree with that, there is certainly some circumstantial evidence to support it. What is acknowledged less often is the contribution of the resident Jains, who, at the time of the Buddha, were the inspiration of much of the religious seeking, defining and refining that was going on in India at the time of the Buddha, around the mid-millennium before the time of Christ.

  And the same splintering occurred with Buddhism, Hinduism only spared the process, because it was never a doctrine in the first place, and maybe that’s why it was never suitable for export. Ask an Indian. Given sufficient time and circumstances, I think that all religions, despite best original intentions, will devolve into devotion, pure and simple.

  Is that what it takes to unite us? If so, then I suppose the only question is: to what are we devoted? Take your pick. When the world is too cold, warm it with your heart. When the world is too cruel, make it kinder. When you are weary, sleep…
   
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  hardie karges 10:35 am on May 20, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: belief ( 4 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 160 ), culture ( 21 ), devotion, DNA ( 44 ), Faith ( 3 ), Forest Tradition ( 3 ), genome ( 5 ), juju, language ( 144 ), logic ( 14 ), woo-woo, Zen ( 31 )   

  Got religion? Juju or woo-woo: take your pick… 

  Beyond all the fibs and fantasies, behind all the lies we tell ourselves, is the l-DNA we create for ourselves in language, a trail to our past and an arrow to our future, and pretty much the only thing we had before y-DNA and mt-DNA, revealed now to be something like a parallel universe to those more precise measurements, yet far more analogous to the largely hypothetical cultural tracks and traces, like c-DNA, full of long lonely nights and broken promises, frightened misgivings and belated thanksgivings…

  But the first thing we did in every case, and probably even before language, was to speculate on the nature of things, and try to create some meaning for it all, maybe even best articulated in fear, that which we fear being that which we worship, synonymous anonymous, or even better in groups to amplify the effect exponential… (More …)