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  hardie karges 12:24 pm on April 11, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: dialectic, Mahayana ( 47 ), Theravada ( 52 )   

  Buddhism on the Half Shell, Pick and Choose 

  

  

  Make the world a better place for humans and other sentient beings. That is the battle charge of the Bodhisattva, the ‘awakened being’ who sacrifices the present moment of his own bliss for the future happiness of the many in waiting. And this is the difference, of course, between the Buddhism of the Elders, Theravada, and the larger vehicle, Mahayana, which supposedly looks beyond the narrow conflicted self and delays enlightenment so that we all can enter the realm of Buddhahood together.

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  hardie karges 10:04 am on May 12, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 448 ), dialectic, love ( 49 ), Science ( 25 )   

  Love, Buddhism, dialectic, and the dictates of Science… 

  The message to a noisy world is simple: silence. The message to a hateful world is also simple: love. So the remedy for any extreme situation would seem to be its opposite, at least in the short term. This can be a zig-zag situation, though, of course, flip-flopping back and forth between extremes with no middle ground. Certainly some Westerners with a racial background of extreme violence take the love love love remedy too far to the other extreme. This is the genius of Buddhism, that it constantly seeks that middle ground ‘sweet spot’ of mutual accommodation, which should ideally be the outcome of any ongoing dialectic, and constantly self-correcting. But while some scholars and priests might claim this as a higher truth, I’d say that it is simply a superior method, and therefore akin to science. There are laws that require separation of church and state, not church and science…

  hardie karges and quantumpreceptor are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    quantumpreceptor 12:24 pm on May 12, 2019 Permalink | Reply

    Very interesting Hardy. I think science really should have a branch devoted to the study of meditation and or eastern teachings. It’s a proactive solution to an old problem.

    QP

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      hardie karges 2:39 pm on May 12, 2019 Permalink | Reply

      And vice-versa, also, IMO, as that gap is now too wide for mere yawning; it needs to be bridged…

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        quantumpreceptor 2:42 pm on May 12, 2019 Permalink

        It would be a great way to control the conversation in a logical and nondogmatic way. Leaving the snake oil salesman out to lunch and the seekers of wisdom a new path to credibility.

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        hardie karges 3:01 pm on May 12, 2019 Permalink

        exactly

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  hardie karges 7:48 am on January 28, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 448 ), Dalai Lama ( 13 ), Dependent Origination ( 7 ), dialectic, EckfardtbTolle, Hinduism ( 29 ), Jainism ( 13 ), koan ( 7 ), linguistics ( 13 ), Nagarjuna ( 2 ), Plato ( 17 ), reification ( 4 ), skandhas ( 10 ), Thai Forest Tradition ( 6 ), Thich Nhat Hanh ( 8 ), Tibetan ( 3 ), Vajrayana ( 23 ), Zen ( 31 )   

  Buddhist Back-Story: Dialectics and Linguistics… 

  Theravada Buddhism has it easy, when it comes to dhamma (dharma) talks, just pull out the old mind-kilesa-breath-nose-navel-‘Buddho Buddho Buddho’ playbook, rinse and repeat, hard to screw up unless you want to get into the murky afterbirth of past lives and kamma (karma), doing Yogic headstands and plotting Ptolemaic cosmic epicycles, trying to explain how anatta (non-self) somehow gets reborn, when there really is nothing there to begin with. But still they do. It’s embarrassing, especially when some of the same ones…

  …get all goo-goo-eyed at the mention of ‘this present moment’, which I agree with, if not to the extent that some would take it. So how can you have both, not only within the same school of Buddhism, but within the same person, e.g. the Dalai (not Theravada) Lama? I can find you quotes of him advocating ‘nowness’ while Eckhart Tolle was still sleeping on sofas, and at the same time opining that if someone’s life hasn’t quite worked out right, then it’s because of something they did in a past life—ouch! What gives? (More …)

  Dave Kingsbury and hardie karges are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Dave Kingsbury 4:00 pm on January 29, 2018 Permalink | Reply

    Like any long-lived belief system, I suppose, as complex as people and societies are themselves. The Science connection seems an interesting extension …

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      hardie karges 10:54 pm on January 29, 2018 Permalink | Reply

      Yes, It’s amazing to me that the original Buddhist debate, basically liberal vs. conservative, is still alive today, after countless twists and turns, and analogous to something similar in politics, which is all well and good, I think, as long as everyone can be polite and civilized about it…

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        Dave Kingsbury 2:34 am on January 30, 2018 Permalink

        Indeed. The questions arising from reincarnation are the ones I struggle with. My best shot is to view it as metaphor and therefore helpful for perspective and even humour.

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  hardie karges 8:25 am on June 21, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: capitalist, communism ( 21 ), DEMOCRACY ( 10 ), dialectic, ecology ( 2 ), environmentalism ( 2 ), global village, global warming ( 16 ), Hegel ( 5 ), Marx ( 4 ), small planet, TERRORISM ( 3 ), totalitarian   

  #Dialectic Burrito Deluxe: #Marx or #Hegel, Tortilla or Bagel… 

  Marx and Hegel are almost (almost!) equally famous for their dialogues and dialectics, with themselves and others, materialism and idealism respectively, thesis antithesis synthesis, history somehow some way marching forward zig-zag drunkenly, reconciling opposites into higher syntheses supposedly, like a ball rolling downhill, picking up speed, bouncing from side to side, before finally choosing a middle course out of entropy as much as any conscious decision-making progress…

  And so we do just that, apparently, nomadic hunter-gatherers until we had the ways and means to settle down with plants and animals, sedentary farmer-herders until we had the ways and means to build elaborate cities with specialized skills, accomplished artisans-craftsmen until we had the ways and means to sell beyond our local ‘hood, market-based buyers-sellers until we had the ways and means to go long distances, peripatetic merchant-travelers until we had the ways and means to mass-produce anywhere any time… (More …)