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  hardie karges 2:12 am on November 2, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 431 ), compassion ( 14 ), consciousness ( 29 ), empathy, Hardie Karges ( 242 ), language ( 146 ), meditation ( 192 ), religion ( 158 ), self ( 20 )   

  Buddhism in the End Days: Empathy and Sympathy 

  

  Create a world in your image and likeness, full of empathy and compassion. Then the problems of self and self-image exist no longer. Because these are universal blessings, the gifts of one human to another, which can only be accomplished with conscious intent. Nature offers no such promise, it full of suffering, however unintended. Nature doesn’t care. Only humans can care, and this is our responsibility on the face of this earth.

  Pandits and pundits quibble over whether anything is real beside consciousness, but this is unimportant. The important thing is that there IS consciousness, and it is capable of accomplishing much, if only we take the time to make the effort. If that requires a makeover of your own image at the same time, then so be it, more power to you. If humans need a self to have and to hold, until death do us part, then that is a small price to pay. Make it a good one. That is the responsibility of every serious artist, to make it a good one. So, start with yourself; what better place?

  Our time on this earth and in this space is limited, most likely, so time is of the essence. We are young and foolish, by design of our creator, it of pure and simple logic, but few means to enforce it. That is up to us, to enforce logic and reason with the passing of seasons, as if by Divine Creation, even though any true creator would only laugh, if it has that capability. We are the prophets of providence, not by our cleverness, but by our empathy. Only we can make this world what it is meant to be, because only we know what it is meant to be…

   

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  hardie karges 2:31 am on September 28, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Alpha male ( 9 ), Buddhism ( 431 ), consciousness ( 29 ), DNA ( 44 ), empathy, Hardie Karges ( 242 ), kilesha ( 11 ), language ( 146 ), meditation ( 192 ), mind ( 6 ), mindfulness ( 35 ), nature ( 17 )   

  Buddhism 102: Cooling the fires of Kilesha… 

  

  When everything is burning, cool the fires inside with the water of empathy and the chemistry of compassion. There are always at least two different ways to kill a wildfire, of course, as every firefighter knows. You can kill it with water, or you can kill it with fire itself. But which method causes more damage? That’s why water is always preferable, when possible. Because to kill a fire with a rival fire is to destroy everything in the path, ‘scorched earth’, so to speak. It ain’t pretty.

  But drenched earth can be quite pretty, especially after a nasty fire. And if those fires are inside, such as with hatred, greed, and anger, then the improved results are notable. Two foes can fight to the death, of course, but neither one could truly be considered a winner in that case. So, peaceful solutions are always preferable. Both parties will live to play another day, and with all faculties intact, both might even succeed.

  But that is the hardest thing to accomplish, of course, what with alpha males hogging the harem and acting like DNA whose only goal is to climb the ladder of succession to another day and another successful matchup in the breeding room and the board room, where the winner takes all and the losers take nothing. That’s the world of Nature, sometimes cruel and forbidding. But we can do better than that. Because we have the world of consciousness and mind, hopefully even some measure of mindfulness. Be kind.
   
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  hardie karges 3:09 am on April 28, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ahimsa ( 7 ), Dalai Lama ( 12 ), Eightfold Path ( 17 ), empathy, Four Noble Truths ( 18 ), Hardie Karges ( 242 ), Hippocratic Oath ( 3 ), karma ( 50 ), meditation ( 192 ), Middle Path ( 55 ), sympathy ( 2 )   

  Non-Violence: the Original and Noblest Truth of Buddhism…   

  

  ‘First do no harm,’ primum non nocere in Latin, is part of the Hippocratic Oath. It should also be part of the Buddhist Oath. Because nothing is more important, not really, than ahimsa, non-violence, even if it’s not part of the Four Noble Truths or even the Eightfold path, though it could easily be assumed in samma kammanta, samyak karmanta, i.e. right actions, so obvious is the connection. And that karmanta, of course, could also be translated as ‘good karma,’ so think of it that way if you prefer, since most people don’t know that the word karma literally means ‘actions,’ so make a note. 

  Yes, sometimes the simplest and most obvious things are the most important, whether they are ever written up that way or not. Because when the Dalai Lama says that his religion is kindness, that’s exactly what he means, non-violence, for starters, on a sliding scale ranging from sympathy to empathy. And if that sympathy gets you some basic non-violence, then high-style empathy should eventually get you some beginner-level enlightenment, at the least.  

  And from there you can dream of nirvana, if you’re ambitious, or just content yourself with a nice job and a nice family in a nice little town with an active city center and a price line that won’t break your budget. Because the details don’t really matter so much, once you’ve made your peace with the world. You can adapt it to your requirements or adapt yourself to its requirements, or you can Buddha-like split the difference and walk that meandering Middle Path in a sweet spot dialectical dance and reconciliation of opposites. I think you already know my choice. 

  hardie karges and quantumpreceptor are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    quantumpreceptor 3:40 am on May 1, 2024 Permalink | Reply

    I really like the picture one of your last lines left in my mind. “ in a sweet spot dialectical dance and reconciliation of opposites”
    I sometimes see more of a knife edge but I would rather dance and have fun.

    My take on no harm is found here:

    The Paramita of Meaningful Bahavior

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      hardie karges 3:25 am on June 23, 2024 Permalink | Reply

      Nice. Thanks…

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  hardie karges 4:57 am on November 6, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 431 ), donation, empathy, giving, Hardie Karges ( 242 ), meditation ( 192 ), scam, scammer   

  Buddhism and the Joy of Giving  

  

  Give without concern about what you will get in return, except for the joy of giving. This is the simplest thing in the world, but also the hardest: simple to understand, but hard to carry out. Because so many of us are accustomed to approaching life as transactional, that it’s hard to see it as empathetic, or even sympathetic, sometimes. Sure, this is a principle easy to understand in the abstract, but not so easy to put down funds with no guarantee in return, not even the joy of giving, necessarily, depending on the habits of the receiving party. 

  Because, if you’re expecting profuse appreciation and lavish attention, then you may be disappointed. One of the reasons that needy people are so needy is that they’ve sometimes, but not always, missed out on the social niceties that make life enjoyable: please, thank you, hello, goodbye, and I love you. But even those niceties can be transactional, if they are used as bargaining chips in the process of negotiation, which was probably never intended to be a negotiation in the first place. 

  But such is the status of our modern online world of scams and scammers: they’ll contact you, don’t worry. So, do you just blow them off? Or do you politely listen to them and then blow them off? Does that feel better? Because it’s always about feeling, whether they’re love scammers or orphanages in Uganda: pulling heartstrings for purse strings. You’re enticed to donate money, for which you will feel good in return. And that’s fine. This is a world of feeling, after all. But don’t get angry, if it isn’t everything you expected. Give for the joy of giving, nothing more nothing less. 

   
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  hardie karges 12:03 pm on February 10, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Dependent Origination ( 7 ), empathy, Hardie Karges ( 242 ), individualism, Marx ( 4 ), religion ( 158 ), society ( 5 ), sympathy ( 2 )   

  Buddhism, the Individual and Society 

  

  

  You see that other person over there? They’re flesh and blood, just like you. You don’t know what they’re going through, so please be kind; manifest your mind. This is one of the side benefits, one of the depth charges, if you will, of Buddhism, maybe not the most obvious, but just possibly the most powerful. That we are not in this world alone, that if we are created from the same causes and conditions, then we are essentially the same person, one person, indivisible, God optional, with liberty and justice for all.

  The simplest word to describe it is empathy, a shot better than sympathy, which implies that you are observing that one there and judging him, her, or it to be worth your while, or your pity, whereas empathy implies that you are literally putting yourself in that one’s shoes and therefore have a very clear feeling of what that feels like. The difference is murky, but I think that pretty well describes it, and while both may be valuable, empathy is more to the point that Buddhism takes care to make in the law of Dependent Origination: there is a process of which we are all part.

  I’m only taking that a step further: if we’re all a part of the same process, then we are all essentially One. So, what? What’s the big deal? Well, it IS a big deal when you realize that Western philosophy has done much the opposite, elevating individualism to primacy, while relegating society to secondary status, as if the family were the only true society and everyone else were simply actors on a stage or consumers in the marketplace. And this is the unspoken assumption of Marx, also, whose theories might actually work if society were one big family. But we’re not, not yet. Buddhism is a start in the right direction.