Buddhism’s Noble Truths: La Vie Est Magnifique, Sois Toi-Meme–NOT…
“Life is magnificent; be yourself.” These words are taken straight from a T-shirt, so hardly authoritative, but I don’t think any phrase could better demonstrate the differences between East and West, the West being something of a personality cult of ones own self, while the East—Buddhism, at least—denies the existence of a self entirely…
That doctrine of ‘no self’, anatta, translates to us most easily as ‘no ego’, something we are very familiar with, but in fact also refers to the idea of a transmigrating soul, or any permanent self, one that in Asian religious traditions is usually envisioned as forever returning, though a similarly permanent soul is envisioned in Western traditions on a one-way trip up there or down there… (More …)
davekingsbury 2:57 pm on September 11, 2017 Permalink |
As always you tread a distinctive personal path through the subject, bringing it sharply to life. A great contribution to the great and, as you say, urgent debate!
hardie karges 5:29 pm on September 11, 2017 Permalink |
Remember the old Chambers Brothers’ song ‘Time Has Come Today’ (don’t know if that one made it to the UK or not)? Tick tock tick tock…
davekingsbury 12:25 am on September 12, 2017 Permalink
Know it well … Now the time has come / There are things to realize … it behoves us all to go on thinking rather than just turning off and going with the flow – which is not to decry the meditative path!
hardie karges 6:35 pm on September 12, 2017 Permalink
🙂 No, thinking is not a ‘defilement’ in my Buddhism…
davekingsbury 1:08 am on September 13, 2017 Permalink
It is very evident through all your writings. 🙂