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  hardie karges 3:46 am on June 9, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 496 ), dialectic ( 15 ), dialogues, Hardie Karges ( 308 ), meditation ( 255 ), metaphysics ( 5 ), Middle Path, physics ( 13 ), Plato ( 17 ), religion ( 174 ), Socrates ( 3 )   

  Buddhism and the Middle Path with Feeling  

  

  The fact that there is always a middle position between two extremes is not Buddhist. That’s business: buy low, sell high or just split the difference and celebrate the art of the deal, haha. The fact that there is a path is Buddhist. The middle position between extremes is also fundamental to the Socratic dialogues and resulting Platonic dialectic. And this is very compatible with Buddhism, in which a thesis and corresponding antithesis result in a higher synthesis.  

  The path comes into play over the passage of time, as multiple compromises and corresponding dialectics form a pathway over time. This assumes that the accumulated decisions and compromises are of a similar nature, such that the path has meaning in and of itself and they are not a series of isolated incidents. Why is this significant? Because this is your life, by analogy, at least, a path through the wilderness.  

  And we are all searching for something, aren’t we, mostly happiness and fulfillment, in this life, the rewards for which are not always monetary nor measurable in any way? The human dimension is one of feeling, above and beyond all thought and language, all physics and metaphysics, all rhyme and reason. Because if something just doesn’t feel good and feel right, then it’s mostly worthless, at the end of the day. For all our pretenses and pretensions, we are still animals, after all, pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. 

   

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  hardie karges 4:03 am on May 26, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 496 ), dissatisfaction, dukkha ( 17 ), Existentialism, First Noble Truth ( 5 ), Google ( 2 ), Hardie Karges ( 308 ), India ( 15 ), language ( 200 ), meditation ( 255 ), Middle Path, mindfulness ( 38 ), nirvana ( 14 ), philosophy ( 119 ), rebirth ( 38 ), reincarnation ( 14 ), religion ( 174 ), Sanskrit ( 23 ), spirituality ( 27 ), stress ( 2 ), suffering ( 31 ), Virtual Reality ( 9 )   

  Buddhism 499: Sometimes Some Things Are Lost in Translation  

  

  Beware re-translations. The Buddha spoke a Sanskrit-related language. Sanskrit never went extinct. ‘Dukkha’ still means ‘suffering’, sorry. Many Western Buddhists try to manipulate the message, however slightly, to make it more appealing to Western tastes, but that says as much about Western tastes as it does about Buddhism. The issue in question, of course, is the First Noble Truth, which states something as innocuous—and obvious—as the fact that suffering exists, nothing more, nothing less, UNLESS: you want to make that jagged little pill a little easier for someone from Hoboken to swallow. 

  Because if the principle of suffering is important enough to list it first and foremost as the foundational principle of your new religion, then that’s easily hyperbolized into such platitudes as ‘Life is Suffering’, ‘All Life is Suffering’, and so on, which is understandable, but somewhat depressing for many Western tastes accustomed to fast food and Ferris Wheels (for those of us raised on Existentialism, it’s not such a problem). But the easiest way to mitigate that circumstance is to soften the edges of that term ‘suffering’ to make it sound more like ‘dissatisfaction’, ‘stress’ (ahem), ‘spot of bother’ (maybe ?), or my favorite: ‘bummer’, haha. 

  Okay, so I’m joking a little bit, but the modern notion of ‘stress’ was surely unknown in 5^th C. BCE India, so that’s a bit of a joke, also. But the effort at mitigation is certainly allowable under the Buddha’s own notion of ‘skillful means’, so it’s just a question of what’s appropriate. Bottom line: dukkha means ‘suffering’ as surely today as it did 2500 years ago, as a quick trip to Google Translate will quickly prove (yes, they have Sanskrit). The problem is that many Westerners see life as something ‘fun fun fun’ and so actually want rebirth or reincarnation (if not eternal life), while many traditional Easterners downplay any attachment to this cosmic play of samsara, while seeking release in Nirvana. 

  What to do? Nothing, really, because Buddhism should not be concerned with gaining adherents or scoring points, but merely offering some solace and refuge for those who need such. The world is what it is, and you’re probably going to die, regardless of any and all medical advances (though Virtual Reality is a remote possibility). Therefore, even the best scientific advances can only be limited in scope, and satisfaction with those limits is much better than trashing ourselves and/or the planet in frustration. As always, the middle path offers a practical solution: enjoy life, but don’t get too attached to the wheel. Accept some limits without total submission to them. Persevere. The middle path is long and winding.
   
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  hardie karges 3:09 am on April 28, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ahimsa ( 7 ), Dalai Lama ( 13 ), Eightfold Path ( 18 ), empathy ( 6 ), Four Noble Truths ( 19 ), Hardie Karges ( 308 ), Hippocratic Oath ( 3 ), karma ( 53 ), meditation ( 255 ), Middle Path, sympathy ( 3 )   

  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 4:34 am on September 1, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Bentham, Buddhism ( 496 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 164 ), conciliation ( 3 ), Hardie Karges ( 308 ), Middle Path, Mills, pragmatism, religion ( 174 ), skillfuil means ( 2 )   

  The Skillful Means of Buddhism  

  

  Buddhism wants you to accept and adapt to your circumstances. Christianity wants you to change them. Let’s split the difference and call it good, an ever-evolving Middle Path, in which we are neither totally renunciative nor totally aggressive, but rather capable of both, or either, depending on what the situation calls for. But that doesn’t mean that the ethics or morals change with the situation, only that the path forward can, or might, change in such a way as to benefit the greatest number. 

  Because pragmatic concerns always weigh heavily in the considerations of possible paths forward, i.e. the greatest good for the greatest number. Bentham and Mills didn’t invent such concepts in 19^th century Britain. They only systematized them for intellectual consideration. But the Buddha was way ahead of them with his use of ‘skillful means’ to settle disputes and move arguments forward. It’s very simple: you lean toward the best possibility for conciliation, while de-emphasizing potential conflicts. Points of contention can be worked out later, if indeed they still exist.  

  Still the path is there for traveling, even if it revolves around a familiar center. Nothing stands still, not in this universe of constant motion. Silence doesn’t always imply stillness. That is a luxury. Thus, we can both adapt to our circumstances AND change them, and without confrontation when we use skillful means to ease the path forward. Confrontation is to be avoided at all costs while conciliation is to be encouraged. That is the gospel—of Buddhism, and nothing is more important. 

   
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  hardie karges 5:22 am on August 25, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: anatta ( 23 ), Buddhism ( 496 ), center ( 2 ), Hardie Karges ( 308 ), meditation ( 255 ), Middle Path, samsara ( 13 ), shunya ( 13 ), zero ( 14 )   

  Shunyata: Emptiness at the Center of Buddhism  

  

  Shunyata is famous as the Emptiness factor of Buddhism. But that zero, shunya, also defines a center. And so that same word, or some variation of it, forms the word or concept of centrality in many Southeast Asian languages, where it first arose. Thus, it refines the concept of the Middle Path in the same way that it refines the concept of anatta or ‘non-self.’ Now we can see that not only is there no permanent enduring self to worship or obey throughout eternity, but there is no permanent enduring anything to worship or obey throughout eternity.  

  In the same way we can see that not only is there a Middle Path that defines our passage through life, but there is also a center that we can keep coming back to, if we want, or revolve around, if we must, lest we lose our bearings in the passages of time and space. Because that Middle Path can be meandering, as we’ve already seen, but a center is more fixed, by definition, even if it is following a path in 3-D space. It is still fixed in relation to its surroundings. And so is a center.  

  So, I think that it’s possible to postulate and adhere to a Central Point of Buddhism in the same way that we follow a Middle Path. Nothing has changed except the precision of the definition, as with anatta. Thus, we should always ‘stay centered’ in the same way that we should avoid extremes in following a Middle Path. If this seems trite, trivial, and even somewhat torturous to accept, then I suggest otherwise. Because if that concept of samsara was originally a ‘wandering’ which soon became synonymous with ‘the world,’ then at some point we must settle down and find our center. 

   
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  hardie karges 5:22 am on July 8, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: antithesis ( 2 ), Buddhism ( 496 ), dialectic ( 15 ), Hardie Karges ( 308 ), Hegel ( 6 ), Mahayana ( 49 ), meditation ( 255 ), Middle Path, Pure Lands, synthesis ( 2 ), Theravada ( 55 ), thesis ( 2 ), Vajrayana ( 24 )   

  The Buddhist Middle Path and Historical Dialectic    

  

  I advise the aggressive to be meeker, the meek to be braver, the brave to be patient, and the patient to be aggressive, full circle. See what I did there? The Middle Path is not necessarily a straight line to fulfillment, with predictable outcomes and guaranteed repayment options. So, the Middle Path is a circle? Haha, no, not really, or only metaphorically. The Middle Path is a zigzag dialectic, from extreme to extreme, which theoretically should grow less and less extreme as entropy kicks in and the pendulum swings with less vigor now than the initial first few thrusts AND more centrality… 

  I consider the Buddha’s Middle Path to be an early precursor to what took final fruit as Hegelian dialectic, in which a Thesis is challenged by an opposing Antithesis, which then resolves into a higher and finer Synthesis—which then becomes the new thesis, and the process goes on through time. Thus an inert Middle Path becomes a dynamic Middle Path, and the whole process becomes alive. And if you’re chuckling right now and thinking that the Buddha couldn’t possibly have intended all that, then you’re probably right but that doesn’t mean that it’s wrong… 

  And I offer the history of Buddhism itself as proof: if the narrow renunciation and discipline-based practice of the early Theravada practitioners is the original Thesis, then the later florescence of the much larger and broader-based Mahayana school, with their transcendent Buddha and Pure Lands would be the antithesis. But if the higher synthesis would then be the mystical magical Vajrayana school, its antithesis as the new synthesis has yet to claim that title, so that may be premature. It IS a very popular school, though, even for ex-Christian Westerners, so time will tell. Things take time.

   
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  hardie karges 4:09 am on June 24, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 496 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 164 ), Hardie Karges ( 308 ), language ( 200 ), love ( 49 ), meditation ( 255 ), metta ( 25 ), Middle Path, passion ( 9 ), suffering ( 31 ), Virtual Reality ( 9 )   

  Buddhism, Love, and the Middle Path to Survival  

  

  Europeans and Americans live to fall in love, and many other countries and languages aren’t much better. Live to fall, wow! In the Thai language the equivalent expression would be to get ‘lost in love,’ not much different. But Buddhist metta is better than that, all the best parts of love and none of the bad, friendship mostly. You can be kind and still be balanced. But this is a hard lesson to teach, because we’re hooked on passion like junkies on the hard stuff, and there’s not too much that we can do about it, even if we wanted to. Or can we? Of course, we can. And it’s no accident that the original meaning of the word ‘passion’ is ‘suffering,’ just like that for which Buddhism is so famous. 

  It’s just that at some point we started to like all that excess emotion, just like we began to ‘love our lives,’ while Eastern ascetics continued to renounce the pleasures of flesh and fish, just as they continue to do to this very day. I suppose that the Western attitude is that if we try hard enough, we just might create that eternal life that Jesus promised us all along. Does Virtual Reality count? It might have to, if we’re serious about that as our goal…or, maybe we could just train our minds and tame our desires to a more acceptable level that allows for plenty of free time and a healthy dose of creativity, also. 

  Bingo, the Middle Path is always the solution, not passivity nor stress tests, just good honest old-fashioned hard work, complete with rationality, such that extremes of thought and opinion are rejected in favor of more conciliatory positions. In other words, you might gain less than the wildest stock option, but in return, you are also likely to lose less if your risks fall short of the mark. But that’s more than a conservative business portfolio decision. That’s a principle of life: make steady gains going forward, with always the option to change direction with any new information that accompanies the passage of time. That’s the Buddhist Middle Path. We’re playing for keeps here. 

   
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  hardie karges 3:53 am on June 17, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Al Capone, Better Call Saul, Buddhism ( 496 ), Hardie Karges ( 308 ), Mao Zedong, meditation ( 255 ), Middle Path, philosophy ( 119 ), religion ( 174 ), Xi Jinping ( 2 )   

  Don’t Mistake Buddhism’s Kindness for Weakness  

  

  Don’t mistake kindness for weakness. Because kindness comes from a place of strength, and weakness is a point of no return. And if that first statement is first attested from Al Capone, and first noticed by me on ‘Better Call Saul,’ well, that does nothing to diminish its importance. Because truth is truth and meanings are important. And kindness is arguably the trademark of Buddhism, in which aggression is foregone in favor of forbearance, and there are those who would love to take advantage of that situation. But that is one of the conundrums of civilization, is it not?  

  Not only that the things we love most are at the mercy of the things we love least, but that somehow the good guys must rise to the top and maintain love, peace and happiness—at the barrel of a gun. So, the obvious solution is that the peace lovers and freedom fighters must rule by smarts and not bullets. Is that possible? Or is there another way? There probably is, but must that be by means of a society so tightly controlled that there is little or no freedom of movement in the process? Xi Jinping cracks a smile, while Mao Zedong takes it all in style. 

  Wouldn’t it be nice if people simply had no desire to harm others, rather than having the means to do so expressly forbidden to them by law? It sounds like a paradise, but it’s not impossible. It involves more than simply keeping people’s bellies full, though. People need some sort of psychological satisfaction, also. That’s where religion and philosophy come in, where patriotism leaves off and before egotism takes over. Somehow people need to feel that everything is right with the world, beyond their nutritional and social requirements, and monetary requirements, too. But how is that best accomplished? That’s why we’re here. The Middle Path never quits, but it does take some time. Persevere. 

   
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  hardie karges 7:15 am on March 3, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: CHRISTIANITY ( 164 ), Eightfold Path ( 18 ), Four Noble Truths ( 19 ), Hardie Karges ( 308 ), karma ( 53 ), language ( 200 ), Middle Path, rishi ( 7 ), Sanskrit ( 23 ), Ten Commandments ( 6 )   

  Buddhist Karma and the Middle Path to Salvation   

  

  

  You want good karma? Help a beggar to eat. That’s good karma. Because karma literally means ‘acts’ or ‘actions’, though it is often used almost synonymously with the English word ‘fate,’ as though it were all about some sort of predestination. But no, that’s a derivative meaning which may or may not always apply. The most important thing is right actions, or samma kammanta, as specified in the Eightfold Path that concludes the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. 

  And that’s the important thing, to perform good acts, the other steps along the path, not unlike the Ten Commandments of Christianity, including right speech, right livelihood, and, of course, the basics: do not kill, do not steal, and for god’s sake don’t mess with your neighbor’s partner! Is nothing sacred? And if the Christians like to phrase that as ‘thou shalt not covet,’ then the Sanskrit is not so much different. They’re related languages and people, after all, and the Buddha puts ‘craving’ up there as the main cause of suffering. 

  But where East and West might truly differ, though, is in the speed and willingness to act. Because if we in the West see our active ‘go go go’ lifestyles as a normal and predictable outcome of our sojourn upon this planet, I can assure you that not everyone sees life and the world that way, least of all the rishis for which India is so famous, not to mention the pandits, gurus, swamis, and acharyas. And so, there’s a hidden message for them here also: Do something! After all, you can’t sit in a cave all your life, can you? Can you? 

  Frank King is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Frank King 11:56 am on March 4, 2023 Permalink | Reply

    Hmmm. Interesting. I have an entirely different take on Karma: https://wp.me/p2wzRb-R

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  hardie karges 11:34 am on February 18, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: awakening, change ( 7 ), craving ( 16 ), desire ( 4 ), enlightenment ( 15 ), Hardie Karges ( 308 ), lovingkindness ( 16 ), metta ( 25 ), Middle Path   

  Buddhism 101: Metta and Karuna, Love and Compassion 

  

  

  When your burdens become blessings and your hatred becomes love, then you are truly enlightened. And ‘enlightened’ may be a loaded term, filled with false promises and moronic miscalculations, but still it is frequently found. So, I use it, as do many others. Is the Buddha’s ‘awakening’ really any more accurate than to refer to his ‘enlightenment?’ I suppose that ‘awakening’ sounds self-motivated, while ‘enlightenment’ sounds as if a light is being switched on somewhere, but that might only be a difference more apparent than actual…

  But the point is to make some adjustments to your current internal conditions, rather than insisting on changing something else, or someone else, to suit your requirements, which are likely nothing of the sort, but instead desires and cravings and itches wanting scratching, for lack of a better metaphor. And as always, I take the middle position, or path if you prefer, that sweet spot between naked aggression, on the one hand, and passive submission, on the other, such that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, and the apparent compromise is in fact a fresh and superior synthesis. We should be open to change, not scared of it.

  But love is not as tricky as it seems, requiring flowers in February, ribbons and bows in December, and God help you if you forget the anniversary, not to be confused with the birthday in another Indo-European language. It’s confusing. But Buddhist love is not. ‘Lovingkindness’ is a Hebrew loanword via Christianity, but metta simply means brotherhood, or sisterhood, as the case may be, universal in its scope and nature, with passion distinctly optional. After all, passion originally meant suffering, and that is the starting point for Buddhism, but not the final word, which is always metta. Most important is to forego all hate…