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hardie karges 7:31 am on April 18, 2019 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Buddhism ( 465 ), craving ( 16 ), emotion ( 6 ), religion

Fear and Awe, Recipes and Sutras…
Half of all religion is based on fear, fear of dying and fear of flying, fear of failure and fear of success. The other half is based on awe, whether awful or awesome, it really doesn’t matter to an emotion junkie, a feelings philanderer, ready to take a lashing for passion and come back for more, sight unseen. Because that’s half the rush, the adrenaline rush, that quest for novelty and the thrill of victory, over trivial obstacles and deliberate roadblocks, fear of the unknown conquered by insatiable thirst. But that’s a recipe for disaster, the craving for conditions with no concern for the consequences. Surely there must be a better way, a happy Buddhist medium between the extremes of delight or despair. Just curious: If I forgo the laughter, can I forgo the tears? Asking for a friend…
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hardie karges 5:07 am on March 1, 2019 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Buddhism ( 465 ), politics ( 32 ), religion

Making Do in Trumplandia: Religion and Politics…
Build bridges not walls, trust not fear, paths without obstacles, hope not despair. And that’s usually seen as the job of politics, economics and policy decisions, creating a more just and better world, usually by creating more money, by creating constant growth, assuming that there are no limits, and planning accordingly, as if oil flows from the ground without end, as if resources are infinite, as if populations can multiply indefinitely with no repercussions. But it doesn’t always work out that way. The obstacles are many and the heroes are few. Sometimes there is simply nothing that you can do; or at least it seems that way. Then philosophy takes over from politics, and religion grows wings. We count our blessings, not our money, and expect nothing from others. Because when the world seems like a cruel place, sometimes the only thing we can do is to change our relation to it; expect less and appreciate more. My neo-Buddhist attitude is pretty simple: If you can’t change the world, then change the narrative…
hardie karges 4:10 am on January 13, 2019 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Buddha ( 49 ), Buddhism ( 465 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 163 ), Donald Trump ( 29 ), ICE, intent ( 3 ), ISRAEL ( 6 ), karma ( 52 ), morality ( 5 ), politics ( 32 ), religion

Buddhism and Donald Trump, Criminal Intent and Modern Justice
Intent is the elephant in the courtroom of modern justice, beyond forensics and beyond genetics, the need to know what someone was thinking and why they thought it, at such-and-such a time and such-and-such a place. But isn’t this a system doomed to failure? And is it really necessary? Only we European-derived Westerners could invent a term like schadenfreude, delight in the misfortune of others, not so much the passive enjoyment of something such so strange, but that we do it so often that we have a name for it…

But that is indeed the case, that we are so obsessed with our feelings that our whole system of justice is based upon it, such that if someone is supposedly repentant, then that counts in his favor, whereas without it he is doomed to longer incarceration, as if we could really know the difference, so to make ourselves feel good we reward the best actors, and maybe the most honest are doomed to perdition… (More …)
hardie karges 7:22 am on December 28, 2018 Permalink | Reply
Tags: America ( 59 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 163 ), Christmas ( 11 ), dana ( 8 ), philosophy ( 113 ), religion, Saturnalia, sila

Putting the Buddha back in Christmas, and the Rebirth back in New Year…

Kwan Yin Fest near Chiang Dao, Thailand

So I’ve made a big deal, for myself at least, over the fact that, at least in my mind, we as humans, and as Buddhists, or whatever, don’t really have to do anything to be upright moral citizens of this world and this civilization. As long as we don’t do any bad things, then all should be well, for each of us, morally and ethically and spiritually. It is no one’s place and position to prescribe the behavior of others, so long as they are doing nothing wrong and causing no one any harm…

Then there’s Christmas, the Big Deal for Christians worldwide, with much spillover into other countries, especially those which have significant consumer cultures. But that’s not really what it’s all about, not for those who really ‘get it’, i.e. get the fact that it’s all really about what you give, not what you get. So what you get, hopefully, is the satisfaction of making other people happy… (More …)
hardie karges 6:38 am on December 16, 2018 Permalink | Reply
Tags: ARAB ( 4 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 163 ), citta ( 2 ), compassion ( 14 ), friendship ( 4 ), Jared Diamond ( 3 ), karuna ( 9 ), Khmer, lovingkindness ( 16 ), metta ( 25 ), Pali ( 21 ), philosophy ( 113 ), racism ( 10 ), religion, THAI ( 5 )

Buddhism 101: Metta means Friendship, Karuna means Compassion…
You’ve got something pretty special when you put friendship and compassion together, and something pretty simple. Even people who profess to believe in nothing, and categorically reject use of that word ‘belief’ can surely believe in friendship and compassion. And friendship, universal friendship, is a very important concept, easy to forget in our day and time that at some time in the not-so-distant past anyone who was not part of the family was suspect and an object of great fear and suspicion…

One of my favorite stories, recounted many times, is by Jared Diamond of ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’ fame who related that while doing anthropological fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, when two strangers would meet each other, they’d count back to see if they had a mutual relative, so that they wouldn’t have to kill each other, or die trying… (More …)

hardie karges and Dave Kingsbury are discussing. Toggle Comments
- Dave Kingsbury 4:28 pm on December 21, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  
  Informative survey with a convincing historical explanation for fellow-feeling, if that phrase fits. It all builds nicely to your final thoughts where you suggest how experience of different cultures can develop the facility. It’s an important corrective to the divisions – silos, bunkers, echo chambers, whatever – of the modern era.
- hardie karges 4:45 pm on December 21, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  
  Thanks, Dave! Merry Christmas from Cambodia…
hardie karges 6:50 am on December 9, 2018 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Alpha male ( 9 ), cancer ( 2 ), enlightenment ( 15 ), human zoo, kilesha ( 12 ), philosophy ( 113 ), religion, testosterone ( 2 ), type A, wilderness ( 2 )

Buddhism, taming the wild beast within…
Buddhism in Sri Lanka

The zoo is one of my favorite analogies and metaphor for the human species, such that we tame ourselves and our worst impulses, in order to make of ourselves one great human zoo, a petting zoo, properly fed and cared for, so that the need to compete and the struggles with predators should be reduced to little or nothing…

I know for a fact that two unrelated mammal species raised together from infancy can easily learn to accept each other for the mutual benefit of all, so cats’ and dogs’ need to fight is only learned behavior. Even in the savannas of Africa, at least in the protected areas, many if not most species have symbiotic relationships, such that none are subject to the regular predations of any one specific species–except man. So we are the main problem of violence on this planet, as much or more than any lions, tigers or bears… (More …)

hardie karges and Dave Kingsbury are discussing. Toggle Comments
- Dave Kingsbury 4:29 pm on December 12, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  
  Your own experience here shows the power of adaptability we human beings have, though it can’t exactly have been plain sailing for you. Pride of ego has a lot to answer for, indeed, including our imagined superiority over the rest of life. A phrase I have particular problems with is ‘dog eats dog’. Mostly, they don’t …
- hardie karges 9:03 pm on December 12, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  
  Yes, I’m particularly struck by how young our civilization is, barely 10K years, and we’re at each others’ throats most of the time. As space becomes scarce, it’s really time for a new paradigm, which is fairly easy to imagine, really. The hard part is getting people to accept it!
hardie karges 5:34 am on December 2, 2018 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Boolean logic ( 4 ), Boy Scouts, consciousness ( 29 ), JESUS ( 21 ), kilesha ( 12 ), logic ( 14 ), Middle Path ( 57 ), mindfulness ( 37 ), philosophy ( 113 ), reification ( 4 ), religion, samadhi ( 14 ), sati ( 19 ), syllogism ( 2 ), Thailand ( 76 ), Thich Nhat Hanh ( 8 )

Boy Scouts: be prepared. Buddhists: not so fast…
The Golden Spires of Shwedagon Pagoda

This is one of the problems I have with Buddhism, the whole ‘no-thought’ paradigm, that always seems to find currency, notwithstanding the fact that the Buddha never said anything like that, not to my knowledge, anyway, and the term sati, which has taken on the meaning of ‘mindfulness’, probably had no such lofty connotations at the time, the problem now being one of vagueness, if not deliberate obfuscation, in order to inspire awe and reverence, apparently, as if it is untranslatable to the ordinary mortal…

But it certainly is a common ordinary word in modern standard Thai, something like simple ‘consciousness’ or ‘mind’, so ‘mindfulness’ is a marketing hook to sell a fad to the West, that special sauce and some righteous hocus pocus, such that the makers of the film ‘Samadhi’ have to explain that the term is untranslatable to English, notwithstanding the fact that it is done all the time outside the rarefied circles of New Age fad religions… (More …)
hardie karges 4:07 am on November 25, 2018 Permalink | Reply
Tags: bodhisattva ( 10 ), Donald Trump ( 29 ), enlightenment ( 15 ), moksha, nibbana, nirvana ( 14 ), philoosophy, religion, satori

Buddhist Enlightenment is Hard Work; Saving the Planet is even Harder…
Kwan Yin (Kuan Im), Sino-Thai Bodhisattva

I don’t think too much about Nirvana or satori, Nibbana or moksha or any of the other Promised Lands of Buddhism, simply because they seem to refer to another sphere or another dimension or another life which I have little interest in, when the problems of this life should be plenty to keep us busy for the foreseeable future…

Because the hate and anger must stop here, grounded and defused and refused re-entry into the society of minds and hearts of men, egos run wild with apparent abandon and artificial stimulation. Enlightenment is probably not even about bliss at all. It’s probably hard work, suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and true suffering, inflicted by the whims and wills of men with minds conditioned to inflict cruelty… (More …)

Dave Kingsbury, hardie karges, and Alex are discussing. Toggle Comments
- Alex 12:55 am on November 26, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  
  I think Buddhists can have a very important place in commenting on politics as Buddhists – just needs to be done in a Buddhist way; from a place of loving kindness
  - hardie karges 1:11 am on November 26, 2018 Permalink | Reply
    
    Maybe. But that’s a subject of much debate. And there are risks. Thanks for your comments.
    - Alex 1:15 am on November 26, 2018 Permalink
      
      There are risks to any actions as none are neutral, but I think we should still try. In a time of much hate and anger, we have a chance to try and change the tone 🙂
    - hardie karges 10:35 pm on November 26, 2018 Permalink
      
      We definitely should try to change the tone, no question about that, samma ditthi, samma vaca, etc…
- Dave Kingsbury 5:02 pm on November 26, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  
  As always, Hardie, you achieve an unflinching PoV which seeks to include rather than avoid and employs common sense in a very down-to-earth way. Hard work that pays off, I’d say. And as you say, ‘Enlightenment is probably not even about bliss at all.’ Realism, perhaps?
  - hardie karges 10:30 pm on November 26, 2018 Permalink | Reply
    
    Thx, Dave. Theravada enlightenment may be about bliss, but not the Mahayana version, I’d say, gotta’ improve the status of others, also. Thanks for your comments…
    - Dave Kingsbury 1:52 am on November 27, 2018 Permalink
      
      My pleasure – no man is an island, to use John Donne’s words …
    - hardie karges 3:57 am on November 27, 2018 Permalink
      
      Indeed, haha… (guess I forgot to attribute the Shakespeare quote in my own post, or even put quotation marks, oops!)…
    - Dave Kingsbury 7:30 am on November 27, 2018 Permalink
      
      That Hamlet soliloquy is as good a summary of life/death as one might hope for.
hardie karges 5:26 pm on November 4, 2018 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Bolsonaro, Congress, Democratic Party ( 5 ), Donald Trump ( 29 ), Duterte, elections ( 2 ), fascist, Hinduism ( 29 ), India ( 15 ), Muslim ( 2 ), Pattani, philosophy ( 113 ), Putin ( 3 ), religion, renunciation ( 15 ), Republican ( 6 ), sangha ( 13 ), Siam, Thailand ( 76 ), USA ( 18 ), Xi Jinping ( 2 )

Buddhist Holy War? Consider the possibilities…
No, I’m not talking about fighting the mean nasty ugly Muslims that fundamentalist Buddhists are supposed to hate because they supposedly ‘destroyed Buddhism in India’ with their medieval invasion, from which Buddhism never quite recovered. But I notice that ‘Hinduism’ recovered, though, hint hint, exposing this as false narrative. It seems that India is not big enough for both, especially when Hinduism is quite happy to include Buddhism under its larger umbrella, making and marketing itself as something of a national religion, if and when it is one, at all…

And no, I’m not talking about the situation in southern Thailand, in which ethnic Malay nationalists in three southern provinces, who just so happen to be Muslim, have fought for years to win back the independence that was taken from them in 1785 with Siam’s annexation of Pattani. Ironically this was only made official in Siam’s treaty with the UK in 1909, in which as much or more territory was simply transferred to UK ownership for the promise that they would recognize Siam’s sovereignty over the rest (and no more, demands, pretty please!)… (More …)

hardie karges, Dave Kingsbury, and RemedialEthics are discussing. Toggle Comments
- RemedialEthics 2:16 am on November 5, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  
  As always, your posts appear when I am desperate for evidence that there is a larger world of perspective beyond the narrow, paranoid, and increasingly violent belief system that has a firm grip on America. I stumbled into your blog while Googling the mileage from my home in the AZ desert to the nearest border town of Sasabe. I don’t remember if I ever found the answer to my mileage query, I just decided it’s about 30 miles (maybe) and that is fine because I also don’t recall why I needed to know in the first place. That is exactly what makes the internet great. It is not about being able to find the answers you need in 0.03 seconds, it is about finding the answers you didn’t know you needed. Thank you for caring about the well-being of your countrymen even though you are not in country. I realize how easy it would be to immerse yourself in the arguably more enlightened culture where you are and look away from the ugly reality that has swallowed up your homeland, but your blogs offer a clean, refreshing perspective shift that is just enough to keep the nihilism at bay for a little bit longer. Think of it as charity to those of us who are stuck here and starving for insight from outside the battle zone. Please don’t wash your hands of us just yet.
  - hardie karges 2:27 am on November 5, 2018 Permalink | Reply
    
    Wow! Thanks! That just might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me (and I know where Sasabe is, too, nice drive, even crossed the border there once), thanks again…
- Dave Kingsbury 5:22 pm on November 11, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  
  Yes, agree with RemedialEthics, your wider world perspective shines a bright light on parochial problems. We have a few of our own this side of the Pond but I came up with this the day after your Midterms and thought it might add a few more light protons … https://davekingsbury.wordpress.com/2018/11/07/halfway-there-a-story-in-100-words/
  - hardie karges 5:54 pm on November 11, 2018 Permalink | Reply
    
    Thx, Dave, will read…
hardie karges 4:53 am on October 7, 2018 Permalink | Reply
Tags: dharma ( 36 ), Donald Trump ( 29 ), GOD ( 24 ), Hinayana ( 7 ), kilesha ( 12 ), Mahayana ( 48 ), nirvana ( 14 ), politics ( 32 ), religion, Theravada ( 53 )

Buddhism and Trump, Religion and Politics…
It’s easy to bemoan my fate as having no choice but to be a citizen of the same country that Donald F. Trump presides over, even if not currently resident, but bemoan even more the fact that he seems to have hijacked my mental process, so that it seems that I am almost totally incapable of thinking about anything else, except how to get this over-stuffed individual out of my life and out of my mind and hopefully even out of my country so that one day I might go back there if circumstances so warrant it…

I mean: wouldn’t I really rather be spending my time, and precious brain cells, discussing subtle points of dharma, rather than gross points of politics? Of course, though, the argument could be made that I wouldn’t even be a Buddhist if the presence of Donald Trump in his original rise in the political polls hadn’t inspired me to it, for whatever reason, as the two events were nearly simultaneous. For, like the reductios ad absurdum that Mahayana Buddhists once used to disprove the intrinsic existence of ‘stuff’, so I can define myself in opposition to a known quantity… (More …)

hardie karges and Dave Kingsbury are discussing. Toggle Comments
- Dave Kingsbury 4:11 pm on October 8, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  
  … we are the God species, like it or not, holding the keys to survival in the palm of one hand, while the other hand plays with its iPhone… great line, Hardie, in a piece that goes head on and wins through to something very helpful and worthwhile!
- hardie karges 5:20 am on October 9, 2018 Permalink | Reply
  
  Thanks Dave. I swear I did not know previously of the book of the same title AND on a similar subject. I do now, haha…

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Tagged: religion Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

hardie karges 7:31 am on April 18, 2019 Permalink | Reply Tags: Buddhism ( 465 ), craving ( 16 ), emotion ( 6 ), religion

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hardie karges 5:07 am on March 1, 2019 Permalink | Reply Tags: Buddhism ( 465 ), politics ( 32 ), religion

hardie karges 4:10 am on January 13, 2019 Permalink | Reply Tags: Buddha ( 49 ), Buddhism ( 465 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 163 ), Donald Trump ( 29 ), ICE, intent ( 3 ), ISRAEL ( 6 ), karma ( 52 ), morality ( 5 ), politics ( 32 ), religion

hardie karges 7:22 am on December 28, 2018 Permalink | Reply Tags: America ( 59 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 163 ), Christmas ( 11 ), dana ( 8 ), philosophy ( 113 ), religion, Saturnalia, sila

hardie karges 6:38 am on December 16, 2018 Permalink | Reply Tags: ARAB ( 4 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 163 ), citta ( 2 ), compassion ( 14 ), friendship ( 4 ), Jared Diamond ( 3 ), karuna ( 9 ), Khmer, lovingkindness ( 16 ), metta ( 25 ), Pali ( 21 ), philosophy ( 113 ), racism ( 10 ), religion, THAI ( 5 )

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hardie karges 6:50 am on December 9, 2018 Permalink | Reply Tags: Alpha male ( 9 ), cancer ( 2 ), enlightenment ( 15 ), human zoo, kilesha ( 12 ), philosophy ( 113 ), religion, testosterone ( 2 ), type A, wilderness ( 2 )

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hardie karges 4:07 am on November 25, 2018 Permalink | Reply Tags: bodhisattva ( 10 ), Donald Trump ( 29 ), enlightenment ( 15 ), moksha, nibbana, nirvana ( 14 ), philoosophy, religion, satori

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hardie karges 4:53 am on October 7, 2018 Permalink | Reply Tags: dharma ( 36 ), Donald Trump ( 29 ), GOD ( 24 ), Hinayana ( 7 ), kilesha ( 12 ), Mahayana ( 48 ), nirvana ( 14 ), politics ( 32 ), religion, Theravada ( 53 )

Dave Kingsbury 4:11 pm on October 8, 2018 Permalink | Reply

hardie karges 5:20 am on October 9, 2018 Permalink | Reply

hardie karges 7:31 am on April 18, 2019 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Buddhism ( 465 ), craving ( 16 ), emotion ( 6 ), religion

hardie karges 5:07 am on March 1, 2019 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Buddhism ( 465 ), politics ( 32 ), religion

hardie karges 4:10 am on January 13, 2019 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Buddha ( 49 ), Buddhism ( 465 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 163 ), Donald Trump ( 29 ), ICE, intent ( 3 ), ISRAEL ( 6 ), karma ( 52 ), morality ( 5 ), politics ( 32 ), religion

hardie karges 7:22 am on December 28, 2018 Permalink | Reply
Tags: America ( 59 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 163 ), Christmas ( 11 ), dana ( 8 ), philosophy ( 113 ), religion, Saturnalia, sila

hardie karges 6:38 am on December 16, 2018 Permalink | Reply
Tags: ARAB ( 4 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 163 ), citta ( 2 ), compassion ( 14 ), friendship ( 4 ), Jared Diamond ( 3 ), karuna ( 9 ), Khmer, lovingkindness ( 16 ), metta ( 25 ), Pali ( 21 ), philosophy ( 113 ), racism ( 10 ), religion, THAI ( 5 )

hardie karges 6:50 am on December 9, 2018 Permalink | Reply
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hardie karges 4:07 am on November 25, 2018 Permalink | Reply
Tags: bodhisattva ( 10 ), Donald Trump ( 29 ), enlightenment ( 15 ), moksha, nibbana, nirvana ( 14 ), philoosophy, religion, satori

hardie karges 4:53 am on October 7, 2018 Permalink | Reply
Tags: dharma ( 36 ), Donald Trump ( 29 ), GOD ( 24 ), Hinayana ( 7 ), kilesha ( 12 ), Mahayana ( 48 ), nirvana ( 14 ), politics ( 32 ), religion, Theravada ( 53 )