streaming consciousness…

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  hardie karges 2:18 am on March 15, 2026 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: balance, Buddhism ( 449 ), DEMOCRACY ( 11 ), Hardie Karges ( 260 ), language ( 158 ), meditation ( 210 ), Middle Path ( 56 ), salvation   

  Buddhism 101: It is all a question of balance…   

  

  This is one of the not-so-secret secrets of Buddhism and much the meaning of the sometimes meandering Middle Path. If not that, then what would the Middle Path mean? A shortcut to salvation? There may or may not be something like salvation, but there is definitely no shortcut. If anything, Buddhism is hard work. Yes, that’s right. Because that Middle Path may not always be straight and narrow, but that doesn’t mean that it’s easy. 

  Which is the usual connotation of the phrase ‘straight and narrow; that it’s goddawful boring and devoid of all sensory pleasure. And there’s some truth to that.  After all, who drinks lukewarm coffee? No one that I know. We drink it hot, or we drink it cold, ginger-laced decaf or double express, unapologetic and often judging it by those very extremities of flavor. No one gets excited by Folgers or Maxwell House, but macchiato always gets a grin and even chicory gets good mentions, even if the caffeine content is not significant. 

  But there is more than a matter of taste and tastes at stake here. This is a matter of discipline, and other issues such as kindness and compassion are directly affected. Because , isn’t it sometimes hard to be nice to people with extreme positions? I’m asking this in the year 2026. The answer is yes, of course. So, it sometimes comes as a surprise that the words ‘polite’ and ‘politics’ have more than some distant connection in ancient Rome. No, they’re intimately connected. And both connotations support the concept of a Middle path. We’ll get there eventually. So, let’s get there politely. This is also the key to democracy.  

   

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  hardie karges 4:22 am on November 28, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: anatta ( 22 ), Buddhism ( 449 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 162 ), dharma ( 35 ), enlightenment ( 15 ), Hardie Karges ( 260 ), Mahayana ( 47 ), nirvana ( 14 ), religion ( 165 ), salvation, skandha ( 2 ), Zen ( 31 )   

  Buddhist Enlightenment on the Installment Plan… 

  

  Don’t worry about salvation. That implies a soul to be saved. Enlightenment is plenty. Sabbe dhamma anatta. That means that all dharmas are without self, the word ‘dharma’ usually translated as ‘phenomena’ when plural, an innovation of the Abhidharma era. So this is a bit different from the original singular dharma, often translated as the ‘law’ or simply the eternal teachings, presumably sublime if not subtle, whether those of the Buddha or those from the Vedic Brahmanism which preceded him. What we call ‘Hinduism’ is what they call ‘Sanatan(a) dharma.’ Dhamma is the Pali form of the Sanskrit dharma, the language in which the earliest Buddhist teachings appear.

  But somewhere along the way the concept of salvation appears, and certainly after the time of Christ, they famous for that concept, though that does not necessarily imply causality. Because it also seems to come from a different place, far from the Buddhist birthplace of Buddhism in India, though they, too, with an all-encompassing and soulful atman, which is no doubt the source of the Buddha’s inspiration, in opposition to that concept. I first noticed salvation with my study of Zen, which could give it an origin in China or Japan, China certainly with significant Christian influence early on with the Silk Road Nestorians, though Japan had its own Christian influences later. Japanese Zen even somehow twists the non-self skandha ‘heaps’ of conditions of which we are all composed into an ersatz perfection from which we are all carved, very Christian Scientist.

  Go figure. But somehow, it’s all still Buddhism, even if the Mahayana ‘tradition’ went two vastly different directions from the center, Zen with its Dadaist koans and meditative trances, while Tibetan Vajrayana Mantrayana Tantrayana allows magic, mantras, and even sex, but most of all devotion, and karma, to influence that sacred path to Enlightenment. And enlightenment is the key concept here, for even if it lends itself to some juju and some woo-woo, it’s still likely preferable to the dubious concept of Nirvana, with its close connections to death, no matter how parinirvana your nirvana. Seems Kurt Cobain hit it on the head, after all. The concept of Nirvana seems to contradict the concept of the Middle Path, without much further discussion, as does the concept of bliss, since one extreme almost always leads to the other, while the center is the sweet spot of deliverance. That sweet spot is my Buddhism, all extremes avoided.