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  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 2:28 am on May 24, 2026 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , proposition, syllogism,   

    It doesn’t matter what language the Buddha spoke… 

    Dharma is the same in any language. It only matters that you speak the truth, as best you know it. Because there is more than one kind of truth, and intent is primary. On the one hand there is mere propositional truth, in which a statement is either true or false based on the definitions inherent to the observable facts. On the other hand, there are opinions which may be subject to interpretation. Whether something is red or not can generally be agreed upon quite easily, subject to shifting shades and tones. 

    But whether the weather is cold or not might be heavily determined by what you are accustomed to. Then there is the kind of truth that relies on deep contemplation. This is the kind of truth—and thought—that philosophers like the Buddha specialized in. And here extra care is necessary. Because this kind of thought was largely pre-scientific and so avoided much of the rigor that scientific thought was subject to, albeit often only in the final testing. 

    Because deep thought is still invaluable in the conceptual phase of scientific thought, as Einstein himself recounts when remembering some of his happiest moments. But their truth can only be ascertained by thorough testing, which Plato’s Allegory of the Cave will never be subjected to, nor will Buddha’s Four Noble Truths. Because this is a different kind of truth, not a truth of the agreement of propositions in a logical syllogism. Thus, these are largely subjective truths which can only be agreed upon by consent or inspiration. And these may be the best kind of truths, because they become personal and must be assimilated. 

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 5:34 am on December 2, 2018 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Boy Scouts, , , , , , , , , , , , syllogism, ,   

    Boy Scouts: be prepared. Buddhists: not so fast… 

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    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 …)

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 6:36 am on September 2, 2018 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , syllogism, ,   

    Buddhist Dilemma: Is Inner Peace Possible in the Era of Donald Trump? 

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    The Golden Spires of Shwedagon Pagoda

    Americans are frightened. People are scared. They read about things like this in books, but never dreamed that they would have to live through it: the American Civil War, the French Revolution, the Boxer Rebellion, The War of Spanish succession, Genghis Khan, the Persian Wars, Adolf Hitler, the Aryan invasion, Rape of Nanking, 100 years War, Josef Stalin, the American Genocide, the Mexican War, Chaco War, World War I, Opium Wars, Crimean War, Vietnam, wars of the world and genocides in general…

    But the American civil war was not really a civil war, as many historians have pointed out, but rather a War between the states, with many unwilling participants on each side of arbitrary lines. What is happening now is the true civil war, an internal conflict not only within societies, but within people’s own minds, as to what is right and what is fair, what is appropriate, and whether there will be violence, whether there will be casualties, and whether there will even be any affordable healthcare to mitigate the circumstances… (More …)

     
    • Dave Kingsbury's avatar

      Dave Kingsbury 9:41 am on September 4, 2018 Permalink | Reply

      A timely and thought-provoking piece. Our small world is impossible to escape, nor should we try. The middle path becomes a touchstone. Thanks for posting, Hardie.

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