Search found 30 matches
- Fri Oct 19, 2012 11:28 am
- Forum: Dharma Stories
- Topic: A few favourite short quotes.
- Replies: 13
- Views: 5831
Re: A few favourite short quotes.
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and eld...
- Fri Oct 19, 2012 11:10 am
- Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
- Topic: Why is right right and wrong wrong?
- Replies: 64
- Views: 12759
Re: Why is right right and wrong wrong?
I think it was Lao Tzu who said that Good and Evil are diseases of the mind. Good and evil (in the moral sense) essentially mean whatever you want them to mean and every culture has its own definition (though there is an overwhelming consensus is some areas). I think a much more objective and univer...
- Thu Oct 18, 2012 6:35 am
- Forum: Lounge
- Topic: Spiritual Weirdos
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4722
Re: Spiritual Weirdos
I always wondered why religion was so weird. Thank you for explaining that. So, which religion is the one for manic-depressive ailurophiles? Am I in the right place? Hmm, I think neo-paganism is probably your best bet. You could say that the Cat is your totem animal or that it is an expression of y...
- Thu Oct 18, 2012 6:08 am
- Forum: Lounge
- Topic: Spiritual Weirdos
- Replies: 15
- Views: 4722
Re: Spiritual Weirdos
'Spiritual weirdo' is redundant since it is spirituality which gives us the license to be weird without being diagnosed as schizophrenic and/or criminally insane. Think about it: What would you think if your daughter suddenly shaved her head, ate only one meal a day, and sat on her bed staring at th...
- Sun Oct 14, 2012 5:47 am
- Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
- Topic: Assualted by Temptations
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1241
Assualted by Temptations
In the narrative of Buddha's enlightenment it is said that the closer he got to freedom, the harder Mara attempted to entrap him back into desire. Until recently, I took the story as a fable with Mara as a personification, not an actual person. But recent events in my life have led me to believe tha...
- Sat Oct 13, 2012 9:05 am
- Forum: Meditation
- Topic: Forgetting who you were
- Replies: 16
- Views: 5275
Re: Forgetting who you were
Many believe that we are the sum of our experiences, which is why memories are worthless and only hold us back. They will die with our body and all we have experienced and learned in this life will come to nothing in the end. The past is dead. It is only a word, nothing more. Most of the stuff we th...
- Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:35 am
- Forum: Media
- Topic: Jacque Fresco
- Replies: 19
- Views: 6177
Re: Jacque Fresco
dzoki: I am not sure, where you got your info on Buddha´s teaching, but I have never heard that Buddha would say that it is better to not exist. Existence and non-existence are just two extremes. Buddha did not show a path into non-existence, he showed the path beyond existence, but this state cann...
- Fri Oct 12, 2012 1:07 am
- Forum: Media
- Topic: Jacque Fresco
- Replies: 19
- Views: 6177
Re: Jacque Fresco
catmoon: Buddha is pessimistic? Funny, I thought he taught that there is a way out of this mess. I guess 'pessimistic' is a relative term as well. No, he wasn't a pessimist to the same degree that the Marquis de Sade was (which amounted to 'The world is Hell, humans are evil by nature, and there is...
- Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:37 am
- Forum: Media
- Topic: Jacque Fresco
- Replies: 19
- Views: 6177
Re: Jacque Fresco
Thrasymachus wrote : \We do not live in enough of a surrogate, fake human created reality for you? You want more? People already don't know how to be brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, but they do know how to be shoppers and workers. Still you want more of such teleological progress? People like ...
- Mon Oct 01, 2012 6:23 am
- Forum: Lounge
- Topic: Being spiritual but not religious is a cop-out
- Replies: 13
- Views: 3520
Re: Being spiritual but not religious is a cop-out
My understanding of being spiritual but not religious is that you believe in metaphysics, but refuse to have your metaphysics dictated to you by anyone who claims a special revelation. To say that someone cannot be spiritual without subscribing to a faith like Islam or Buddhism seems no different fr...
- Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:06 am
- Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
- Topic: How do gay Buddhists explain this one?
- Replies: 125
- Views: 32893
Re: How do gay Buddhists explain this one?
The deeper question here is how should Buddhism be defined? By what the Buddha allegedly said, or by what has actually been practiced for over 2000 years? Is sexual continance of any kind necessary? What about monks like Ikkyu who regularly visited the local whorehouse? With an quasi-open cannon, th...
- Sat Sep 29, 2012 4:40 am
- Forum: Pure Land
- Topic: Pure Land & Suicide
- Replies: 50
- Views: 13488
Re: Pure Land & Suicide
I think that the frequency of suicides connected with Pure Land Buddhism is more a symptom of Japanese culture than the religion itself. In Japan, suicide simply doesn't seem to have the stigma that it does in most cultures. I mean, these are a people who have at least 4 different words for suicide ...
- Wed Sep 05, 2012 10:20 am
- Forum: Dharma Stories
- Topic: If the Buddha is real, what have you lost?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 4604
Re: If the Buddha is real, what have you lost?
As skeptical as I am, I confess I am getting rather tired of these "They never existed" arguments. The same thing has been arugued about Jesus, Socrates, Lao Tzu, and recently, Muhammad (that last one must have took courage). This is just silly. All of these persons lived in times before t...
- Fri Jun 29, 2012 10:30 am
- Forum: Lounge
- Topic: Marriage & Opposite Sex Friendships
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2444
Marriage & Opposite Sex Friendships
I was wondering about what everyone's opinion here is about a married person having a friendship with a member of the opposite sex --Assuming that neither is attracted to the other in the least. My opinion on the matter is that it just isn't possible. Ideally we should all trust the person we have c...
- Tue Jun 26, 2012 1:04 pm
- Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
- Topic: Is there justice in the world?
- Replies: 16
- Views: 3307
Re: Is there justice in the world?
By justice, I take it that certain consequences should follow certain actions. Life, it seems, can never be perfectly just due to random factors of chance. King Solomon said it perfectly in Ecclesiastes: I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the stro...
- Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:48 am
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: Taoism in general, specifically it's connections with Ch'an
- Replies: 45
- Views: 14871
Re: Taoism in general, specifically it's connections with Ch'an
Coexisting religions cannot help but influence one another, even if they are at war (observe the Pagan influence on Christianity). Buddhism has a goal: the end of suffering. So it is a very practical religion. But it's hard to say if there is any such goal in Taoism. It's much more speculative. More...
- Fri Jun 08, 2012 11:10 am
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: Kensho and Satori
- Replies: 54
- Views: 14421
Re: Kensho and Satori
Yes it is amazing if we can take a perspective since we are not used to it in daily events, but that has nothing to do with satori... You could be right. As I said, since I've never really discussed my experiences with a zen master I have no way of being certain. I simply remember reading books on ...
- Fri Jun 08, 2012 8:19 am
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: Kensho and Satori
- Replies: 54
- Views: 14421
Re: Kensho and Satori
It's nice to see that some people still recognize the finer distinctions of altered states of consciousness. There has been a tendency, in the west at least, to conflate the eastern neurological lingo: kensho, satori, samadhi, nirvana, moksha -- as if they were all describing the same reality. This ...
- Tue Jun 05, 2012 9:29 am
- Forum: Pure Land
- Topic: Jodo Shinshu vs. Theravada
- Replies: 62
- Views: 19941
Re: Jodo Shinshu vs. Theravada
Some Christians do have blind faith in God, Jesus, Resurrection. But as New Testament scholar Marcus J. Borg has pointed out, for many Christians, Jesus is not simply a figure of the past. Instead, he is the risen living Christ - an experienced spiritual reality. Ditto for Shin practitioners, who k...
- Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:47 am
- Forum: Pure Land
- Topic: Jodo Shinshu vs. Theravada
- Replies: 62
- Views: 19941
Re: Jodo Shinshu vs. Theravada
I'm sorry, I disagree. It's quite clear within the old testament, that the christian god is an angry god, he even goes so far to say he is a jealous god. He asks his followers to stone people to death for certain transgressions, even persuading his follower to attempt to kill his son to prove his d...