 deb2012 says: If religious war is ever to become unthinkable for us, in the way that slavery and cannibalism seem poised to, it will be a matter of our having dispensed with the dogma of faith. Buddhism is an abstraction, not faith which as you imply is stupid and leads to violence. The danger of abstraction, however, is that it can inhibit our relationship with nature. Look under Consciousness on our Amplify site (Clipmarks latest project). www.openintelligence.amplify.com. I think we have interests in common and part of our mission is to focus multiple intelligences. Perhaps you might consider being a contributor. My email is j.wyllie@open-intelligence.co.uk I'm just thinking about how to remove the abstraction----Perhaps if we collectively set our intentions to act for the well-being of the entire humanity—the organism—as do cells in a body, and applied the same attitude toward nature and the environment, we would receive only good from nature. In this sense is consciousness simply the duality of altruism vs. egoism? In religious terms, might this tendency toward egoism have been stalled by the admonishment of "Do unto others....."? Seems the god books all start from the same place and end up written by mortal men who struggle like the rest of us with egoism. I like your amplify site very much j.wyllie Yes! Act for the well being of the whole earth community of beings, all of nature, and you receive much more in return. I know it because it is the way I work with and love my (I don't mean 'my') woodland and my vegetable garden -- the Land. The "return on investment" is many-fold, and the gift of the relationship is free. (Do have a look at my 3-min YouTube Clip on the subject http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcWEbSJSqaw. My other effort in this medium is about the Ecocide in the Tar Sands.) Off topic. Glad you like Amplify site. We will be looking for 'monitors' to share their clips as an intelligence resource on Open Intelligence. You would be great on the Finance and Consciousness beats. ... Buddhism is not a religionI think Dalai Lama may have reservations.. arifsali because it was clipped, the quote is out of context. Full context: The wisdom of the Buddha is currently trapped within the religion of Buddhism.While it may be true enough to say (as many Buddhist practitioners allege) that “Buddhism is not a religion,” most Buddhists worldwide practice it as such, in many of the naive, petitionary, and superstitious ways in which all religions are practiced. It is true that many exponents of Buddhism, most notably the Dalai Lama, have been remarkably willing to enrich (and even constrain) their view of the world through dialogue with modern science. But the fact that the Dalai Lama regularly meets with Western scientists to discuss the nature ... As far as I know for Buddhists, there is no deity, and how can there be a beginning in a universe of infinitely recurring cycles? No beginning - no need for a creator, no Big Bang, when creation is "mutual arising" here, now, everywhere. And its opposite "mutual destruction", the way of industrial civilisation, is here and now, and nearly everywhere on earth. Dogmatism is a relative concept, from what I'm reading of Dalai Lama, an atheist would take lots of exception from his dogmatism in human morality, life, death, reincarnation, etc. But then again, atheism is also dogmatic with their denial of creator. So ultimately, I think, we are all following a religion (let us say belief) in one thing or another. Deity, Creator, God, no-God ... what matters is what is NOW. What good is a God who created and disappeared? What good is a no-God who cares only about denying the God? Humans are here and now, and that's all that matters. |
|
|
|
|
