Search found 30 matches

by Adumbra
Fri Oct 19, 2012 11:28 am
Forum: Dharma Stories
Topic: A few favourite short quotes.
Replies: 13
Views: 5822

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...
by Adumbra
Fri Oct 19, 2012 11:10 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Why is right right and wrong wrong?
Replies: 64
Views: 12713

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...
by Adumbra
Thu Oct 18, 2012 6:35 am
Forum: Lounge
Topic: Spiritual Weirdos
Replies: 15
Views: 4698

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...
by Adumbra
Thu Oct 18, 2012 6:08 am
Forum: Lounge
Topic: Spiritual Weirdos
Replies: 15
Views: 4698

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...
by Adumbra
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...
by Adumbra
Sat Oct 13, 2012 9:05 am
Forum: Meditation
Topic: Forgetting who you were
Replies: 16
Views: 5271

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...
by Adumbra
Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:35 am
Forum: Media
Topic: Jacque Fresco
Replies: 19
Views: 6162

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...
by Adumbra
Fri Oct 12, 2012 1:07 am
Forum: Media
Topic: Jacque Fresco
Replies: 19
Views: 6162

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...
by Adumbra
Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:37 am
Forum: Media
Topic: Jacque Fresco
Replies: 19
Views: 6162

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 ...
by Adumbra
Mon Oct 01, 2012 6:23 am
Forum: Lounge
Topic: Being spiritual but not religious is a cop-out
Replies: 13
Views: 3492

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...
by Adumbra
Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:06 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: How do gay Buddhists explain this one?
Replies: 125
Views: 32812

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...
by Adumbra
Sat Sep 29, 2012 4:40 am
Forum: Pure Land
Topic: Pure Land & Suicide
Replies: 50
Views: 13444

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 ...
by Adumbra
Wed Sep 05, 2012 10:20 am
Forum: Dharma Stories
Topic: If the Buddha is real, what have you lost?
Replies: 9
Views: 4599

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...
by Adumbra
Fri Jun 29, 2012 10:30 am
Forum: Lounge
Topic: Marriage & Opposite Sex Friendships
Replies: 7
Views: 2439

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...
by Adumbra
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...
by Adumbra
Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:48 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: Taoism in general, specifically it's connections with Ch'an
Replies: 45
Views: 14828

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...
by Adumbra
Fri Jun 08, 2012 11:10 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: Kensho and Satori
Replies: 54
Views: 14405

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 ...
by Adumbra
Fri Jun 08, 2012 8:19 am
Forum: Zen
Topic: Kensho and Satori
Replies: 54
Views: 14405

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 ...
by Adumbra
Tue Jun 05, 2012 9:29 am
Forum: Pure Land
Topic: Jodo Shinshu vs. Theravada
Replies: 62
Views: 19907

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...
by Adumbra
Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:47 am
Forum: Pure Land
Topic: Jodo Shinshu vs. Theravada
Replies: 62
Views: 19907

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...

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