Search found 933 matches

by Nemo
Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:32 pm
Forum: Lounge
Topic: Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason - Part 1: Slaves to Superstition
Replies: 112
Views: 7492

Re: Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason - Part 1: Slaves to Superstition

So is the religious part of Buddhism Santa? You could argue effectively the culty bits are worthwhile for character development if they are discarded once one reaches the far shore having achieved the 8 Paramitas(or however many your tradition has). My problem is lately the culty bits are making peo...
by Nemo
Mon Jun 14, 2021 4:44 pm
Forum: Lounge
Topic: Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason - Part 1: Slaves to Superstition
Replies: 112
Views: 7492

Re: Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason - Part 1: Slaves to Superstition

You can't avoid the language of "I", it seems; you too say "whose three-dimensional space am I occupying?”. Language refers to things in the outer and inner world. In the Apohavada it is said that if the things that language refers to have results, then they exist and are real, i.e. ...
by Nemo
Mon Jun 14, 2021 1:18 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Why drugs are bad for meditators?
Replies: 44
Views: 5597

Re: Why drugs are bad for meditators?

Habitual use or rarely as a leisure activity? As a leisure activity it's not a bad way to test your realization. If you are using habitually clearly you have little to no realization and are trapped in a cycle of drug abuse. Personally when I am getting surgery I like all the drugs please. Being awa...
by Nemo
Fri Jun 11, 2021 8:58 pm
Forum: Lounge
Topic: Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason - Part 1: Slaves to Superstition
Replies: 112
Views: 7492

Re: Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason - Part 1: Slaves to Superstition



Dawkins can't even understand Kafka. He is what my kid would call not neurotypical. His nature may have a biological component.
by Nemo
Fri Jun 11, 2021 1:47 am
Forum: Lounge
Topic: Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason - Part 1: Slaves to Superstition
Replies: 112
Views: 7492

Re: Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason - Part 1: Slaves to Superstition

Theists invent a God in the sky to enslave themselves to. It's some perverse Dominance and submission weirdness.
by Nemo
Wed Jun 09, 2021 1:52 pm
Forum: Lounge
Topic: Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason - Part 1: Slaves to Superstition
Replies: 112
Views: 7492

Re: Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason - Part 1: Slaves to Superstition

Dawkins militant atheism is perhaps extreme, but the opportunity costs to society from superstition are unfathomablely large. There are a thousand kooky cults out there. All filled with true believers. Imagining enlightenment is clearly very different from actualization of the Buddha's teachings. Th...
by Nemo
Sun Jun 06, 2021 10:47 pm
Forum: Lounge
Topic: Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason - Part 1: Slaves to Superstition
Replies: 112
Views: 7492

Re: Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason - Part 1: Slaves to Superstition

We have had some people be total suckers for exploitative sexual and financial manipulation. They lost years of their life. Buddhism has developed a cult problem. I think it might be a good time to go back to first principles and stop making excuses for Adharmic behavior masquerading as the Buddha's...
by Nemo
Fri Jun 04, 2021 8:44 pm
Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
Topic: "Which has primacy, Buddha or Dharma"?
Replies: 82
Views: 6680

Re: "Which has primacy, Buddha or Dharma"?

Is the Dharma really the Dharma if you practice for 30 years and it produces no realization? We don’t practice for this life. We practice for the next life. Realization is a not campaign badge one can show others. It’s undetectable by ordinary people. The only thing ordinary people can observe is t...
by Nemo
Fri Jun 04, 2021 4:42 am
Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
Topic: "Which has primacy, Buddha or Dharma"?
Replies: 82
Views: 6680

Re: "Which has primacy, Buddha or Dharma"?

Is the Dharma really the Dharma if you practice for 30 years and it produces no realization? Buddha was not a man who taught a religion. He revealed the natural state. In his awakening he thought, "this cannot be taught." The Dharma is a finger pointing at the moon, not the moon. I see ver...
by Nemo
Wed Jun 02, 2021 7:22 pm
Forum: Sūtra Studies
Topic: MPNS on Women
Replies: 92
Views: 7227

Re: MPNS on Women

Assuming that the translation is accurate... I would interpret it as saying that men can grasp the profound meaning of the sutra, and women can’t. It that actually true? No. But let’s not dodge the ball and make up excuses. Let’s just admit that the text is sexist. After that, you can speculate as ...
by Nemo
Wed Jun 02, 2021 3:21 pm
Forum: Sūtra Studies
Topic: MPNS on Women
Replies: 92
Views: 7227

Re: MPNS on Women

There were no books in the time of Buddha. With the proliferation of questionable teachers I have been forced to have a crisis of faith and separate what the Buddha taught from the Cult of Buddha to the best of my meager abilities. I was lucky enough to have teachers who kept all 3 levels of vows wi...
by Nemo
Mon May 31, 2021 10:44 am
Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
Topic: "Which has primacy, Buddha or Dharma"?
Replies: 82
Views: 6680

Re: "Which has primacy, Buddha or Dharma"?

As the Buddha said many times the Dharma is the boat to the Other Shore. Having arrived you throw it away. If practicing does not get you there it's just another kooky religion. Buddhists learn logic for a reason. We are supposed to know.the difference between dogma and realization. If we lose that ...
by Nemo
Sun May 30, 2021 5:47 pm
Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
Topic: "Which has primacy, Buddha or Dharma"?
Replies: 82
Views: 6680

Re: "Which has primacy, Buddha or Dharma"?

The Buddha was not a God. He was simply Buddhi, Awake. Due to the difficulty in sharing his realization he codified a system of rules to facilitate becoming realized. Dharma is not the awakened state. It is what an enlightened being does naturally. The awakened state is accessible by all beings with...
by Nemo
Thu May 27, 2021 9:36 pm
Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
Topic: How does mantra purify past negative karma?
Replies: 33
Views: 2422

Re: How does mantra purify past negative karma?

Karma can also be understood as momentum. Mantras can add subtle positive influences to ones life. This changes ones mood and trajectory. Drinking water doesn't change your Karma of being thirsty but you are no longer dehydrated. Did the glass of water change your Karma?
by Nemo
Sun May 23, 2021 3:31 pm
Forum: Kagyu
Topic: Karmapa's (TTD & OTD) Occupation
Replies: 52
Views: 7401

Re: Karmapa's Occupation

I wish OTD the best. He has that Karmapa energy. Putting a kid in charge of a religious org that is a tiny bit culty after many years of imprisonment was not going to be easy. I think this falls on us to ask what he wants to do with his life.
by Nemo
Tue May 18, 2021 9:07 pm
Forum: Lounge
Topic: A conversation about Buddhism with a prototype AGI. (Artifical Intelligence)
Replies: 27
Views: 2043

Re: A conversation about Buddhism with a prototype AGI. (Artifical Intelligence)

It's just a program made by a person to trick you. Anyone can make one. It has no idea what it's answers mean. It has no intelligence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coNjpBa5m1E The advanced AIs I have interacted with seem very gentle. Trolls turned Tay, Microsoft’s fun millennial AI bot, into a ge...
by Nemo
Sun May 16, 2021 8:43 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Religious/Philosophy Education
Replies: 13
Views: 1068

Re: Religious/Philosophy Education

I did a large unit on Greek myths and religion in high school in Canada. Then self a directed project on Norse mythology. But those things are all cut now. You can take comparative religion in your first year of post secondary though. Once you are exposed to a half dozen crazy religions it gives som...
by Nemo
Sun May 16, 2021 12:15 pm
Forum: Ethical Conduct
Topic: The Great Abortion Debate
Replies: 497
Views: 136514

Re: The Great Abortion Debate

So if the Buddhist ideas about conception are true do identical twins share a soul. Monozygotic twins disproves the Buddhist THEORY of conception. Sounds like the entire process of you see your dad and get jealous stuff is BS no one will ever be able to prove. Ethical conduct means not living your l...
by Nemo
Fri May 14, 2021 7:29 pm
Forum: Ethical Conduct
Topic: The Great Abortion Debate
Replies: 497
Views: 136514

Re: The Great Abortion Debate

As Malcolm wrote, that's a non sequitur, but go for it, I suppose. The fact is that very few people in this conversation have really given any serious thought to the ethical issues at hand. They are mostly just spewing knee-jerk religious dogmas, borrowing rhetoric from pro-life Christians, who hav...
by Nemo
Fri May 14, 2021 12:10 am
Forum: Ethical Conduct
Topic: The Great Abortion Debate
Replies: 497
Views: 136514

Re: The Great Abortion Debate

Buddhism does not have the tools to deal with this very modern issue in anything more than the broadest ethical guidelines. It's understanding of biology is too primitive and it's tainted by misogyny and patriarchy. We don't need kings to rule us, wives are not personal property and having sex with ...

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