Now that's a creative interpretation I haven't heard before ... In terms of making progress on the path, I'm referring to the stages to nibbana, namel...
Lol. A similar view is sometimes held by some Buddhists who believe that belief in rebirth makes people lazy and complacent, thinking, "If I don't mak...
It's not about annihilation, that would be wrong view. I find Thanissaro Bhikkhu's approach here the easiest to understand: not-self(ing) is a strateg...
Not understood by, but relevant to. Things that are relevant to outsiders might not be the same as the things relevant to insiders, and vice versa. I ...
Lol. It would help the discussion if you'd stop shooting from the hip like that. For someone so critical of "dogma", you know remarkably little of it....
I can't retrace how you arrived at this ... I'm plainly asking what I'm asking. You can see a lot of this in various religious and esp. "spiritual" tr...
By being theists. By default, a theist starts off with: There is God. God created man. Man has the characteristics and abilities as given to him by Go...
Surely @"Wayfarer" will answer for himself. But this was about a pretty standard theme: According to Theravada, one person cannot save another, ever, ...
Again, I'm interested in looking at things from the perspective of a (prospective) insider, and specifically, "What would it be like and what would it...
Well, I don't deny that I am "overly sensitive" and a "weakling" ... Although my main issue is that the kind of group dynamics sketched out above and ...
Or just read Thanissaro Bhikkhu's The Truth of Rebirth And Why It Matters for Buddhist Practice. He conveniently compiled a great number of arguments ...
But this holds only within Buddhism and in regard to Buddhism. Of course, Buddhists will possibly say it applies to everyone, but outsiders to Buddhis...
Yes. And? It's not clear what you want in all this. Are you just doing research for your writing work? Do you actually, personally, want to relieve yo...
You misunderstand. It's a case of simple causality: In order to get A, you need to do B. You, on the other hand, seem like someone who, say, wants to ...
To an outsider, this makes sense. To an insider or a prospective insider, it doesn't. Really? And you don't mind submitting to such a doubting pope? Y...
Really? You believe than an honorable person will take on positions of power in a religious organization whose tenets they doubt? You like a pope who ...
@"Tom Storm" Like I said: Remember, we're talking here not about an ordinary seeker, but about people who attain positions of power within religious o...
Who said anything about "hiding" one's doubts? An honorable person will simply not take on positions of power in a religious organization whose tenets...
I actually don't doubt that Buddhist practice (as defined and described in traditional Buddhism) leads to the complete cessation of suffering. It's ju...
Well then, whatcha waiting for?! People who promise to know the way to enlightenment are a dime a dozen, including those who believe one doesn't need ...
Yes, to the first part, but it's not clear what you mean by the second part. Yes. Yes. Agreed. I'm not sure they were "unable"; in terms of the Pali C...
Perhaps. But when people make a point of considering themselves members and representatives of a religion and even attain positions of power in said r...
This is that cultist aspect to the use of AI. Just like many people like to outsource their thinking to cults, so many people like to outsource their ...
Wait until you piss and shit your pants on a regular, or at least a semi-regular basis. Those things need to be washed first manually, and in cold wat...
And how exactly would a person go about doing that -- ie. not letting "ideas about reincarnation stop you from understanding Buddhism better"? Can you...
Take, for example, the practice of sati in Hinduism. This is suicide. Are the other people happy that the newly widowed woman killed herself? Apparent...
I, perhaps foolishly, imagine that a discussion forum is for ... well, discussion. Especially a _philosophy_ discussion forum. The "where they are com...
Whence this idea that there is a clear demarcation line between online and real life? If someone on an internet forum treats people like shit, then th...
How so?? Realistically, how many paths to meaning can a particular person explore? I think the openness you speak of is illusory at best, for most peo...
E.g. reflecting on which things are you or yours. We do this casually every day. For example, when you eat food, when it's inside of your digestive sy...
Same here. Absolutely. This puzzles me the most as well. Why do some people go to such great lengths to invent their own paths and practices, and then...
Why do you call them "supernatural"? Can you explain? That's a strange formulation. It's a bit like asking, "Do I need to do something that I find rep...
Wrong. It's absolutely central. Buddhism stands and falls with kamma and rebirth. The order of understanding is crucial: Kamma, therefore, rebirth. If...
I doubt they hold consumerism as the highest ideal per se, or that it brings them much satisfaction per se. But it certainly looks like it is the best...
The answer to the problem according to whom? Perhaps the Palestinians should all kill themselves to solve Israel's problem, the Russians should kill t...
The feeling that one's material wellbeing is guaranteed. The former have it, the latter lack it. Mysteries stop being beautiful once one is hungry, si...
The polarization and antagonism can also be simply due to the fact that the two parties are having a conversation at all. Further, due to the two part...
I haven't had many discussions with Bob Ross, but in the few I did, it seemed he had a bit of a "comprehension problem", the kind that many people do,...
Someone who claims to believe in God but doesn't base his explanations in claims of God's will, is not a proper theist, so beware of such a person! It...
What false dichotomy? I've known Christians who said God was "lovingly condemning". Apparently, it is an act of "love" when God sends people off to et...
If he claims to know better than I (and he does), then he deems himself superior to me. That's it. There you go: reduce. This "reducing" is all in you...
And you just don't listen. Read again what I said. I could spend hours, days, weeks trying to explain. In fact, I have done so for years. But when som...
No, it's more substantial than that. It's fundamental to religion/spirituality. Religion/spirituality requires inequality, it requires hierarchy. It's...
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