Why We Hurt Each Other: Tolstoy’s Letters to Gandhi • Hacker News Board

Re: Why We Hurt Each Other: Tolstoy’s Letters to Gandhi

#61

Post by kleer001 » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 11:22 PM UTC

displacedpeople wrote: post #41

kleer001 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>deep intuitive wisdom. aka he pulled it out of thin air. The sooner we base long term plans on verified data instead of intuition the sooner we'll reduce needless suffering.

Long term plans need (a) vision. A great thinker like this can't be replaced by something quantifiable.

I disagree. A long term plan can be extracted from data, the physical constraints of the world, and knowledge of the human condition. The hype of a great leader, messiah, or single white man at a podium, is totally overrated. If it weren't we would have already run into one that cured all our ills.

Re: Why We Hurt Each Other: Tolstoy’s Letters to Gandhi

#62

Post by wordbank » Fri, Jul 24, 2015, 3:10 AM UTC

lisper wrote: post #50

wordbank wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Peaceful coexistence is hard precisely because it is NOT our most natural, basic state. It depends on what you mean by saying "our". It's "not natural" for an aggressive chemical reaction called "life" that consumes all the resources it can find. But it's a basic state of the Universe. Ever heard people saying "God is Love", "we are all one" or "nirvana"? That's it.

> It depends on what you mean by saying "our". By "our" I mean "humans", though it is actually true of all living things. > Ever heard people saying "God is Love", "we are all one" or "nirvana"? That's it. Of course I've heard people say it. I've also heard people say that humans are not the cause of climate change. Just because people say something doesn't mean it's true. Nirvana is not a natural state that humans h…

> I've also heard people say that humans are not the cause of climate change. Just because people say something doesn't mean it's true.

This is a straw man argument, you're comparing regular science with philosophy.

> Nirvana is not a natural state

> It is an artificial state that humans have invented

> we have to make Nirvana. We have to design it and build it and maintain it

Sorry, but you have incorrect understanding of this concept in terms of both Buddhism and Hinduism. Please update your information on this topic.

Re: Why We Hurt Each Other: Tolstoy’s Letters to Gandhi

#63

Post by verbin217 » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 8:08 PM UTC

kleer001 wrote: post #60

verbin217 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." The Little Prince. All woo-woo aside, ooshy gooshy feelings won't get us to the moon, cure cancer, decrease childhood diseases, or feed a billion people with the land usually used to only feed 10,000.

Sure I pretty much entirely agree with you but the caution I stated earlier is the notable one for that mindset. There's always a step where you have to decide what the data means.

Re: Why We Hurt Each Other: Tolstoy’s Letters to Gandhi

#64

Post by bkudria » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:43 PM UTC

mercer wrote: post #37

codeshaman wrote: post #12

Almost by accident I started reading 'The kingdom of God is within you' by Tolstoy a couple of months ago. I haven't read anything by Tolstoy before. And boy, was I in for a surprise. It was a very powerful and inspiring book. Being very fond of the counterculture, the hippy movement, free society, open source, tech anarchy, etc - I was very surprised to see him talking about these concepts with such clarity back the…

> And it also changed my outlook towards 'Christianity', which I dismissed before as just a religion. Tolstoy carefully builds the idea of Christianity as a philosophy of non-violence, anarchy and peaceful disobedience, claiming that that was the true teaching of Jesus Christ and the reason why Christians have been persecuted and killed everywhere - before the whole thing was transformed into a dogmatic religion. I'd…

Thich Nhat Hanh (the Vietnamese Zen monk whom MLK nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize) wrote "Living Buddha, Living Christ" drawing more extensive parallels.

Re: Why We Hurt Each Other: Tolstoy’s Letters to Gandhi

#65

Post by mercer » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 3:07 PM UTC

bkudria wrote: post #64

mercer wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And it also changed my outlook towards 'Christianity', which I dismissed before as just a religion. Tolstoy carefully builds the idea of Christianity as a philosophy of non-violence, anarchy and peaceful disobedience, claiming that that was the true teaching of Jesus Christ and the reason why Christians have been persecuted and killed everywhere - before the whole thing was transformed into a dogmatic religion. I'd…

Thich Nhat Hanh (the Vietnamese Zen monk whom MLK nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize) wrote "Living Buddha, Living Christ" drawing more extensive parallels.

Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely look that book up.