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Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

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Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#411

Post by lmm »

yunohn wrote: post #408
lmm wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why you'd think that. My point is, why believe that philosophy has merit, or that you'd be able to distinguish the good parts from the bad parts? (And if you are able to distinguish good from bad philosophy, why would you need an existing religion as a starting point?)

Could you point me to some perfect philosophical writings? Obviously, the authors must be beyond reproach in their lives. And, do ensure that everything in their writings & speech are “good” before their time, during their time, during our time, and for all future times to come. Your other point seems to be that it’s better to avoid all this, and start from scratch. It’s good for you that you are able to inform yours…

> Could you point me to some perfect philosophical writings? Obviously, the authors must be beyond reproach in their lives. And, do ensure that everything in their writings & speech are “good” before their time, during their time, during our time, and for all future times to come.

I have a lot more faith in an imperfect source that acknowledges itself as such than a source that purports to be perfect but isn't.

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#412

Post by neitsab »

esics6A wrote: post #288
pc2g4d wrote: post #281

"Chen: What we see is the erasure of Buddhism as a religion or tradition that Asians or Asian Americans can claim or identify with." She writes from a race-essentialist framing to a degree and that drives me crazy. "white Americans" "white Westerners" x6 There's a sort of cultural appropriation shame being layered here---as if it's bad to have light skin and be interested in Buddhism, or adapt Buddhism to your existi…

Jokes on the writer because Buddhism originated in India and evolved from Hinduism and spread as far as Southern Russia and Central Asia in addition to East Asia and Southeast Asia where it become popular. Ignorant people everywhere these days get to write articles who don't have basic history lessons. We learned this in high school also about Ashoka and how the Indian emperor spread Buddhism literally everywhere in…

Buddhism did not evolve from Hinduism, nor even from its predecessor Brahmanism (calling the place it came from India is a also a bit of a stretch, but to a lesser degree):

* it may have actually been reacting first to Zoroastrianism and its idea that the absolute Truth and Lie can be known: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691176321/gr...

* even if not, then it was either a reaction against Brahmanism (https://ahandfulofleaves.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/how-bud... (PDF)), or at the very least an independent development: https://www.academia.edu/63732680/Early_Buddhism_and_its_Rel...

> We come to the conclusion that early Buddhism as a whole has developed independently from Brahmanism, with selective influences from Brahmanism and non-Vedic spiritual movements, altering and utilizing these influences for its own growth against its religious competition.

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#413

Post by yunohn »

lmm wrote: post #411
yunohn wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you point me to some perfect philosophical writings? Obviously, the authors must be beyond reproach in their lives. And, do ensure that everything in their writings & speech are “good” before their time, during their time, during our time, and for all future times to come. Your other point seems to be that it’s better to avoid all this, and start from scratch. It’s good for you that you are able to inform yours…

> Could you point me to some perfect philosophical writings? Obviously, the authors must be beyond reproach in their lives. And, do ensure that everything in their writings & speech are “good” before their time, during their time, during our time, and for all future times to come. I have a lot more faith in an imperfect source that acknowledges itself as such than a source that purports to be perfect but isn't.

So all you need is a disclaimer somewhere? You can’t just assume one like a rational thinker should?

Something tells me you’re not arguing in good faith, so I’ll stop engaging.

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#414

Post by lmm »

yunohn wrote: post #413
lmm wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Could you point me to some perfect philosophical writings? Obviously, the authors must be beyond reproach in their lives. And, do ensure that everything in their writings & speech are “good” before their time, during their time, during our time, and for all future times to come. I have a lot more faith in an imperfect source that acknowledges itself as such than a source that purports to be perfect but isn't.

So all you need is a disclaimer somewhere? You can’t just assume one like a rational thinker should? Something tells me you’re not arguing in good faith, so I’ll stop engaging.

I can't assume a disclaimer that contradicts what's explicitly in the main body of the work, no.

Religious philosophy is generally embedded in a paradigm where that religion is correct, and where scripture in particular is perfect and infallible. So it's not at all obvious to say that you can pull value from it outside that paradigm.

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#415

Post by dang »

javajosh wrote: post #139

>It feels anti human. Because it is. The zeitgeist on the left (so, academia) is consumed by personal shame, guilt, and self-loathing, and a great deal of intellectual work has been done to post hoc rationalize these feelings and package them in catchy phrases. Terms like "cultural appropriation" and "privilege" or "systematic racism" or "toxic masculinity", may have some technically useful meanings to anthropologist…

Please don't take HN threads on generic tangents and certainly not into ideological flamewar. Those things are not what HN is for and destroy what it is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32068220.

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#416

Post by burrows »

honkdaddy wrote: post #366
burrows wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My personal rule is just not to disrespect people and parts of their culture they find important. What even is named by the word “disrespect”? Is disrespecting me just any behavior that I call “disrespectful”? Seems like bullshit to me.

To me, disrespecting you is any behaviour which _I_ find disrespectful. If I was mistaken, I'd apologize. I can't control how you feel, burrows, I can only control what I say.

No post body was provided.

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#417

Post by nicky0 »

omarfarooq wrote: post #106
nicky0 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be rather a literalist.

And how should I take those signs of enlightenment then? If not literally then Buddhist scripture is no better than fiction.

Metaphorical, allegorical and symbolic interpretations are some alternatives to the literal one. Sometimes, a story is just a good story.

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#418

Post by [deleted] »

neitsab wrote: post #412
esics6A wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jokes on the writer because Buddhism originated in India and evolved from Hinduism and spread as far as Southern Russia and Central Asia in addition to East Asia and Southeast Asia where it become popular. Ignorant people everywhere these days get to write articles who don't have basic history lessons. We learned this in high school also about Ashoka and how the Indian emperor spread Buddhism literally everywhere in…

Buddhism did not evolve from Hinduism, nor even from its predecessor Brahmanism (calling the place it came from India is a also a bit of a stretch, but to a lesser degree): * it may have actually been reacting first to Zoroastrianism and its idea that the absolute Truth and Lie can be known: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691176321/gr... * even if not, then it was either a reaction against Brahmanism…

[deleted]

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#419

Post by csdvrx »

shp0ngle wrote: post #8

I’m a Catholic (so I have … my own view on Buddhism) but I lived in SEA for a long time. I want to say, this article is very good. The buddhism as practiced in the west has very little to do with actual practices in the east. But, Buddhism is also very confusing, and it’s hard to say “what is the true buddhism” (mahayana, therevada, vajrayana and zen buddhism in Japan (formally mahayana) are all very different)

> I want to say, this article is very good.

Same, and I'd like more exchanges! I may not know “what is the true buddhism” but enough of us discussing the issue could give even rought directions!

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#420

Post by amriksohata »

unmole wrote: post #317
amriksohata wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many more avatars but the dashavatars are considered most well known. Ah the revionist calling out revisionism , the irony of the comment on isms

> dashavatars are considered most well known. Right, so well known that there isn't even a consensus as to which of them constitute Dashavatara. You have no idea what you're talking about.

Terrible counter arguing by just saying "you have no idea what you're talking about".
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