pynchon agnostic? II

[jbor]

on 11/3/03 8:20 AM, Cyrus at cyrusgeo at netscape.net wrote:

>>> My interest was
>>> catalyzed by a seminar I attended on Buddhism and psychotherapy. The
>>> instructor kept holding up his Styrofoam cup and saying, "There is no
>>> difference between this cup and a thought. The only reason you see a cup is
>>> because we have all agreed that there is a cup." He further suggested that
>>> almost all of what is presented in the West as Eastern thought is complete
>>> hogwash, because the Eastern perspective is so fundamentally different than
>>> how the West conceptualizes the nature of reality, that it is nearly
>>> impossible for us to grasp it and vice versa. he concluded that any union of
>>> Buddhism and Western psychology was impossible.
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> Sounds like religious fundamentalism to me.
>> 
> 
> I think the key sentence was the last one, which you omitted: "Refunds
> were not offered." Unless I'm wrong, of course, and Keith really
> believed the guy...

He fair seemed to bristle when the arrogant fundamentalism (i.e. the "we're
right, you're wrong" tack) of the instructor's spiel was noted, however.

best


> In any case, I would propose a question: If you hold
> a cup and we all agree there is no cup, will the cup become invisible?
> will it pass out of existence? will we all go blind?
> Well, I don't know about cups, but there's one thing I know for sure:
> "there is no spoon".