"You're gonna want cause & effect"---GR

[Jed Kelestron]

Being in a room full of Buddhists is almost as noxious as being in a room full of Jungians. 



On Aug 19, 2011, at 3:25 PM, Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com> wrote:

> Yeah, I hear all that steadily from the Buddhists I work with.
> 
> On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 1:26 PM, Jed Kelestron <jedkelestron at gmail.com> wrote:
>> It's about examining the examiner with intense focus and
>> concentration. Applying the scientific method to the psyche or ego of
>> the scientist so to speak. Western studies in cognitive science are
>> now using mindfulness meditation as part of their research. It has
>> zilch to do with superstition or metaphor. But putting it in words is
>> always problematic and leads to such trivializations of what is
>> actually a method of very deep inquiry into the nature of personal
>> identity. And it's not 'Buddhism,' although Buddhism is one arena that
>> utilizes such investigation. If you add two molecules of hydrogen and
>> one molecule of oxygen you get water. If you look deeply into the
>> nature of personal identity - you get nothing.
>> 
>> On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 12:53 PM, Ian Livingston
>> <igrlivingston at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Ah, Buddhism. Yeah, it, too, is an interesting metaphor, though more
>>> explicitly founded in superstitious projection than some others. Maybe
>>> the explicit nature of the superstition makes it more palatable in
>>> some ways.
>>> 
>>> On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 12:41 PM, Jed Kelestron <jedkelestron at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> I tend to incline toward a limited determinism: history
>>>>> compels us, but possibility opens infinitely.
>>>> 
>>>> Both history and future possibility are fictions created by the illusory separate self which likes to believe it isn't determined but is a free and autonomous entity. Until that illusion is dispelled the big wheel just keeps on spinning.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> "Less than any man have I  excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all
>>> creeds the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the
>>> trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments
>>> of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates
>>> than the simplest urchin in the streets." -- Will Durant
>>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "Less than any man have I  excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all
> creeds the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the
> trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments
> of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates
> than the simplest urchin in the streets." -- Will Durant