Today's discussion question

[David Morris]

Please refer to my response to Malignd.

On Tuesday, August 13, 2013, Bekah wrote:

> Or on the Pakistani border or the Delhi slums where the Hindus clash with
> the Muslims regularly.
>
> Sunday:
>
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/10236064/Kashmir-Violence-escalates-between-Hindus-and-Muslims.html
>
> Bekah
>
> On Aug 13, 2013, at 2:06 PM, malignd at aol.com <javascript:;> wrote:
>
> > You live as a Muslim in Burma.
> > How does one run afoul of any Buddhist, of whatever stripe.
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com <javascript:;>>
> > To: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com <javascript:;>>
> > Cc: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com <javascript:;>>;
> pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org <javascript:;>>
> > Sent: Mon, Aug 12, 2013 8:07 pm
> > Subject: Re: Today's discussion question
> >
> > How does one run afoul of any Buddhist, of whatever stripe.  Did someone
> criticize your words or behavior?  Did you cruely squash an innocent bug in
> his presence?  Or is it that the Buddist ran afoul of your prejudices?
>  From your harsh judgement of their aspirations, I would guess the later.
>  "Equanimity" is a foundational goal of Buddhism.  Tolerance is equanimity
> toward others.
> >
> > David Morris
> >
> > On Monday, August 12, 2013, Ian Livingston wrote:
> > Well, I still wouldn't dare speak for P, but, parsing the statement just
> a little, I will speak for myself, as someone undoubtedly influenced by
> Pynchon rightly and wrongly by turns.
> >
> > I have had the great displeasure of running afoul Westerners in Buddhist
> robes. These people who go bowing to the East in the certainty that they
> will attain enlightenment through Eastern teachings take with them all the
> shit they already believe, all the bunk they have learned in school, and
> all their prejudices and try to shoehorn those into teachings from sages
> who had no relation to the world we live in. They're like Cinderella's
> step-sisters but that they go on believing that they are wearing the glass
> slipper that never fit on their foot in the first place. The whole delusion
> results in comically tormented psyches. It's a lot like the people in the
> big Bible-thumping cults calling themselves Christians. They are ruled by
> their own Shadows, living in darkness that wastes the good any of them
> might accomplish in the world.
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 8:47 AM, alice wellintown <
> alicewellintown at gmail.com <javascript:;>> wrote:
> > Mencken was, as is the average western philosopher, satirist, pundit,
> blogger, spirit-hungry westerner...what have you, ignorant of the
> traditions of Eastern philosophy, religion, literature, art. But given the
> global problems we face, the urgency of many of these problems, climate
> change and population growth and depletion of the planet are three that are
> obvious, it seems foolish to ridicule those who would seriously turn to the
> East, if not for solutions or wisdom, for insights into how East and West
> may find common ground. This is not likely to succeed if the West continues
> to insist that all that science and math can not take the measure of is
> superstitious nonsense, Emersonian naked eyeball transparencies that once
> viewed through the superior lens of science are stripped of the rose and
> under the rose colorings of the observer and made black and white zeros and
> ones. Mencken is a good tonic for the youthful longings of those who read
> Herman Hesse, who fail to heed the wit of Voltaire, who live in what most
> would call the best of all possible worlds, and who run fast from the magic
> of their own traditions and into the trappings of ones they can never begin
> to make meaningful. But his scientism is now endemic and allied with a
> haughty exceptionalism. A little humility is called for. The planets can
> not be charmed from the sky. We must observe them with our feet on the
> ground, but what Galileo teaches us about what moves, and what moves, may
> be better appreciated if we treat the ancient wisdoms with more respect
> than the great man was given by the sages who grilled him (though not
> literally). The East is hungry for Western ideas, culture, philosophy,
> science, literature, art. The exchange is promising. But why march in with
> the scientific method, our new cross?
> >
> > On Monday, August 12, 2013, Mark Kohut wrote:
> > HL Mencken @HLMenckenBot 2h
> > One of the strangest delusions of the Western mind is to the effect that
> a philosophy of profound wisdom is on tap in the East // @laotzunit
> >
> > Anyone think TRP believes this?
> >
>
>
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