Tuesday, August 04, 2009

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying." - Woody Allen

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Eastern Philosophy is full of meaningless mumbo jumbo. Which is probably why motivational bullshit sounds so much like it:


A: It is synchronistic that I have just completed this weeks reflecting on my revisioning of Buddhism, entitled, "Buddhism is Beyond God and Religion"

Hopw this can contribute to a better understanding between Humanism and spirituality.

Humanism, to me, is not just a "study of man" by man, for man, but an examination and assertion of our potential to understand life itself as a whole.


B: Glad to see such openness. May be i see this way...
"Buddhism is Beyond God and Religion," and
"Hinduism is Beyond God and Religion," and
"Christianity is Beyond God and Religion," and
"Islam is Beyond God and Religion," and
"Any religion is Beyond God and Religion," (Little contradictory! :) ).

And may be, may be Humanist can overide with a common under current of Compassion.

Then i quote A:
Humanism, to me, is not just a "study of man" by man, for man, but an examination and assertion of our potential to understand life itself as a whole. (inner self and outer world).


A: The possibility for openness is as many as there are individual, even more so as there are moments of joyful openness.

We need to use words with understanding, and we need to try to understand how other use words. The point is neither speaker nor words are fixed, and keeping up with them is called tolerance, listening to them is called patience, allowing them to speakis compassion, understanding them is wisdom.


Me: The possibility for openness is as many as there are individual, even more so as there are moments of joyful openness.

I hope I am not the only one who finds this problematic.

Presumably what you're trying to say is that each individual can be open, and the more individuals there are the more chances each has to be joyfully open to each other.

If this is the meaning of what you said, I really had to read your sentence many times before I understood what it was trying to say.

Yet, openness is not an unconditional good.

As the saying goes, "I believe in an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out."

We need to use words with understanding, and we need to try to understand how other use words. The point is neither speaker nor words are fixed, and keeping up with them is called tolerance, listening to them is called patience, allowing them to speakis compassion, understanding them is wisdom.

While it is important to understand other people, it does not mean that speakers and words are not fixed (perhaps you are a post-modernist at heart), as this would imply that we are stuck in a meaningless and fruitless wild goose chase.

In that case,
Keeping up with them is called sisyphean
Listening to them is called a waste of time
Allowing them to speak is called futility
Understanding them is impossible

"Buddhism is Beyond God and Religion," and
"Hinduism is Beyond God and Religion," and
"Christianity is Beyond God and Religion," and
"Islam is Beyond God and Religion," and
"Any religion is Beyond God and Religion," (Little
contradictory! :) ).


Ditto on problematic statements.

How can religions which involve gods be beyond both gods and themselves?

These statements are incoherent unless one redefines "God" and "Religion" to mean something different from what normal people understand them to mean.

In which case it's a bait-and-switch.

And may be, may be Humanist can overide with a common under current of Compassion.

Override what? What does it mean to override a religion? To replace it totally?

Humanism, to me, is not just a "study of man" by man, for man, but an examination and assertion of our potential to understand life itself as a whole. (inner self and outer world).

Given that the "inner self" sounds like it could be what people refer to as a "soul", I'm not sure what the point here is.

Humanism is about humans - by definition.

I don't see why it must emcompass understanding "life itself as a whole" (you're referring to animals? plants? rocks? the fabric of the cosmos?)
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