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Article 4369 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: A.Raman@massey.ac.nz (Anand)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: mean,meaner,MEANING-est/ intention-and-self the buddhist way
Message-ID: <1992Mar10.042136.28961@massey.ac.nz>
Date: 10 Mar 92 04:21:36 GMT
References: <kr5b29INN4hu@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> <1992Mar06.011801.8699@norton.com>
Organization: Massey University Computer Centre
Lines: 61

In article <1992Mar06.011801.8699@norton.com> brian@norton.com (Brian Yoder) writes:

>Which undoubtedly explains the vast achievements of Buddhist societies.
???

>I realize that they claim that you get what you want when you stop going
>after it, but what in the world makes you think that's true?  There is

I'd be interested to know what led you to form this conclusion.  I'm not a
Buddhist myself.  But  the understanding of Buddhism  that I have leads me
to believe that what the Buddha taught was not how the  mind works or what
the  structure of the  Universe is.  The  Buddha taught  what  sadness and
happiness are and  how  one can escape  from  sadness into happiness.   In
Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, Gotama explains exactly this to Siddhartha who
incessantly keeps  asking him  about the nature  of the  Mind and  of  the
Universe.

See also the famous `Poisoned Arrow Analogy' that the Buddha uses to
explain his path to Malunkyapatta, another nosy fellow who wants to know
how the Mind works.

Also, as Nagarjuna's Treatise   of the Middle  way  clearly  demonstrates,
Buddhist philosophy  is the   philosophy   of "No position".   That is,  a
position on purely philosophical[*] views is explicitly not taken - As the
Buddha explains that is because these views, although  many may exist, are
not fundamentally connected with  how to feel happy.  In  other words, one
does not have to know how the watch works in order to  be able to tell the
time.

>lack of striving is the way to achieve your goals.  It's mystical nonsense.

When you go after something, it is not that thing you are after, it is the
happiness you think that obtaining that thing will give you.  According to
the Buddha, happiness is  intrinsic to Human nature;  you don't need to go
after something in order to feel happy.  When  you go after something, you
lose sight of the `here and now'  and the  fact that you are intrinsically
happy.   By relinquishing  your  desire for objects, the  human   mind  is
restored to its natural state of pure  happiness.  Thus it  can be said to
have found what it was seeking by actually relinquishing its pursuit!

There  is nothing mystic  about Buddhism.   In fact,  Buddhism is the only
philosophy that does not lend   itself to Mysticism and explicitly  denies
affiliation with it.  See for example, `What the Buddha taught' by Walpola
Rahula,  (Grove press Inc.  NY) Christianity,  Hinduism, Islam and Judaism
all have  Mystic doctrines in them.  In  Buddhism,  if something cannot be
rationally justified then  it is discarded.  That  might also explain  why
there is  no such thing  as a Personal  God or  an immortal inner  Self in
Buddhism.

Also note that you don't find many Japanese going around saying that India
is pitz because Hinduism's Karma theory teaches Deterministic Inevitability
or that USA is dipping  into recession because they  believe  in a god who
created the world in seven days.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

- & (anand)

[*] Pure Philosophy: read as Philosophy without Pragmatic implications


