Love Letters to Richard Dawkins (NSFW)

Via Tricycle: Was the Buddha an Atheist?

Preeminent Buddhist thinkers—Badiner, Kornfield, Batchelor, and Thurman—weigh in. Philip Wolfson 

"The Buddha was an atheist."
Writer Allan Badiner made this bald pronouncement in the midst of a conversation that spanned the wee hours of a cloudless Burning Man night. Sitting in a vast tent where, during the day, scores of partygoers had washed off their dust and grime in a plexiglass chamber, we discussed prevailing notions of a Buddhist godhead and, conversely, our mutual embrace of the religion in its secular form.  
I was most intrigued, though, by Badiner’s description of the Buddha as an atheist. I asked for sources. 
 Allan’s first response:

I would need time to do it, but there are passages from the Tripitaka that strongly indicate that the Buddha denied the existence of a creator god. Rather than classify him as an atheist or an agnostic, it would be more appropriate to use the term nontheist. An atheist believes only what he can see but, of course, the Buddha suggested that not all that you see is real.

I responded with enthusiasm and persistence: "I like nontheist—thanks—but do send me the citation when you can."
He did:

According to Stephen Batchelor’s Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist, on the few occasions in the [Pali] Canon . . . where the question of God is addressed, Gautama is presented as an ironic atheist. The rejection of God is not a mainstay of his teaching, so he did not get worked up about it. Such passages have the flavor of a diversion, a light entertainment, in which another of humanity’s irrational opinions is gently ridiculed and put aside. This approach stands in contrast to the aggressive atheism that periodically erupts in the modern West. The Buddha regarded questions about the cause of the universe, or other questions related to a creator god as not useful, in light of the more important task of bringing about the cessation of human suffering. 

A few weeks later, at a conference on psychedelic research in Marin, California, I asked Insight Meditation Society cofounder Jack Kornfield the same question: "Was the Buddha an atheist?"
He responded later in an email, in his usual sweet manner:
"Yes, the Buddha was a nontheist. But he believed in and talked a lot about Brahma, King of the Gods and about other Gods . . .” 
He continued, rather cryptically, with a quote from the Buddha himself: A star at dawn, a drop of dew, an echo, a rainbow and a dream.
Now we were getting somewhere, or perhaps nowhere, or maybe somewhere rather koan-istic.
Then Stephen Batchelor himself weighed in on our group email:

I’m happy you are happy with nontheist. The problems are manifold.  The term atheist as we use it today would not have been used in that way at the Buddha’s time. Nor, for that matter, would the concept nontheist. There are no equivalents for either in Pali or Sanskrit, though many Hindus today still regard the Buddha as a nastika, usually translated as nihilist but which means something like one who asserts there is nothing.  
Again, the Buddha would have rejected this since he warns against the two extremes of atthi [it is] and natthi [it is not] and seeks to establish his dharma in the middle (madhyama), which does not lapse into the extremes of eternalism or annihilationism. The Buddha simply did not define himself or his teaching in such ways. So trying to capture him in these terms is bound to misrepresent him.
On the other hand, the only way we can talk about him and his vision is via the concepts of our own time and language, which has been the case throughout Buddhist history in the different countries in which it took root. I take nontheist to mean one who does not employ God as a necessary term in his or her teaching. In this sense, yes, the Buddha was a nontheist. 
However since he is recorded in the Agganna Sutta as mocking and rejecting the very idea of God, he also comes close to being an atheist in the modern sense. It is probably best to drop trying to categorize the Buddha in any of these ways, to cultivate a healthy skepticism regarding views and opinions, and to concentrate on practicing the dharma instead. 

Stephen, as usual, had cut through the Gordian Knot with that “practice the dharma” thing—or get over yourself with the intellectual stuff that leads to more intellectual stuff: the obsessional path. It stung like the smack of the keisaku provoking a kensho. 
Then, some weeks later when I had almost given up, Bob Thurman, noted Columbia University Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, gave his view:

From the records we have, I think we can fairly say that Buddha was a non-monotheist—or non-creator-theist— and also a non-atheist, since he was in conversation with various gods quite often, actually one of his names was devamanusyanam shasta (Pali), or teacher of gods and humans. So the Buddha is an example of one who can be a theist while rejecting a creator. As I like to say, no one person is to blame for creating this whole mess—other than each of us, that is!

So there you have it—as close to the horses’ mouths as I can get. Pick and choose from atheist, nontheist, agnostic, non-creator-theist, and non-atheist; or make up one of your own. 
Did I learn something from this? Yes. For one, as Stephen said, pinning the Buddha down to a specific category of belief is a difficult thing, because we live in a different time with a different set of values and a whole other language to express them. Therefore, we cannot know the Buddha directly as a historical personage. Moreover, Buddhism has been of such benefit to a variety of practitioners, its modifications and commentaries leaves grown from a single tree. Why hold the Buddha stuck in place? The dharma is a moving thing. And clearly, he, Gautama, touched its essence. For that wisdom we owe great gratitude to the Buddha, atheist or not, and all those who have breathed life into his path.

Phil Wolfson is a psychiatrist and secular Buddhist practitioner. He lives in the Bay Area.
Image: Chris Sorensen/Gallerystock

Please read the original article here

Via Daily Dharma

Choosing Wisdom | February 2, 2015 In all likelihood, the environmental crises we will encounter in the coming decades and probably centuries will bring great upheavals and immense suffering. It is all so hard to wrap one’s mind around because the problem is unprecedented in magnitude. At the same time, we have the whole history of human wisdom to draw upon in making our choices and taking action. The defining question of our age will be how we meet the calamities we will face, and how we will act to mitigate them and find our virtue in confronting them. The stakes couldn’t be higher, yet as human beings, we are not only expert in creating misery, we are also expert in working to resolve it. Both legacies, and the ability to choose which to follow, belong to us. - James Shaheen, "Choosing Wisdom in the Face of Peril" Read More →

Via Beloved Festival / FB:

 

I looked in temples, churches & mosques. I found the Divine within my Heart. ~Rumi

Via FB:

Via Daily Dharma

Get Out of the Way | February 1, 2015 You cultivate rich, fertile, living ground for insight and compassion, for deep human feeling, to continually sprout and take seed. It’s a natural process. You can’t force it. You simply set the right conditions in motion and then get out of the way. - Steve Krieger, "Growing Ground" Read More →

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VIa JMG: Today in Republican Lesbain Bullshit

Mary Cheney: Drag Is Like Blackface

"Why is it socially acceptable - as a form of entertainment - for men to put on dresses, make up and high heels and act out every offensive stereotype of women (bitchy, catty, dumb, slutty, etc.) - but it is not socially acceptable - as a form of entertainment - for a white person to put on blackface and act out offensive stereotypes of African Americans? Shouldn’t both be OK or neither?" - Mary Cheney, writing on her Facebook page after seeing an ad for the upcoming season of RuPaul's Drag Race. (Tipped by JMG reader Scott)

Labels: drag, homocons, Mary Cheney, RuPaul

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Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 31/01/2015

“Trabalho para criar união, e a união só é criada através do amor. É através do amor que dissolvemos os conflitos, pois ele é o solvente universal para todos os males.”
Acesse o Satsang Completo: bit.ly/1yrjOx8

“Trabajo para crear unión, y la unión sólo es creada a través del amor. Es a través del amor que disolvemos los conflictos, pues él es el solvente universal para todos los males.”

“I work towards creating union, and union can only be created through love. It is through love that we dissolve all conflicts, for it is the universal solvent for all evil.”

 - Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

The Dharma of Action | January 31, 2015 We are good at studying, publishing, and spreading the word of Buddhism. Where we have not been very successful is showcasing the compassion and selflessness of the dharma by our actions. We have written many more words in our books than what few kind words we have spoken to the poor, lonely, and desperate. We have built so many more temples than orphanages. - Ajahn Brahm, "Putting an End to Buddhist Patriarchy" Read More →

Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 30/01/2015

“Se existe lamentação, existe ingratidão. Mas, para evoluir no processo de cura é preciso encontrar a gratidão. Se você não está podendo ser grato, trate de investigar por que. Trate de encarar seu ódio, seus ressentimentos e seus medos. Somente assim você poderá ser iluminado pela sagrada compreensão que te leva ao perdão, que por sua vez te liberta do passado. E não perca o seu mais valioso tesouro - o tempo - com reclamações, julgamentos, comparações e acusações. Isso é somente distração. A vida neste plano é como uma bolha de sabão, quando você menos espera... Foi.”
Acesse o Satsang Completo: bit.ly/1CviIRC

“Si existe lamento, existe ingratitud. Pero para evolucionar en el proceso de cura es necesario encontrar la gratitud. Si no estás pudiendo ser agradecido, trata de investigar por qué. Trata de encarar tu odio, tus resentimientos y tus miedos. Solamente así podrás ser iluminado por la sagrada comprensión que te lleva al perdón, que a su vez te libera del pasado. Y no pierdas tu más valioso tesoro - el tiempo – con reclamos, juicios, comparaciones y acusaciones. Eso es solamente distracción. La vida en este plano es como una burbuja de jabón, cuando menos lo esperas... Fue.”

“If there are complaints, then a lack of gratitude also exists. In order to evolve in the process of healing, it’s necessary to find gratitude. If we’re unable to be grateful, then try to investigate why this is so. We must try to confront our hatred, our resentments and our fears. By doing this, we may be illuminated by sacred comprehension that leads us to forgiveness, which in turn frees us from the past. We mustn’t waste our most precious treasure, time, with complaints, judgments, comparisons and accusations. All of this is just a distraction. Life in this realm is like a soap bubble: when we least expect it, it’s gone.”

- Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

Student Creates Teacher | January 30, 2015 In order to work with a teacher, there needs to be a student. We often skip over this: It’s easy to waste time going through the motions of entering the room for a face-to-face teaching, but to not really be a student—to just be someone who wants to debate, or to prove something. Often, a real spiritual meeting is not available even though the bows have been made. Yet once a student develops, it is inevitable that a teacher will appear in their life. They create each other. - Bonnie Myotai Treace, Sensei, "The Sword Disappears in the Water" Read More →

Via Rawstory: Famed biologist: Religion ‘is dragging us down’ and must be eliminated ‘for the sake of human progress’

"Plos wilson" by Jim Harrison - PLoS. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons.

 

Biologist E. O. Wilson, who is known as the “the father of sociobiology,” said recently that the Earth was suffering “the death of a thousand cuts” because of religion. 

 In the most recent issue of New Scientist, Wilson explained that his next book would look at the future of humans and the Earth. 

The Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist warned that people had not yet realized that the “tribal structure” had been destroying the planet by “a thousand cuts,” according a partial transcript obtained by the International Business Times.

“All the ideologies and religions have their own answers for the big questions, but these are usually bound as a dogma to some kind of tribe,” he said. “Religions in particular feature supernatural elements that other tribes – other faiths – cannot accept … And every tribe, no matter how generous, benign, loving and charitable, nonetheless looks down on all other tribes. What’s dragging us down is religious faith.”

“Humans everywhere have a strong tendency to wonder about whether they’re being looked over by a god or not. Practically every person ponders whether they’re going to have another life,” Wilson continued. “These are the things that unite humanity.”

But he said that the “transcendent searching has been hijacked by the tribal religions.”

“So I would say that for the sake of human progress, the best thing we could possibly do would be to diminish, to the point of eliminating, religious faiths. But certainly not eliminating the natural yearnings of our species or the asking of these great questions.”

Wilson, who was raised as a Baptist in Alabama, has said that he “drifted” away from Christianity, but he doesn’t refer to himself as an atheist. 

Read the full article here

 

Via Mahtab Parsa / FB:

Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 29/01/2015

O serviço acontece quando você doa seus dons e talentos, pois eles são a maneira que o amor encontra para se expressar através de você. E quando o amor é colocado em movimento, isso gera contentamento e alegria na sua vida e na vida dos outros. O amor e a felicidade passam por você para chegar aos outros. Esse é o poder do serviço; ele te coloca dentro desse fluxo e você se torna um elo na corrente da felicidade.”
Acesse o Satsang Completo: bit.ly/1DKa5Xd

“El servicio sucede cuando entregas tus dones y talentos, pues ellos son la manera que el amor encuentra para expresarse a través tuyo. Y cuando el amor es colocado en movimiento, eso genera contentamiento y alegría en tu vida y en la vida de los otros. El amor y la felicidad pasan por ti para llegar a los otros. Ese es el poder del servicio; él te coloca dentro de ese flujo y tú te tornas un eslabón en la cadena de la felicidad.”

“Service happens when you give of your gifts and talents, for they are the ways that love finds to express itself through you. When love is put into motion, it brings contentment and joy into your life and the lives of others. Love and happiness pass through you in order to reach others. This is the power of service. It places you in this flow and you become a link in the chain of happiness.”

- Sri Prem Baba