Search found 203 matches

by tharpa
Mon Aug 13, 2007 9:48 am
Forum: Archives
Topic: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin
Replies: 169
Views: 290702

Re: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin

tharpa, I thought it was interesting the anecdote in the radio interview with Dr. Berzin how K and Q took pride in not respecting the simple form of standing when a teacher enters or not putting the soles of the feet towards the shrine. Of course there can be some value to stirring the pot, challen...
by tharpa
Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:25 am
Forum: Archives
Topic: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin
Replies: 169
Views: 290702

Re: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin

Diebert wrote: "Actually it becomes easier to understand if you get versed in other traditions as well. Because human nature doesn't differ that much cross-culture. To me Buddhism is not especially dynamic and vibrant - not different anyway from the dynamic or vibes of Christianity or the Islam...
by tharpa
Mon Aug 13, 2007 12:15 am
Forum: Archives
Topic: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin
Replies: 169
Views: 290702

fundamentalism as a sub-plot

I thought it was interesting the anecdote in the radio interview with Dr. Berzin how K and Q took pride in not respecting the simple form of standing when a teacher enters or not putting the soles of the feet towards the shrine. Of course there can be some value to stirring the pot, challenging rigi...
by tharpa
Sun Aug 12, 2007 11:39 pm
Forum: Archives
Topic: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin
Replies: 169
Views: 290702

Re: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin

Sorry, don't feel like putting out a 150 page thesis for those who haven't read it. I regard your remark above as a bit childish, as if it is always inappropriate to study past wisdom. If that were the case, Quinn would have had to make up everything on this site from scratch without referring to a...
by tharpa
Sun Aug 12, 2007 11:15 pm
Forum: Archives
Topic: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin
Replies: 169
Views: 290702

Re: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin

It is precisely because he is not the same person as the thirteenth DL that he can be the 'tulku' known as the XIVth. Tharpa, why do you think there are not, say 50 thirteenth Dalai Lama's, or 103? Assuming there is any significant causal link between one Dalai Lama and the next, what do you think ...
by tharpa
Sun Aug 12, 2007 2:37 am
Forum: Archives
Topic: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin
Replies: 169
Views: 290702

Re: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin

There is no point in discussing a text except with those who have read and contemplating it. So that is a non-starter unfortunately. So you are just left with my remarks, which are not about that text but are remarks of whatever worth. There's no point in bringing up a text without giving any speci...
by tharpa
Sun Aug 12, 2007 12:52 am
Forum: Archives
Topic: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin
Replies: 169
Views: 290702

Re: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin

There is no point in discussing a text except with those who have read and contemplating it. So that is a non-starter unfortunately. So you are just left with my remarks, which are not about that text but are remarks of whatever worth. I think you ducked continuity. I was speaking in a very earthy, ...
by tharpa
Sat Aug 11, 2007 1:11 am
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: Emptiness & A=A
Replies: 41
Views: 10791

Re: Emptiness & A=A

"A" stands for any appearance that we happen to directly perceive in each moment. Got it. In fact, that is how I was understanding it a while back but from all the discussion (in one or two threads) thought that perhaps I had missed an earlier exposition. Thank you. I should and will chew ...
by tharpa
Sat Aug 11, 2007 12:34 am
Forum: Archives
Topic: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin
Replies: 169
Views: 290702

continuity

OK, so this is really the issue: continuity. In my personal experience, there is continuity between the person who went to bed last night and the one who woke up this morning. Also when I get up from the desk to refill the teacup I can do so and return, the entire affair involving continuities of al...
by tharpa
Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:18 am
Forum: Archives
Topic: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin
Replies: 169
Views: 290702

Re: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin

Nice post, good points well made. "You sound so sure, so serious. What makes you say that? Why wouldn't consciousness rise when the circumstances are right, whatever they are precisely (body, cells, nerves, growth, etc)." Because consciousness is a function of the space principle beyond lo...
by tharpa
Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:17 am
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: Emptiness & A=A
Replies: 41
Views: 10791

Re: Emptiness & A=A

Later on you say: "David Quinn: As far as directly perceiving things in the moment is concerned, we are only talking about appearances and nothing else. If something appears to you to be an apple, then that what it is - a thing that appears to be an apple. If in the next moment, it appears to b...
by tharpa
Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:58 am
Forum: Archives
Topic: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin
Replies: 169
Views: 290702

soul

Diebert: the point about soul was that there was no airy-fairy substance that passes from one life to the next and the joke was that dealing with the solid earth of the here and now, and the sole being the lowest point of the dressed person versus the ineffable highest mystical aspect. In other word...
by tharpa
Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:28 am
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: Emptiness & A=A
Replies: 41
Views: 10791

Re: Emptiness & A=A

David, thank you for that reference. In the first section we find towards the end: "David Quinn: Well, now we are heading into the realm of A=A, and the direct perception of identity. The logical process involves recognizing the identity of a thing and, in the same moment, recognizing what it i...
by tharpa
Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:06 pm
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: Emptiness & A=A
Replies: 41
Views: 10791

re consciousness requires objects in order to exist

Thanks, Matt. Although I might not agree with that conclusion, it makes enough sense that I can consider it. Now just to be sure, hopefully others including one or more of the founders will post to verify whether this is a reasonably accurate description/definition of what they mean by A = A. Becaus...
by tharpa
Mon Aug 06, 2007 1:31 pm
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: Emptiness & A=A
Replies: 41
Views: 10791

Worth reposting

Anna: I have seen in a few places the forum hosts have stated A=A is the foundation of logic, and some convoluted arguments about that, but no further development of the idea. I can't figure out where it ties together with your philosophy. Dan Rowden: Well, let me try and give a hopefully succinct a...
by tharpa
Mon Aug 06, 2007 1:19 pm
Forum: Archives
Topic: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin
Replies: 169
Views: 290702

Re: Tibetan Buddhism - Dr Alexander Berzin

Man with no brain functions as civil servant in France. Those who believe that mind is rooted in the brain might need to think twice about their 'belief' system in this regard. http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/4574.php?from=98572 (photos only) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-07/l...
by tharpa
Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:41 am
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: Emptiness & A=A
Replies: 41
Views: 10791

Re: Emptiness & A=A

I was on this forum for the first time a while back and there was a thread on A = A. I asked then and now ask again - since noone replied the first time: could someone please give a clear definition of what is meant by A = A on this forum (presumably based on something Quinn or Solway etc. have writ...
by tharpa
Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:27 am
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: Blind religious belief in science
Replies: 51
Views: 9333

Re: Blind religious belief in science

This is a good, top-level article about all this: http://www.ldolphin.org/vanFlandern/gravityspeed.html Last 2 paragraphs: Near the end of his career, Lorentz is quoted as having graciously conceded the contest: “My theory can obtain all the same results as special relativity, but perhaps not with...
by tharpa
Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:17 pm
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: The Heart
Replies: 36
Views: 13507

Fine, since you started the thread - with a poem I cited in another thread about compassion etc. - about heart, but have defined it as pure logic, I have nothing to contribute. The vocabulary makes no sense to me and obviously much of what I say makes no sense to you, i.e. that emotions are the basi...
by tharpa
Tue Jan 09, 2007 2:55 pm
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: The Heart
Replies: 36
Views: 13507

Kelly, it is interesting that in a thread on heart, one of your main examples is a stick = stick, A = A. A mother's love for her child is an example of a heartfelt truth. Of course, it can go all over the map in terms of being sane/neurotic etc., but as long as you want to use the english language, ...
by tharpa
Sat Jan 06, 2007 2:17 am
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: memories
Replies: 17
Views: 6924

I hear what you are saying about systems. It's a push-me pull-you. Given that most of our world is indeed part of an interdependent complex (i.e. is not really all that simple), certain types of system theory mirror the underlying processes rather well. But when taken too literally - or dogmatically...
by tharpa
Fri Jan 05, 2007 3:51 pm
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: memories
Replies: 17
Views: 6924

tharpa; Whatever the cognitive abilities required to form the concept ‘hot’, once that concept is formed, it is remembered. (Note: Memory occurs without our intention.) Now, “when the conditions arise that are close enough to the ones that we first labelled as 'hot', then immediately we recog...
by tharpa
Fri Jan 05, 2007 3:28 pm
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: The Heart
Replies: 36
Views: 13507

Tharpa wrote: The two truths are absolute and relative truth. You have posited absolute truth as something which exists on its own, so to speak. In fact, it exists only in comparison to relative truth; and in fact neither exist at all. I think you're saying that, since the absoluteness of absolute ...
by tharpa
Fri Jan 05, 2007 2:55 pm
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: The Heart
Replies: 36
Views: 13507

Tharpa wrote: As far as I know, Kelly, I was responding to your logic. Where you felt that I wasn't, you could provide specific commentary to make yr point clear. Ok. Here is some specific commentary to refresh the memory and make my point clear: You're defining the Buddha (the "heart", o...
by tharpa
Fri Jan 05, 2007 2:44 pm
Forum: GENIUS FORUM
Topic: memories
Replies: 17
Views: 6924

well, I am saying that each is somewhat 'the echo' of the other. The function of encapsulating the whole experience of touching a stove into 'hot' - which at this infant level in the example is a certain type of pain, not a scientific definition of temperature - requires a cognitive ability to summa...