GENIUS FORUMS

Why did Lao Tsu say this: Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations. instead of this: Ever desireless, one can see the mystery and the manifestations. Ever desiring, one can only see the manifestations. hmmm? Perhaps because the QRS understanding of the...

San Bao; My question regarding the rock was explicitly premised on David's definition of enlightenment. Your (revised) definition, "the absence of delusion that would otherwise be present" requires that mental activity be present. In fact, your definition requires such mental activity tha...

Then why not call existence 'chicken soup'...in resemblence it is certainly closer than god or spirit or whatever, and makes more sense. It makes more sense to you , because you are a child of "modernity" and as such you have severed contact with the mythic and the poetic as modes of expr...

Diebert; Given David's definition of enlightenment, True enlightenment doesn't require any mental activity to maintain itself. How does a rock not qualify; i.e. what would an entity require to be enlightened? Would you say a rock is "blind" or would it be more accurate to say it has simpl...

Any serious pholosophical argument about the existence of god must first consider what is primary in the order of things i.e.EXISTENCE. That's why, in this century, theists can no longer be taken seriously...why they lapse into propaganda or claptrap. I mean, did this god thing they waffle on about...

Something to ponder, although many here will no doubt look dubiously at the source of this aphorism:

"Art is never decoration or embellishment; it is the very work of enlightenment. Art, in other words, is a technique for attaining liberation."

(Bruce Lee)

Thank you anyway for noting that there is a similarity in the words, and type boda tree into google and see what you get. I didn't get anything related to Buddhism, or to Ficus religiosa . Type in "Boda Tree" in wikipedia, I garuntee you will not find "bodhi tree". If "Bodh...

Um, actually, it's BODHI tree, not "boda" tree... Ficus religiosa in plant language :P And I can't say a coincidental similarity between a Pali word and a modern Spanish word evokes much of a response from me. "Boda" owes far more to Latin and various Gallic dialects than it does...

This of course raises the question: "If we are 'built' merely to reproduce, why do we have this seemingly innate drive toward happiness?" The easy answer is, of course, that it is a delusion. Assuming that is so (and it may not be), why should such an illusion arise in the first place? As ...

clyde , I think you raise a valid point. There are some basic problems with Idealistic Monism that few Idealistic Monisms ever stop to properly address. Having said that, I favor the idea of a so-called "neutral" monism (or non-dualism as you prefer). Jehu alludes to this approach. There'...

"Rebirth", it seems to me, is a metaphor for the moment-to-moment arising and passing away of consciousness (as average has already mentioned). I think that the "six realms" of Mahayana Buddhism are ultimately modes of consciousness, which one may be "reborn" into at an...

An analytic philosopher once said, "A metaphysicians is a musician without talent for music."

I don't think I necessarily agree with that, but it does to seem to sum up the thoughts of average on this matter.

Something that has struck me from perusing the forums here is an (apparent?) contradiction between the Buddhist sunyata and the Aristotelian proposition A = A, both of which are affirmed despite this (perhaps merely apparent) contradiction. As most of you probably know, A = A is commonly defined as ...