GENIUS FORUMS

I've been doing a little "wandering" of late.

You'll find an entertaining read here.

My current status is "banned."

Sorry, I didn't realize that you had to sign-up to read the posts.

Did you violate any of this?

"1) While it is acknowledged that levels of understanding of the Dharma will vary among members, and that all will have their own beliefs about it, certain doctrines such as karma, postmortem rebirth and not-self, are held to be core teachings by all Buddhist traditions. Members are free to privately disagree with these teachings, or to discuss and ask questions about them, but not to debate them, denigrate them, or deny that they were taught by the Buddha.

2) Members may not post, attach, use or send any posts, Personal Messages, links, images or files that promote a religion, belief, faith or doctrine other than "Buddhism." Promotion is defined as encouragement of the progress, growth, or acceptance of something including advertising and publicity.

3) These few "Buddhist" schools of thoughts are not recognized by E-sangha. No links to their websites, their books, or their followers' websites are allowed:

New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) and all other proponents of Dolgyal/Shugden
Dark Zen
True Buddha School
Aro Ter/Flaming Jewel Sangha

Yes, well--I registered, searched for your name, didn't find it anywhere, and left without entertainment, damn it...

Alex Jacob wrote:Did you violate any of this?

"1) While it is acknowledged that levels of understanding of the Dharma will vary among members, and that all will have their own beliefs about it, certain doctrines such as karma, postmortem rebirth . . .

They haven't yet fabricated any solid reason for banning me.

They said that I didn't believe in "postmortem rebirth", but I said that I did, it's just that my interpretation of "rebirth" was different to their own, and that my interpretation was the correct one.

Leyla Shen wrote:Yes, well--I registered, searched for your name, didn't find it anywhere, and left without entertainment, damn it...

Log-in, and then use the link at the top of this topic.

Kevin Solway wrote:They haven't yet fabricated any solid reason for banning me.

Have you actually been banned? When/how did that occur?

Edit: Doh, sorry, I see that you indicate that you were banned in your very first post to this thread. Still, I'm curious about the circumstances. Who informed you, and what was their reasoning?

guest_of_logic wrote:Still, I'm curious about the circumstances. Who informed you, and what was their reasoning?

I was banned by a female moderator, "red_dust". She straight-out deleted my first post, so I had to write another one in such a way that it wouldn't be immediately deleted. Basically, I think she's just very angry with me for being what she thinks is disrespectful to the monks, and for creating what she calls "agitation."

I think she is an example of why the Buddha didn't want to allow women to join the sangha.

Oh, so she specifically mentioned the word, "agitation"? How quaint. As if agitation wasn't necessary for progress.

To me the discussion reads as

boning in the boneyard

Kevin,
Since there are so many sutras of Buddha, talking about rebirth and recalling his past lives, maybe he did actually believe in literal rebirth and it could be due to it being the accepted truth in his society. Just as you believe in evolution by natural selection, as it is the accepted truth in our society. How can you claim that the Buddha taught rebirth in the same sense as you do.

maestro wrote:Since there are so many sutras of Buddha, talking about rebirth and recalling his past lives, maybe he did actually believe in literal rebirth and it could be due to it being the accepted truth in his society. Just as you believe in evolution by natural selection, as it is the accepted truth in our society. How can you claim that the Buddha taught rebirth in the same sense as you do.

Because when you read the stories of the Buddha's past lives, it's immediately obvious from the very nature of them that they're not meant to be taken literally. They're too fantastic and exaggerated to be mistaken for literal, historical accounts.

It's like Aesop's fable about the tortoise and the hare. The moment you start reading it you know that it's not meant to be taken literally.

Moreover, the language of reincarnation is incredibly meaningful if you interpret it to be saying something about cause and effect, and human psychology, whereas it becomes ridiculous if you take it literally.

I've been a member of this forum since March of this year. Here's a couple of my posts on femininity, masculinity, and sex, if anyone is interested.

Here's a couple of my posts on femininity, masculinity, and sex

It's always good to see what's happening in other parts of the internet world!

Kevin Solway wrote:Because when you read the stories of the Buddha's past lives, it's immediately obvious from the very nature of them that they're not meant to be taken literally. They're too fantastic and exaggerated to be mistaken for literal, historical accounts.

Why would Buddha not state his ideas in plain language and indulge in these metaphors? He could have said there is no post mortem rebirth; only the stream of cause and effect, which would have settled the matter with ease, but rather he went on to compile a recollection of his past lives as an animal, spirit, god and whatnot? What is the use of indulging in whimsical metaphors which will confuse people who are already so much confused? Does not seem very skillful on the Buddha's part.

Kevin Solway wrote:It's always good to see what's happening in other parts of the internet world!

Oh yeah. I'm not too impressed with the level of consciousness found on that forum, but the adminstrators do tolerate me, and I even get some positive feedback once in a while.

Kevin Solway wrote:I've been doing a little "wandering" of late.

I read the exchange, you came across as someone who is full of himself as a lofty enlightened being condescending to all and sundry.

maestro wrote:Why would Buddha not state his ideas in plain language and indulge in these metaphors?

The Buddhist scriptures weren't written till hundreds of years after the Buddha died. By that time, I expect that his teachings would have been filtered by many ignorant people, in much the same way as the Bible was, but not quite so badly.

It's possible that the Buddha made every effort to stop his teachings from being misinterpreted, but that his followers were so stupid that all his efforts came to naught. We'll never know.

And it may have been that he wasn't that wise after all.

maestro wrote:You came across as someone who is full of himself as a lofty enlightened being condescending to all and sundry.

It's hard not to appear that way in that company!

To some extent I was purposely projecting a particular aspect to try and shock them out of their complacency. They live in such an insulated world, it's difficult to get through to them in any way at all.

In my past experience with people of that type, beating around the bush with them will waste a lot of your time, and won't have any effect on them at all.

Kevin Solway wrote:It's hard not to appear that way in that company!

To some extent I was purposely projecting a particular aspect to try and shock them out of their complacency. They live in such a insulated world, it's difficult to get through to them in any way at all.

Seems like what Mikiel would say.

In my past experience with people of that type, beating around the bush with them will waste a lot your time, and won't have any effect on them at all.

But with the present exchange you come across as arrogant with delusions of grandeur, the effect was not beneficial to say the least. Perhaps you should have gone into a patient discussion in depth and pointed out logical inconsistencies in the theory of rebirth, they may not agree with you immediately but over the long term the logical inconsistencies would never leave a serious person and would chip away at false beliefs.

According to the rules, he could only have done that in private messages, not in public.

Patient and didactic discussion is...so boring. Is there a way you could have prophesied that a 'cause' would act as 'effect' upon them that would, say, destroy their cities, enslave their women, and carry off their wailing children in fish-baskets?

So much discourse these days is so...uneventful if you ask me.

Alex Jacob wrote:Patient and didactic discussion is...so boring. Is there a way you could have prophesied that a 'cause' would act as 'effect' upon them that would, say, destroy their cities, enslave their women, and carry off their wailing children in fish-baskets?

So much discourse these days is so...uneventful if you ask me.

I know your predilection for fantastic tales like those in "Autobiography of a yogi", my suggestion was for the serious seeker, who values logic.

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-Kevin Solway- It's hard not to appear that way in that company!

-tomas butts in-
Yeah, especially if the admin (the supervisor) is of a lower IQ (and intellectual level) it makes for a bad hair day.




-Kevin continues-
To some extent I was purposely projecting a particular aspect to try and shock them out of their complacency. They live in such a insulated world, it's difficult to get through to them in any way at all.

-tomas butts in-
A controlled environment is like that. You have your summer air conditioning and winter heating. Much like fair-weather friends. Open windows allow what comes in circulates and out another window. The ones that detect the wind currents are the better for it.




-Maestro-
Seems like what Mikiel would say.

-tomas butts in-
Well, Mikiel and Kevin are breaths of fresh air. They both have 'wind gusts' that are neither hot nor cold. Not so easy to spit out :-)




-Kevin-
In my past experience with people of that type, beating around the bush with them will waste a lot your time, and won't have any effect on them at all.

-tomas butts in-
Sure, cast that (Barbie) rod and reel, with the proper type of bait, and the fishers of men will always draw in the clean fish (and the rough fish are tossed back).




-Maestro-
But with the present exchange you come across as arrogant with delusions of grandeur, the effect was not beneficial to say the least. Perhaps you should have gone into a patient discussion in depth and pointed out logical inconsistencies in the theory of rebirth, they may not agree with you immediately but over the long term the logical inconsistencies would never leave a serious person and would chip away at false beliefs.

-tomas butts in-
Naw, it's called, Hit 'n Get.

The ones that see your message as crystal clear will understand.



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It's a big no-no in Buddhist circles to be enlightened. It never happens to someone else during the lifetime of the unenlightened.

Kevin, as far as I know, the Buddha was literate but left nothing in writing. Is that correct?