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> Much of the doctrine is not acceptable to a modern Western worldview, so researchers of meditation have to cherry-pick the parts of Buddhism they like and ign
by schoen 5y ago
> Much of the doctrine is not acceptable to a modern Western worldview, so researchers of meditation have to cherry-pick the parts of Buddhism they like and ignore the rest. For example, they might draw from certain passages of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta about developing mindfulness of the breath and body but overlook other passages about meditating over a corpse at a charnel ground. Or they might integrate into their research the Dalai Lama’s teachings on compassion, but they stop listening when he gets to the teachings on rebirth.
David Chapman has a whole (long, elaborate) theory about this:
https://vividness.live/consensus-buddhism https://vividness.live/consensus-buddhism
(actually I guess you could spend several days tracking down all of the different pieces of this account that Chapman has written across his several web sites!)
- Trasmatta 5y ago> but overlook other passages about meditating over a corpse at a charnel ground As morbid as that is, I feel like I would actually gain a lot of value from doing that...
- southeastern 5y agoDeath meditations are common in a lot of faiths. In Islam it's mentioned in hadith, Christianity has the practice of memento mori. And even in Time there was a tradition that during a Triumph, a large parade for a successful military commander and one of the greatest honors that could be bestowed on a person, a slave would be tasked to sit by the commanders ear during the celebration and whisper "remember you will die". I think it's naturally something a lot of people could gain from
- schoen 5y agoIf you've been around Catholics on Ash Wednesday, you may have seen them wearing ashes, which were probably imposed by a priest reciting "Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris." (Remember, man, that you are dust, and to dust you will return.) a liturgical adaptation of Genesis 3:19.
- loopz 5y agoAnd, if birth is possible, why wouldn't rebirth be possible, or even the extreme default? It just seems silly to deny possibilities.
- fishmaster 5y agoWhat is silly is saying that everything is possible until proven otherwise. It's possible when it's discovered, otherwise it's not.
- loopz 5y agoOk, let's wait until someone else discovers then.
- harleypig 5y agoIf it's not possible, it's not studied or researched, so it will never be proven otherwise. It's much more open-ended to say the opposite; that it's possible until it's proven not to be. Much of our knowledge was discovered or formulated either because a person didn't know it "wasn't possible" or in defiance of consensus.
- gremloni 5y agoThe burden of proof is on the person making the claim.