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> The reference was to the moralizing; for all you wrote, I still see tension between a stance based on eliminating cravings and a life spent stoking and satisf

> The reference was to the moralizing; for all you wrote, I still see tension between a stance based on eliminating cravings and a life spent stoking and satisfying for cash cravings. It seems as though that tension arises in you simply imposing your misunderstandings of what Buddhism seeks to do in eliminating worldly desires, though. Buddhism fundamentally offers the proposition "if you are dissatisfied with life, and if you agree that certain things are responsible for that dissatisfaction, here is what you can do about it." It isn't proselytory. It doesn't require that you impose that view on others, or work to reduce their attachment, whether they want it or not, out of some need to save them from some Western concept like sin. The fact that you think the right livelihood for a Buddhist ought to be one that in no way involves creating or selling things that people might form worldly attachments to, doesn't mean that Buddhism itself teaches that, or that people doing so are behaving inconsistently with the teachings of the Buddha. There are Buddhist teachings surrounding what the right livelihood is and is not. Being a salesman doesn't fall under the "inconsistent with the teachings of Buddhism" livelihoods, even though it, by definition, means making others want to buy things from you.

pbhjpbhj 15y ago
So you're saying Buddhism as you see it teaches you to screw other people over (cause them to become more attached to material things) in order to benefit yourself at their expense? It's not that Apple is about selling things that people might form attachments too - that's the business model, to make people become attached to them in order to continue to sell to them. That doesn't mesh with the, admittedly very limited, reading/experience of Buddhism I've had.
- msbarnett 15y ago
  > So you're saying Buddhism as you see it teaches you to screw other people over (cause them to become more attached to material things) in order to benefit yourself at their expense? No, not at all. Attachment isn't like sin. To a Buddhist, attachment is more like lactose to a lactose-intolerant. You can recognize that lactose is the root of your difficulties, and work to eliminate it from your life, while still working for the Milk Council without that being some kind of deep moral hypocrisy. Just because it causes suffering for you doesn't mean other people have a problem with it, and even if they do, it doesn't mean they can't choose to drink the occasional glass without over-doing things. You can work a job and buy an iPod and sleep with your wife without being attached to those things in the unhealthy way that Buddhists mean by attachment.

pbhjpbhj 15y ago

So you're saying Buddhism as you see it teaches you to screw other people over (cause them to become more attached to material things) in order to benefit yourself at their expense? It's not that Apple is about selling things that people might form attachments too - that's the business model, to make people become attached to them in order to continue to sell to them. That doesn't mesh with the, admittedly very limited, reading/experience of Buddhism I've had.

msbarnett 15y ago
> So you're saying Buddhism as you see it teaches you to screw other people over (cause them to become more attached to material things) in order to benefit yourself at their expense? No, not at all. Attachment isn't like sin. To a Buddhist, attachment is more like lactose to a lactose-intolerant. You can recognize that lactose is the root of your difficulties, and work to eliminate it from your life, while still working for the Milk Council without that being some kind of deep moral hypocrisy. Just because it causes suffering for you doesn't mean other people have a problem with it, and even if they do, it doesn't mean they can't choose to drink the occasional glass without over-doing things. You can work a job and buy an iPod and sleep with your wife without being attached to those things in the unhealthy way that Buddhists mean by attachment.