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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: spiral3 who wrote (142625)	8/5/2004 5:01:42 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I understand the (Hinayana) Buddhist concept well enough: there are bundles of attributes of the "self", but they are all transient, ultimately, there is nothing there. In those terms, Nirvana is cessation. The right path is non- attachment, that is, cultivating indifference to fortune, much like the Stoics. Severe asceticism is just another form of attachment, since it puts too much emphasis on the struggle with the flesh. Moderation is the correct route, living simply and calmly. Zen, which is Mahayana, came along later to address the propensity to metaphysical speculation, which distracts a certain kind of individual from non- attachment. It sought to quiet the mind through koans and sitting za- zen. (It derived its name from the Sanscrit term Dhyana, which means meditation). Like the Pyrrhonic skeptics of classical antiquity, it advocated the suspension of the mind, refraining from investing in doctrine, but achieving a glimpse of Enlightenment in unmediated encounter with the Buddha- nature. In other words, by rejecting every image of the Buddha- nature, one finally sees it in a flash. I get all of this, but what it has to do with Descartes or the pineal gland beats me.