Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: biotech_bull who wrote (72748)	6/17/2008 9:19:42 PM
From: spiral3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 543013

Something along the lines of Taoist non-duality? Bull, you ask complicated questions, the answer is yes and no. The only place that non dualism really exists is within the realm of our subjective experience. To say that non dualism exists is to have a very specific experience. I believe we all have small glimpses of what we can imagine this experience might be, such as when we're not consciously thinking about something, like when you're just in the flow. You see it a lot in sports. Since we already have a basis for it, I believe that with the right training this experience can be further developed and sustained over periods of time, that the dualism of conceptual thought for ex. can be eliminated, so that all that's left is awareness, which is the basis upon which conceptual though arises. The artificial boundaries between mind and body dissolve as the experience deepens. At least that's what I've been led to believe <g> I take it on good faith from those who have told me this, they have never lied to me about anything ever and they have no interest in deceiving me, of this I am certain. This knowledge has travelled down through the ages via contemplatives, adepts and some wild and crazy guys. Talking of lines and of the people who draw them, they have a deep respect for the lineage, are concerned that is does not get broken, that it is not corrupted. While 'Emptiness' might be the transcendent experience in (Madhyamika Prasangika) Buddhism, Taoism aims for transcendence by being at one with the Tao, or being the Tao. They are very different paths. Parts of Taoism found it's way into Chinese / Japanese Buddhism, there are divisions within broad sect too, these are not monolithic entities. They share in common the belief that individual awareness is a valid instrument, it's pursuit a path to knowledge and the empirical finding that awareness consists of what they call a luminous nature. The roads travelled to such enlightenment vary widely. For examples Buddhists would follow the Noble Eightfold Path, but for Taoists there are no such rules, the path is an individually derived experience, one that comes from within. You get a lot of wacked out Taoists. The Prasangika school for ex. is relentlessly logical in it's formulations and has actually got the entire experience from 'start' to 'finish' pretty well mapped out, for those who want to give it a shot. It's a process that anyone can follow, there are specific methods and tools depending upon one's disposition and short/long term objectives. There are checks and balances, there are target states and very clear explications on how to recognize them. It's quite a technology. Taoism has none of this. wrt the biggies, they both perceive life, death and rebirth as a continuous cycle, but in different ways. Taoism doesn't have theories of Karma like Buddhists do, yet the determining factors of one's life are still contained within one's actions so there is a lot of similarity besides the differences. Very broadly speaking the aim of the game for Taoists is immortality, for Buddhists, the permanent elimination of suffering. On the experiential level these things go hand in hand. The experience of non-duality arises for both, on the basis of the same inner awareness, or what Buddhists might call Buddha nature. This too, all of it, the concept of emptiness or liberation, the experience of it or of immortality, and our own inner awareness of both these things, are empty of inherent existence, they depend on causes and conditions to arise, they are dependently arisen, therefore they exist conventionally.