RE: virus: Buddhism (was Free thought and control)

Marie L. Foster (mfos@ieway.com)
Sun, 19 Oct 1997 23:31:28 -0700


>
>On the other hand, given the sort of attitudes
>towards religion we see around here, maybe it
>would be good memetic engineering to adopt
>Batchelor's semantics, and insist that Buddhism
>is not a religion.
>
>Robin
>

The book was talked about in Tricycle and it is on that long looongg
list of books I need to read. When thinking of religion I also like
to separate the core beliefs from the institutionalization of them.

I first became interested during that awful time when I was trying so
very hard to figure things out. My professor said, "Sometimes the best
way to get an answer to a question is to stop asking it."

It was my first koan. Any time my mind got into that restless state
where thought after thought chase each other, all I had to do was
think on this and everything became still. And in the stillness,
often came greater clarity.

People's perception of Buddhism and its focus on suffering has been
a mystery to me. It is the attachment to suffering that can be
dispensed with. Sigh.

Have you ever read the "Grand Inquisitor"? I love it. An athiest
making a better rendering of the core of Christianity than his brother
priest. Talk about irony.

Marie

Marie L. Foster

<http://www.geocities.com/~mfos/>