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Meaningness's profile
David Chapman
David Chapman
David Chapman
@Meaningness

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David Chapman

@Meaningness

Better ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—around problems of meaning and meaninglessness; self and society; ethics, purpose, and value.

meaningness.com/about-my-sites
Joined September 2010

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    1. Kaj Sotala‏ @xuenay 2 Dec 2018
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      I'm writing something, but feel like I'm mostly building it from scratch. Surely there must be existing attempts to do this, by people further along the path of insight than I am? Pointers welcome.

      4 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
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    2. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 2 Dec 2018
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      Replying to @xuenay

      I think this is a highly worthwhile project. However… I think that if you take the framework seriously enough to think it through carefully enough to explain it accurately, you will discover that it is wrong. That is probably why there is no good explanation available!

      1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
    3. Kaj Sotala‏ @xuenay 2 Dec 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness

      Interesting. Want to say more on that, or would it take a book? :-)

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    4. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 2 Dec 2018
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      Replying to @xuenay

      The framework is called Abhidharma. Studying Abhidharma was the main activity of elite Theravadin monks before they reinvented meditation. Their theories of meditation came out of trying to make that framework functional instead of dogmatic. 1/

      1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes
    5. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 2 Dec 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness @xuenay

      Abhidharma is concerned with foundational philosophical questions of metaphysics, cosmology, ethics, and psychology. It is not *the* Buddhist theory of those things. It is *a* Buddhist theory. It comes from, roughly speaking, the second major period of scriptural innovation. 2/

      1 reply 1 retweet 3 likes
    6. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 2 Dec 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness @xuenay

      The first period generated the Hinayana sutras; Abhidharma was second; Mahayana was third; Tantra fourth. (Simplifying history a bit.) Each of these had quite different, sharply contradicting accounts of mind, enlightenment, metaphysics, etc. 3/

      1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes
    7. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 2 Dec 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness @xuenay

      Mahayana and especially Tantra rejected the Abhidharma theories, for good reasons. They don’t work. They have irresolvable internal contradictions, as well as contradicting evidence and experience. 4/

      1 reply 1 retweet 3 likes
    8. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 2 Dec 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness @xuenay

      The kings of Sri Lanka—which was the only Theravdin country until a few centuries ago—banned Mahayana and especially Tantra because they tended to make subjects resist royal rule. 5/

      1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
    9. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 2 Dec 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness @xuenay

      Meditation was also politically inconvenient, and monastic Buddhism was mostly reduced to memorizing the Abhidharma texts. When Theravadins tried to figure out how to meditate again, around 1900, Abhidharma was their only politically-acceptable source. 6/

      1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
    10. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 2 Dec 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness @xuenay

      The currently-most-popular meditation theories in the West derive mainly from Mahasi Sayadaw’s ideas, which explicitly synthesized Abhidharma with modern (=Western) psychology & philosophy. 7/https://vividness.live/2011/07/07/theravada-reinvents-meditation/ …

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 2 Dec 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness @xuenay

      This half-baked mash-up is given as Transcendent Eternal Truth That Must Not Be Questioned by most Western Buddhist teachers. I think it’s pervasively mistaken and often harmful. 8/

      9:22 AM - 2 Dec 2018
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      • Kaj Sotala Ian Hines
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        1. New conversation
        2. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 2 Dec 2018
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          Replying to @Meaningness @xuenay

          Students are encouraged to make their experiences conform to theories that were, in my opinion, thoroughly refuted 2000 years ago. 9/

          2 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
        3. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 2 Dec 2018
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          Replying to @Meaningness @xuenay

          There’s no single-source secular debunking of modernized Abhidharma. @Jayarava has done great work addressing many particular points. Glenn Wallis has attacked the whole dogmatic framework (with less specificity). There are others, including me… 10/https://www.glennwallis.com 

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
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