Monks and Magic | Miloš Hubina https://www.academia.edu/38201509/Monks_and_Magic.pdf?source=swp_share … < cogently argues that Thai Buddhism is a form of magic ahead of being a soteriological religion.
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This makes a lot of sense to me. Buddhism is not "a philosophy", though some Buddhists attempt to engage in philosophy; it's not "a religion", since very few if any are saved; it is at heart a system of magical thinking complete with rituals and spells.
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But because Buddhism precisely is a system of magic, our philosophy sucks. And as a religion we struggle because there is no guarantee of being saved - which is why rebirth is a "hope" rather than a "dread" (which is what it ought to be).
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Replying to @Jayarava
Surely Buddhism is not really either/or but a philosophy with additional layers of “magic” and pseudo religious practice. Strip out the Kamma-Vipaka and Rebirth, the traditions, rituals and blessings and it’s basically a philosophy of mind with techniques to reduce suffering?
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Replying to @TomMostlyZen
There really isn't much of an intellectual context for the practices - no explanations of how or why they work, for example. No ethics either, just sets of rules with no rationale. Strip out that stuff and there's nothing much left.
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Replying to @Jayarava
There are quite a lot of medical and psychological interventions that have evidence for efficacy, but for which the mode of action is still unknown though, so this is an high standard to judge intellectual context by
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Replying to @TomMostlyZen @Jayarava
Ethically, I don’t think any system works from a fundamental level, but if we follow a “rule of thumb” Karma, rather than a magical one, that skilful intentions *tend* to result in a reduction of suffering, there is a flawed but semi workable ethical system.
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Replying to @TomMostlyZen
Buddhism *has* no system of ethics. Ask
@Meaningness about this.2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
I wrote about that athttps://vividness.live/2015/09/25/traditional-buddhism-has-no-ethical-system/ …
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