Freedom from attachment, not caring. Beyond the limitations of a tweet what they mean by attachment; it's more or less our delusory, unchallenged conception of things that we hold too dear. Enlightenment is not a state of indifference; saintlike-compassion comes before nirvana.
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Replying to @stgabriel @Xrayhighs
I am not enlightened enough to make definitive statements here! I am aware that many practitioners think that their road ends with compassion, but others consider compassion to be a deluded state as well.
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Replying to @Plinz @Xrayhighs
One of the fascinating, troubling aspects of buddhism is that nobody, apart from a few buddhas, knows what nirvana actually is. We know it's a general ending of the cycle of rebirth. But where are the buddhas? The answer is, apparently: "You'll know when youre a buddha".
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And so, if one is motivated to become a monk (being a lay buddhist is like, meh, in buddhism), your best reason is, 'this is not for me, i don't exist, i'm more or less a fiction, im just giving up this deluded experience, I want off this merry-go-round'.
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Replying to @stgabriel @Xrayhighs
I suspect that monasteries and religions are economic and political institutions and thus may not have interests that are fully aligned with what you intend. A religion or monastery that leads its clients efficiently to deliverance would perish. Instead, it must sell the promise.
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Replying to @Plinz @Xrayhighs
I wouldn't dismiss 2500 years of cultural practice, with terms like 'efficiency', or discuss the 'deliverables' of their monastic traditions. Or speculate about what they 'sell'. We can do better than applying western consumerist interpretations of 'quaint oriental beliefs'.
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Replying to @stgabriel @Xrayhighs
I don't think that they are "quaint oriental beliefs". Yet the Buddhist practices of today are largely not the same as 2500 years ago (they are evolving and culturally exchanging too), and we don't do Western schools of thought justice if we dismiss them as consumerist etc.
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Replying to @Plinz @Xrayhighs
"we" didn't dismiss western thought as consumerist. anyway, im out of time: go read that book, joscha; it's fun and not uninteresting, but you'll sound like you're talking out of your hat until you have some basic concepts.
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Replying to @stgabriel @Xrayhighs
What do you think of this little summary? Or David Chapman’s “Vividness”? https://aeon.co/amp/essays/what-lies-behind-the-simplistic-image-of-the-happy-buddhist?__twitter_impression=true …
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Replying to @Plinz @Xrayhighs
Thanks for this. I'll preface with: I've learned more of buddhist philosophy, and am pretty ignoant re: Theravada or Mahayana or Tibettan buddhism. But.. is buddhism a faith? Arguably, an anti-faith. It's also non-theistic; the buddha thought gods were kinda a waste of time (!)
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Note that there are gods (devas) referenced in Buddhism. It is just that their supernatural powers don't include the ability to give meaning to our existence, as they do in the monotheist religions. And of course Buddhism-as-religion expects you to take some items on faith.
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