Re: Extro-Buddhism

From: Ian Goddard (Ian@Goddard.net)
Date: Sat Oct 03 1998 - 16:53:39 MDT


At 12:15 PM 10/3/98 -0500, Natasha Vita More wrote:

>I don't think that conventional Buddhism ties in so neatly to extropianism,
>mainly because of reincarnation and the acceptance of suffering and that
>it can only be eliminated by a spiritual overcoming. Accepting suffering
>is accepting death. Overcoming suffering through spirituality is a fairy
>tale reality and pseudoscience.

  IAN: Overcoming suffering is not pseudoscience, there
  are all kinds of scientifically validated medications
  that people take that reduce experiences of suffering.

  Buddhist/yogic technologies can be effective too, and
  those technologies are yoga and meditation, which are
  proven to effect positive mental/physical states that
  overcome "suffering." We might also add analysis, for
  a big part of Buddhist-enlightenment technique is the
  analysis of the nature of mind and an understanding
  of the connections between good and bad emotions.

  Buddha's position was that there is no reincarnation,
  although you will not get that from reading much of
  the literature of Buddhsim I'd also have to crack
  some books I've not read in years to be able to
  debate that issue, but it is consistent with
  the philosophy of the void-nature of mind.

>Zen Buddhism gets a little closer in its systematic thought that
>enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation,
>and intuition rather than through faith and devotion. A bit more
>rational, but not quite there.

  IAN: Fuzzy logic and holistic-identity structure
  confirm as logical the deepest Buddhist teachings.
  Despite the claims of many in this forum against
  holistic identity, none have been able to find
  an example of an identity that is what it is
  free from holistic relations to what it isn't.

  The last argument against holistic identity as
  expressed via Zero mechanics, raised here was
  that 0 is not more than -1, and thus 0 - (-1)
  would not equal 1, but it does! It's only too
  clear that the cases raised against the zero-
  sum holism implicit in Buddhist philosophy have
  had to step outside both the empirical and logical
  bounds as defined by our Western scientific standards.

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