If evolution is true, Buddhism and Hinduism are much more likely to be true than Christianity. What is believed is a far cry from what is demonstrable. What we have here is a self governing organism—like your body containing your self, yet you don’t know how you do it.
If Hinduism were true, Buddhism and Christianity can be true. If Buddhism is true, Hinduism can be true, while the abrahamic model is not, and defies what is known.
Science is a way to validate predictions so we can navigate the universe we live in. Nothing in science bears the name proven—it bears the name useful and not yet invalidated. It uses two tools—observation and repetition, to come to usefulness.
Christian Religion may be useful, but until it’s claims are proven, its claims are meaningless. It uses one tool—belief. And whether useful or not deems its own baseless claims as true. That god governs the universe is a meaningless question that affords no aid of discovery, nor proves any hypothesis.
What we call knowledge is the translation of life into words. But life is not the words used to describe it, any more than quantum theory is a particle. However, scientists have learned to manipulate their findings into usefulness, yet still have no real conclusion about of what or how “stuff” is made.
While quantum theory provides much usefulness, religious theory raises problems that only it claims to solve—problems it has created. It is therefore, an end-product without the effort of validation.
A final note—
“In contrast to other nations the Chinese have no mythological cosmogony; the oldest sources already attempt to account for creation in a scientific way.”
“It is rather striking that, aside from one myth (concerning Pangu) that China—perhaps alone among the major civilizations of antiquity—has no real story of creation. This situation is paralleled by what we find in Chinese philosophy, where, from the very start, there is a keen interest in the relationship of man to man and in the adjustment of man to the physical universe, but relatively little interest in cosmic origins.”
“…the Chinese, amongst all peoples ancient and recent, primitive and modern, are apparently unique in having no creation myth; that is, they have regarded the world and man as uncreated, as constituting the central features of a spontaneously self-generating cosmos having no creator, god, ultimate cause, or will external to itself.” (1) Amen
I find Chinese history quite fascinating. They’ve tried a hell of a lot of interesting things. If they just started treating animals with respect I could even like them.
Buddhism works.
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Even though everything exists of itself (no god) they have a right as you to basic comfort. Like Thoreau said, “ the squirrel you killed in vain, died in earnest”
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Granted, and I appreciate that approach. The Chinese though are cruel. It’s completely unnecessary. Treat the animal well. Slaughter it humanely. It’s not rocket science.
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The Chinese governance, sovereign ruling, civil service and imperial examinations (科舉) of the past were also very unique and had no equivalent or counterpart anywhere in the modern world both in the East and the West, because they were entirely meritocratic and highly scholastic and academic, and only the best of the best, the crème de la crème, could ever hope to work for the government, meaning that if the same standard were to be applied in any one of the modern nations nowadays, then very few of those working for the US Senate and other governmental offices would have qualified, to use the USA for example. You can learn more about this Chinese system in much greater detail at https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2020/11/11/strong-wind-knows-tough-grass/
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Interesting read, thanks!
For the life of me I can’t remember the details now (or the name of the guy behind it), and I can’t find any notes I made on it, but there was a period where they tried some crazy government/philosophy idea which was astounding in its brilliance. You know what I’m talking about?
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Please be informed that you might need to use a desktop or laptop computer with a large screen to view the rich multimedia contents available for heightening your multisensory enjoyment at my blog, which could be too powerful and feature-rich for iPad, iPhone, tablet or other portable devices to handle properly or adequately.
In addition, since my blog contains advanced styling and multimedia components plus animations, it is highly recommended to read my posts and pages directly in my blog so that you will be able to see and experience all of the refined and glorious details. Hence, it is prudent to refrain from viewing my blog in the WordPress Reader, which tends to ignore or strip away some styling and formatting components, and also fails to display animations, all of which are aplenty in my posts and pages, which will look very different and even improper or amiss in the WordPress Reader.
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LOL! Your blog is a gorgeous nightmare! But a happy one 🙂
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Isn’t that something?
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It’s brilliant! Reminds me of a night I spent in Tokyo, head a complete mess on drugs, goggling wildly at Japanese TV till dawn.
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Only TV and dope?!
What about Akoya Pearls and Geisha Girls?
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The TV was enough… It’s insane.
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On another note, my nephew (25) has been splitting his time between the US and Catalão Brazil. He just left the states and may never return. He loves it down there. Says this place blows. Is that close to you at all?
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Goiás is where Brasilia is, in the middle of the country. We’re between SP and Rio, so faaaaar away. Brazil is love-hate. The good is very, very good. The bad is very, very bad.
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Please pardon my typo. I meant “any form of political party remotely resembling the GOP”, not “any from of…”. Grrrr!
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That’s an interesting post. Thank you. Now to work high in government office you have to out-scoundrel the other scoundrels.
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It is all too bad that sometimes or even often that this is increasingly becoming the case! I have given a very stern and stark warning about what the end result will be in the final paragraph of my post entitled “Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic: Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity” at https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2020/12/19/misquotation-pandemic-and-disinformation-polemic-mind-pollution-by-viral-falsity/
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And such a system as the Chinese one would have definitely not produced Trumpism let alone any from of political party remotely resembling the GOP.
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Exactly.
What do you lecture on?
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It is too long a story. Reading some of my posts and pages will give you an inkling.
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Hi John and Jim,
At least one Chinese mythology may qualify as a valid subject matter for research in the field of Chinese cosmogony. You might want to read about Pangu (盤古), a primordial being and creation figure in Chinese mythology who parted heaven and earth and became geographic features such as mountains and rivers.
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I did know a bit about that.
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Good on you, John!
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Given that you like to learn about Chinese culture, and since you display a good affinity for Chinese studies, I would like to introduce you to a fun but comprehensive post at https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2020/02/02/soundeagle-in-chinese-new-year-celebration-spring-festival-lion-dance-food-ornaments-traditional-culture-and-architecture/
Though my said post is very long and encyclopaedic, the three navigational menus there can help you to jump to any section of the post instantly so that you can resume reading at any point of the post over multiple sessions in your own time.
Please enjoy the said post’s attendant “attractions” and multimedia extravaganza taking you on a worldwide cultural journey.
In addition, if you like cooking and eating, there are some fantastic food and yummy cuisines to tempt you in the post, plus a lot of videos showing how the Chinese New Year is celebrated in different countries and regions of the world.
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Cheers!
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Ted Danson as Sam Malone and Shelley Long as Diane Chambers will be pleased by your toast.
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Needless to say, Chinese New Year of 2021 (Friday, 12 February) will be a very different one due to the pandemic.
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2020, the Year of the Rat, has brought us not the plague (black death) but Covid-19!
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And 2020 also brought out the worst of Trumpism! Could it get even worse in 2021?
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I think I recently saw an article asking questions about the origins of the Buddha. Maybe we have a bias towards Buddhism because it is a godless religion.
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That certainly helps
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To a point. Nirvana is a state of mind. Minds change. And life changes. Nirvana is not an end in itself, it is just one step along a journey of millions of steps.
Nature is in a constant state of evolution. Our minds must evolve also, or go the way of the other unevolving dead ends.
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Yes, Buddhism works. I can certainly see how lighting by monk-on-fire is an alternative to the use of fossil fuels.
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Their meagre diets (and high grain content) means they’re virtually already coal, so yeah, throw another monk on the fire and pass the marshmallows.
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you’re nuts!😆
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I always feel weird when evolution comes up. As a believer, I never interpreted the bible literally. Even then, I thought some of it was BS. I came to see the bible as a book of religion (not history or fact). Back then and even today (atheist), I had no problem separating god from religion. I never felt like the biblical creation story was fact and I cannot recall a time as an adult when I did not see evolution as scientific truth. I don’t know jack about Hinduism and very little about Chinese history. But I do like and agree with much of Buddhist philosophy (I struggle to see it as a religion).
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Buddhism is really a dialog. No beliefs required.
As far as seeing creation as fact or fable, our common senses have been shaped by it—that the physical world consists of two aspects: respectively, form and matter. This was foisted on us by Aristotle and also by the Bible. But this isn’t common sense to a Hindu or Buddhist. Very odd. In Chinese the word for nature is tzy-jan which is ‘that which is so of itself’, the spontaneous. The Chinese have no difficulty in thinking about nature as self-shaping.
Because we can’t determine what anything really consists of, we now describe things in nature and science by the behavior, like there is this thing, and this is how it behaves. The reality is there is no difference. It’s all one process.
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One continuously evolving process. This is not to say there are no dead ends (Abrahamic religions, and others) because not every mutation works. I cannot literally see all those dead ends, but we know they must be there. For every success story, there are how many failures. Over 4.5 billion years, that is time for an uncountable N + 1 number of failures. The thing is, the so-far successes are equally N + 1, just a different N. Science is discovering new species of life every day.
Further, present-day successes are pretty much guaranteed to be future failures. This is the truth of life.
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Dear Jim,
This is an excellent comment from you, though there is still room for improvement, especially the final paragraph of your said comment. Sometimes you are really such a delight!
I would like to add that the word “Nature” written in Chinese is 自然, and is pronounced as Zìrán, not tzy-jan.
Now, as a reward for you being such a delight, please kindly let SoundEagle offer you a parting gift in the form of the following phrase:
自然而然
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Naturally—and automatically, I approve of this comment. ⚔️ Thank you for the kind words.
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Strictly speaking, 大自然 or 自然界 is Nature with the capital N. 自然 is nature or natural.
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大 = big
界 = world
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Jim, I have noticed that you have not been actively commenting at my blog for nine months. Come over and make a big splash there or I’ll send you to 超自然 to be haunted!
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I just post to comment yesterday on one of the links you provided. Perhaps you’ve blocked me again? Ha ha ha ha
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Fabrication or prevarication is not your strong suit.
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If you indeed approved, then you should have given me a positive tick ✅, not a cross ⚒ or ⚔️. Besides, words are mightier than swords!
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Well in this case the swords meant touché And the tip of the hat
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Go and submit your words, not swords, to SoundEagle’s blog.
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i think the main difference (and a crucial one) between the eastern and the western paths is that the eastern paths are experiential, not based on dogma, and all have the practice of meditation at their core (which is unheard of in abrahamic religions). it’s looking closely at your own existence: what is mind, where do thoughts come from, how does any experience arise? these are questions we need to look at, not ‘who made me’ and ‘who made the one that made me’? first, we need to look at what we are, not look outside of ourself. if the instrument is unreliable, the results will also be flawed.
that’s why buddhism works. the buddha learned first-hand how mind works, and how it shapes reality. he had no interest in philosophy or creation stories, because all that comes from mind! so he wisely looked beyond. don’t forget, the buddha was born a Hindu, and his way is more a reaction to escape a stifling of Hinduism. he preferred a very practical way for the common man to reach what he achieved: liberation from suffering. the buddha never said ‘there is no god’ or ‘there is a god’. he simply did not discuss matters that could not be applied or verified by experience. that’s why it appeals to many atheists.
all spiritual paths have some grain of truth. in the end it’s one’s own desire for truth that really matters. when that is there, the path itself appear.
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Well said, Monica! And Buddhism can also be contrasted with Daoism. This requires another post from Jim, assuming that he is not permanently lost in 大自然 or 超自然.
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Some of the Hindu and Buddhic philosophies are incredibly sound. It doesn’t embrace contradiction through faith, but describe the world as it is.
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IMO, the core teachings of Buddhism are sound. But as with most other religions, they require individuals to follow certain “paths” and/or to accomplish certain “goals.” The lives of all Buddhist monastics are governed by a set of rules … Wikipedia
I find myself asking … why do some feel that “rules” are necessary if one chooses to be “spiritual”?
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Anytime you decide to organize into a monastery or group of anything there are rules of conduct—then corruption. Outside of the monastery setting there is no official rules of conduct. There is a method they teach aimed at liberation. They will wish you well at the end and never compel you to stay with threats of hell or damnation. Once you are satisfied you are free to leave.
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I think you missed my point, but that’s OK. 🙂
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I forgot to say I agree with you. But we be herd animals. Personal spirituality is what ever Christian dreams of, yet can’t manage
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the precepts are not ‘rules to be spiritual’. when your mind is rambling all the time, you are full of anxiety, obsessions, fears, aversions like most of our society tends to be, how can you expect the ‘secrets of the universe’ to be revealed to you?
you want to discover the great truths but you spend your time playing computer games and looking at an iphone? (ps i’m just generalizing to make a point 😉) is this not what we do? run after things, after pleasures of mind and body, we endlessly chose ‘this’ over ‘that’?
that won’t get anyone anywhere. the precepts are there only to correct our perception.
so, just as when you want to learn a new language, we learn some rules without asking “why?”, it’s same thing when we want to go deeper than what we’re used to.
everything worth having needs some effort.
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Dear Monica (and Jim),
I can’t agree with you more. Thank you for enlightening Nan.
Rituals, procedures, rules or precepts are indeed like grammar. They set the tone, tenor, tenet and structure of a particular practice, whether or not that practice is in any way religious. However, the wise has also cautioned against treating rituals, procedures, rules or precepts as the be-alls and end-alls of any practice(s) being undertaken. In certain situations or circumstances, I would even go so far as invoking such cautionary words as “Ritual is the end of Dao.”
As for “playing computer games and looking at an iphone”, I not only agree with you but also have not had the need or inclination for such distractions or addictions for nearly two decades.
The wandering mind and the daily pursuit of things have indeed been a scourge for many people who are not quite aware of such issues and their costs and ramifications. In this regard, I would like to refer you to my detailed analyses and extended discussions about various issues in the concluding section called “Conclusion: Change Rules and Moment Matters” of my very long post entitled “SoundEagle in Best Moment Award from Moment Matters”.
In this section of the said post, I have touched on many issues in my multipronged discussions on process philosophy (also known as processism, philosophy of organism, or ontology of becoming) in relation to change, causality, (in)determinism, metaphysical reality, stoic philosophy as well as the philosophy of space and time. You can find this concluding section at http://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/soundeagle-in-best-moment-award-from-moment-matters/#Conclusion
Near the end of this very long and detailed discussion, I concluded that “The ontological shift from substance (being) to process (becoming) brings the Western conception of metaphysical reality much closer to the Eastern counterparts, particularly those of Zen and Mahayana philosophy as well as various schools of Hinduism and Jainism with respect to their acceptance and contemplation of the imperfection, constant flux and impermanence of all things…”
You are welcome to join the discussion at the said post and offer your insight, doubt, opinion or the like.
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thanks SoundEagle for the beautiful summary! yes, rituals or practices can become distracting and even damaging at some point, but that is much further down the road, when the mind is already ripe and mature enough to do without them. in the beginning, without some guide posts, we really are like blindmen wondering in a forest. at night!😄
i will check your page too.
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Dear Monica,
Though my said post is very long and encyclopaedic, the navigational menu (containing two major divisions) located at the top of the post can help you to jump to any section of the post instantly so that you can resume reading at any point of the post over multiple sessions in your own time.
Please be informed that you might need to use a desktop or laptop computer with a large screen to view the rich multimedia contents available for heightening your multisensory enjoyment at my blog, which could be too powerful and feature-rich for iPad, iPhone, tablet or other portable devices to handle properly or adequately.
In addition, since my blog contains advanced styling and multimedia components plus animations, it is highly recommended to read my posts and pages directly in my blog so that you will be able to see and experience all of the refined and glorious details. Hence, it is prudent to refrain from viewing my blog in the WordPress Reader, which tends to ignore or strip away some styling and formatting components, and also fails to display animations, all of which are aplenty in my posts and pages, which will look very different and even improper or amiss in the WordPress Reader.
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wow, now i feel like i’ll have to dress up before visiting! 😁💃
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By all means, Monica. May you dress up and dance all the way to SoundEagle’s intellectual ballroom and spiritual eyrie where our minds may tango with excogitation, cerebration and intellection!
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Science confirms the existence of pasta, beer, pirates and strippers. Therefore, Pastafarianism is the only religion that comports with reality.
May you all be drawn to the truth of His Noodly Appendage.
R’Amen
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And let us not forget to invite the spaghetti monster.
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Ronco spaghetti is the best. It’s no longer R’amen but Ronmen
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