[Buddha-l] life force vis a vis Xianity & Hinduism

[r.g.morrison]

 Stan Ziobro asks:

>
How does Buddhism account for the complexity of phenomena and their 
inter-relations other than by simply asserting a form of dependent 
co-origination?  I tend to think that such an assertion is necessary but 
insufficient.  With regard to this discussion, how did the Onion parody 
relate to Buddhism?  Should the matter have been dropped there?
<

The simple answer is that it doesn't.  It is concerned with bringing to an 
end the deeply rooted tendencies of greed, hatred, and stupidity in the 
human mind.  Essentially, this is its sole concern. In terms of 'reality' it 
says quite simple things like 'vij~napti-maatra', 'tathataa', 'in the seen, 
only the seen', etc., but the full implications of these simple notions are 
only available to those who've purified their minds of these tendencies.  It 
also adds that all the complexities we see are the creations of our minds in 
the sense that they are, as we see and think of them, mind-dependent - as to 
what might exist independently of our minds, we would have to have another 
mind independent of the first mind to see this - but, again, it would still 
be caught in the dependent-only loop.  In a sense, science is prapa~nca 
activity, and the goal is to put a stop to such mental activity, rendered as 
'the wordling's mind gone mad' by a modern Buddhist writer. Anyway, only 
p.ratagjanas worry about onions.

Robert