[Buddha-l] Re: Where does authority for "true" Buddhism come from?

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Benito Carral schreef:

>On Saturday, January 28, 2006, Erik Hoogcarspel wrote:
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>>Do we want a reasonable Buddhism or a beliefsystem?
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>   I  think  that it is not a question of what we want.
>Buddhism is as it is. 
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You think Buddhism is a substance, something that exists by itself and 
makes itself known. Ever heard of hermeneutics?

>>Can  the  concept  [rebirth]  still  have meaning and
>>function  in  our  discourse,  which  is dominated by
>>science?
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>   I  suppose that by "our discourse" you are referring
>to the mainstream Euro-American discourse. I think that
>what  we need is to understand that science and beliefs
>are  two  different  ways of understanding/constructing
>the  world.  I really think that our science-domintated
>society  has lost its mind (I also think that we are in
>the  Dharma-Ending  Age  and  that we are close to some
>kind of global cataclysm). Buddhism and other religions
>seem  to  me  a  very good counterbalance. For example,
>when  I  read the divorce or abortion rates, I can only
>give   thanks  for  Buddhism  and  other  religions  as
>Christianism or Judaism.
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>   Rebirth  has  the same meaning that it has ever had,
>but only for them who use it.
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Rebirth is also a thing in itself?  You don't mean that! The obvious 
thing would be to bring in Naagaarjuna here, but there are enough 
western authors who explained that we cannot know anything outside our 
discourse, which has its own prejudices and hang ups. It would be very 
naieve to think that anyone can just step out of it and see the naked 
truth (if something like that existed). We belong to our world as a leaf 
belongs to its tree. The best we can do is to realise this and work with 
it. Now I think that we cannot deny that science makes it impossible to 
abduct transferrance of information between a dying body and a 
fertilised human egg. If you choose not to believe science, you would 
also have to choose not to believe that you're reading an email written 
by someone at the other side of the world.

>Erik
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>www.xs4all.nl/~jehms
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