[Buddha-l] Buddha's Meditation

[bob Woolery]

I would expect that triumphalists would attribute their bias to the Founder.  My very spotty reading of the Canon suggests that the Buddha considered what he taught to be a "see for yourself" thing, not dependent on God, Reincarnation, or Vegetarianism.

 

 

 

Bob Woolery, DC

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-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com [mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Franz Metcalf
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2011 10:38 AM
To: Buddhist discussion forum
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Buddha's Meditation

 

Gang,

 

I'm not answering Richard's question. But will that stop me from  

replying? Don't answer that question.

 

Richard opined,

 

> My guess is that if the saying does turn out to have a

> Buddhist provenience, it is not used to promote religious

> pluralism of the sort that Rāmakṛṣṇa and Vivekānanda

> advocated. Like the story of the blind men and the

> elephant, as used by Buddhists, I'd guess the well

> analogy would have a triumphalist purport.

 

I agree. And, to the list of Buddhist triumphalist texts hidden in  

plain sight, I would add the locus classicus for supposed Buddhist  

scientific openness: the "Kalama Sutta." (For the text see <http://tinyurl.com/qcele 

 >.) In it, as we all remember, the Buddha does indeed call on people  

not to believe or follow religions (or anything paths) for reasons of  

myth, logic, respect, tradition, and so on. But he does not do this  

because he is open in some modern, scientific way to all evidence.  

Quite the opposite (in my reading, at least). He does this because he  

is entirely convinced of his own unfalsifiable experience! That,  

fellow beings, makes for a lovely religion, but it does not make for  

science. So, like the elephant story and the well story, we again see  

Buddhist triumphalism reaching right back to its founder.

 

As if we should have expected something different?

 

Good wishes nevertheless,

 

Franz Metcalf

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