Interest in Buddhism surges at Top Universities Worldwide

Wisdom and Virtue

Global Boom in University Buddhist Studies
 
From an article by Professor Lee Chack-fan in the South China Morning Post.

"...It is not difficult to find people with ample knowledge, professional or otherwise, who are often unhappy. This feeling of unhappiness may come from pressure in life, or from the mismatch between expectations and results. Most of us feel happy some of the time, but this is not always sustainable.

Universities are beefing up their humanities programmes, under the name of general or liberal education, in order to broaden the horizons and enhance the emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) of our students. It is hoped that a higher EQ would help them deal with life's pressures, and hence to lead a happier life.

Some people turn to courses on Buddhism to help them to fulfil the same goal. They are generally more interested in the philosophical, rather than the religious, aspects of Buddhism. In other words, they are trying to seek wisdom, rather than just knowledge.

A little over a decade ago, the University of Hong Kong established a Centre of Buddhist Studies and launched a Master of Buddhist Studies programme.

The programme proved popular and has always been oversubscribed. Its alumni include many of the city's high achievers, including senior civil servants, barristers, doctors and business leaders. It also attracted numerous overseas applicants.

The surge in interest in Buddhist studies is, of course, not confined to Hong Kong.

I attended an inaugural reception at Stanford University in the United States last month for the establishment of an endowed chair professorship in Chinese Buddhism.

Paul Harrison, head of the university's Centre of Buddhist Studies, said student interest in Buddhist studies had never been keener. Not that they all want to become monks or nuns, but they are really interested in enhancing their EQ in a highly competitive world.

The same is true at other top international universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford and Cambridge..."

Read it all here


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Buddhism Bashing by the BBC and English Language Press

By Shenali Waduge in the Daily News

"Buddhism bashing is the favourite pastime of the English language press and their favoured columnists, international news agencies e.g. BBC, and minority led lobby groups – who can’t wait to put a spin to every article against the majority Buddhists. The columns of the daily and week - end newspapers bear witness to it. These new rallies and vigils which are heavily funded by overseas actors show the efforts being taken to reduce the space and territory of the people belonging to the older culture in the Buddhist hinterland and exert enough public opinion and pressure for the government to turn the other cheek and bring in legislation against the majority Buddhists.

These covert schemes have thankfully raised awareness amongst the Sinhala Buddhists who are now no longer prepared to idle and wait on the sidelines.

However, Buddhist protests are construed as hate speech, while the same groups ignore the hate speech well integrated in the religious texts of Abrahamic religions that spur their followers to view Sri Lanka as another trophy to be won like the Maldives, Indonesia and South Korea, all of which countries were once a upon a time Buddhist..."  Read it all

See also   Biased BBC

and  Buddhism will disappear from Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma

Buddhism Subject Index

Meditation Treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

From the Huffington Post

'Free the Mind' is a new documentary about the brain, neuroscience and meditation, told through the stories of soldiers with PTSD and a young boy with ADHD. What can Buddhist monks and mindfulness teach us about the way our brains process emotions?'





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Buddhism Subject Index

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Buddhism leads approval poll in France

Here's an interesting item on transcultural interaction from Frontpage Magazine:

Questioned by the agency Tilder and the Institut Montaigne, in the context of the program “Place aux idées” broadcast on Tuesday evening on LCP, 87% of French people have a positive image of Buddhism, 76% of Protestantism, 69% of Catholicism and 64% of Judaism. So more French people have a positive view of Buddhism than they do of their own religion.

It's interesting to speculate why Buddhism should be so popular in France.  One of the reasons may be may be that philosophy enjoys a much higher status in French education, and French culture in general, than it does in much of the rest of Europe and in the Anglophone countries.  

Unlike other Europeans, the French are required to be prepared to "philosophise"  before moving on to university.   For four gruelling hours, every student in their last year of “lycée” is asked to respond in writing to one philosophical question. Examples from previous years include, “Can a scientific truth be dangerous?” and “Is it one’s own responsibility to find happiness?”

The study of philosophy in France has a core role in secondary education. In “terminale” – the last year of high school – it is a compulsory subject for all students. Those studying humanities do eight hours of philosophy a week, while pupils studying science and technology do just two hours.

Since Buddhism is a rational and philosophical religion, this may be part of its transcultural appeal to the philosophically-literate French.

The interaction between Buddhism and Philosophy in French intellectual life is exemplified by the popularity of The Monk and the Philosopher, a dialog between Buddhist Monk Matthieu Ricard and his philosopher father. 


TIP - If some aspects of Buddhist beliefs seem unfamiliar, obscure, or confusing, then bear in mind that Buddhism is a process philosophy.   Difficult aspects of Buddhism often become much clearer when viewed from a process perspective.



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Catholic Church sends greetings to Buddhists for Feast of Vesakh

Great Compassionate Mother

The Catholic Church under the new leadership of Pope Francis seems keen to establish interfaith dialog with Buddhists.   This is an improvement over Pope Benedict's comments, who in his previous incarnation as Cardinal Ratzinger referred to Buddhists as a bunch of w****rs, or words to that effect.
 
Here's the message (from the Vatican Information Service):


Thursday, May 2, 2013
MESSAGE OF PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE FOR FEAST OF VESAKH
Vatican City, 2 May 2013 (VIS) – Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Fr. Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot M.C.C.I., respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, signed the message that, on the occasion of the feast of Vesakh, that dicastery annually sends to the followers of Buddhism.

Vesakh is a major Buddhist holy day that commemorates the birth, enlightenment, and death of Gautama Buddha. According to tradition, the historical Buddha was born, achieved enlightenment and passed away during the full moon of the month of May, thus Vesakh is a mobile feast, which this year falls on 24 or 25 May, depending on the country it is celebrated in. On those days, Buddhists visit local temples to offer the monks food and to hear the teachings of the Buddha, taking special care to meditate and to observe the eight precepts of Buddhism.

This year's message is entitled: “Christians and Buddhists: Loving, Defending, and Promoting Human Life”. Following is the letter in its entirety.

“On behalf of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, I would like to extend my heartfelt greetings and good wishes to all of you, as you celebrate the feast of Vesakh which offers us Christians an occasion to renew our friendly dialogue and close collaboration with the different traditions that you represent.”

“Pope Francis, at the very beginning of his ministry, has reaffirmed the necessity of dialogue of friendship among followers of different religions. He noted that: 'The Church is […] conscious of the responsibility which all of us have for our world, for the whole of creation, which we must love and protect. There is much that we can do to benefit the poor, the needy, and those who suffer, and to favour justice, promote reconciliation, and build peace' ('Audience with Representatives of the Churches and Ecclesial Communities and of the Different Religions', 20 March 2013). The Message of the World Day of Peace in 2013 entitled 'Blessed are the Peacemakers', notes that: 'The path to the attainment of the common good and to peace is above all that of respect for human life in all its many aspects, beginning with its conception, through its development and up to its natural end. True peacemakers, then, are those who love, defend, and promote human life in all its dimensions—personal, communitarian, and transcendent. Life in its fullness is the height of peace. Anyone who loves peace cannot tolerate attacks and crimes against life' ('Message for the World Day of Peace' in 2013, n. 4).”

“I wish to voice that the Catholic Church has sincere respect for your noble religious tradition. Frequently we note a consonance with values expressed also in your religious books: respect for life, contemplation, silence, simplicity (cf. 'Verbum Domini', no. 119). Our genuine fraternal dialogue needs to foster what we Buddhists and Christians have in common especially a shared profound reverence for life.”

“Dear Buddhist friends, your first precept teaches you to abstain from destroying the life of any sentient being and it thus prohibits killing oneself and others. The cornerstone of your ethics lies in loving kindness to all beings. We Christians believe that the core of Jesus’ moral teaching is twofold; love of God and love of neighbour. Jesus says: 'As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love'. And again: 'This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you' ('Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1823).The fifth Christian Commandment, 'You shall not kill' harmonizes so well with your first precept. 'Nostra Aetate' teaches that: 'the Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions' (NA 2). I think, therefore, that it is urgent for both Buddhists and Christians on the basis of the genuine patrimony of our religious traditions to create a climate of peace to love, defend, and promote human life.”

“As we all know, in spite of these noble teachings on the sanctity of human life, evil in different forms contributes to the dehumanization of the person by mitigating the sense of humanity in individuals and communities. This tragic situation calls upon us, Buddhists and Christians, to join hands to unmask the threats to human life and to awaken the ethical consciousness of our respective followers to generate a spiritual and moral rebirth of individuals and societies in order to be true peacemakers who love, defend and promote human life in all its dimensions.”

“Dear Buddhist friends, let us continue to collaborate with a renewed compassion and fraternity to alleviate the suffering of the human family by fostering the sacredness of human life. It is in this spirit that I wish you once again a peaceful and joyful feast of Vesakh.”

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Buddhism Subject Index

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Cash-strapped healthcare system looks to Buddhism to cut costs

From The Guardian

"Back in 1965, a grad student in molecular biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology stumbled across a class of five people on Zen Buddhism. He'd never heard of Zen and knew nothing of Buddhism. Nearly half a century later, that grad student, Jon Kabat-Zinn, has arguably done more than any other individual to put Buddhism into the mainstream, not just in America, but in dozens of countries around the world. Now, Downing Street policymakers are keen to hear more.

"That first class took the top off my head. I found a sense of largeness beyond my little preoccupations of what would happen to my future, or my relationships," says Kabat-Zinn. "It opened up a new dimension of being which could offer more meaning and enable me to interface more effectively with society in a way which could be healing and transformative."

Kabat-Zinn's enthusiasm for that dramatic breakthrough is still palpable as he talks of how as a scientist he resolved to find a way to bring those benefits to millions of others. What he evolved over the next 15 years was the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme; an eight-week set of meditation and yoga practices in classes and at home, which instil the basics of paying close attention to the current moment.

"I was teaching molecular biology of muscle development in medical school at the time, and began to ask doctors: 'What percentage of your patients do you help?' They thought it was about 15% to 20%."

So Kabat-Zinn set up a clinic to help the untreatable majority. "Patients turned up with all kinds of conditions: hypertension, cancer, anxiety."

As a scientist, Kabat-Zinn knew he needed evidence; anecdotes and testimony were not going to be enough to persuade the American health establishment. "I wrote up the chronic pain results first because they were astonishing." Since then, a steady stream of academic papers, books and, more recently, randomised control trials, have helped pave the way for hundreds of MBSR programmes in hospitals and medical centres across the US.

Kabat-Zinn's work has spawned a cluster of different applications of mindfulness training, including for addiction, the elderly and parenting. In the past couple of decades, Kabat-Zinn has collaborated with psychologists in the UK who have adapted his work for Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), which has won recognition from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), as a treatment for depression.

All of which explains why our interview is happening in Westminster, where Kabat-Zinn has a string of meetings with senior politicians before he heads to Downing Street for a session with policy advisers. There are good reasons for the policymakers to be listening closely, as Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues have a compelling proposition: mindfulness has unlimited applicability to almost every healthcare issue we now face – and it's cheap..."  Read it all 



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Debating Buddhism with Materialists

Alan Turing, father of the computer

"When the body dies, the 'mechanism' of the body holding the spirit is gone, and the spirit finds a new body sooner or later, perhaps immediately."  - That's what Buddhists believe, and also what Alan Turing believed.

Alan Turing was the mathematical genius who laid the theoretical foundations for modern computer science.  During the Second World War, he used his talents to crack the Nazi codes, and shortened the conflict by years, saving the lives of millions of people who would otherwise have died in combat or extermination camps. 

Turing was well aware of both the strengths and limitations of all information processing machines, and devised a simple thought-experiment known as the 'Turing Machine', that clearly demonstrates the absolute limits of what all machines, and indeed all physical systems, can and cannot do.

So when materialists tell you that the 'mind is just the brain' (a biophysical computer) or 'the mind is software running on the hardware of the brain', refer them to this discussion of the Turing Machine.   Even if it doesn't immediately convince them of the validity of the Buddhist view, it will clearly set out the boundaries of debate, and make materialists question their fundamental assumptions, which they may mistakenly believe to be 'scientific'. 

- Sean Robsville 

Buddhism Subject Index

Buddhists Have Most Sex

From Pantheos

Do Buddhists have most fun? Or are they less inhibited? Or are they just most honest and least hypocritical?  FULL ARTICLE


Memewhile...

 

Jews Invented Buddhism

 

From Frontpage Magazine  

Iranian Ayatollah Claims Jews Invented Buddhism

February 28, 2013 By Daniel Greenfield

"Muslims excel at picking fights with other religions. If there’s a religion out there that isn’t Islam, Muslims will sooner or later get into a fight with it. Even if the religion is Islam, Muslims will still fight each other over which Islam is the right one.

But the main idea of Islamism is that the Jews are behind all the evil in the world. So when Muslims get into a fight with Buddhists, who are not that easy to provoke, their theology demands that the whole thing be explained in terms of Evil Jew Theory.

And that leaves them no other choice but to claim that the Jews invented Buddhism. Buddhism predates Islam. But Muslims have no problem dismissing older traditions and cultures as pawns of the Jewish Devil and then destroying them.
 
In an August 8, 2012 interview with the Rasa news agency titled “The Cruel Genocide Against The Muslim People In Myanmar,” Ayatollah Ruhollah Qarehi, head of the Imam Mahdi seminary in Tehran, said: “The genocide of the Muslims in Myanmar is ostensibly being carried out by the Buddhists, but we are certain that Judaism and Global Zionism are [behind] the massacre and the genocide against the Muslims… The tenets of Buddhism are derived from Judaism. The Buddhists are a tool [in the hands] of the Jews, and ‘Buddhism’ is a name behind which [hides] the hand of Judaism and Global Zionism.

Why did Jews invent Buddhism? Because everyone hates Jews and everyone loves Buddhists. So the Jews just started claiming to be Asians and calling themselves Buddhists.

But, since the Jew knows that he is an [object of] derision throughout the world, he hides behind a pseudonym like ‘Buddhism.’ Lecturers at seminaries and universities, as well as the media, must [speak up] in various languages and in eloquent terms… and explain to the people and to our dear youth that behind [the term] ‘Buddhism’ there [hides] the Jew...”

Read the rest here


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Using Christian missionaries to destroy Buddhism

Obtaining conversions by whatever means may be necessary

From The Grauniad 

Going undercover, the evangelists taking Jesus to Tibet
by Jonathan Kaiman

"Chris and Sarah recently moved into a newly renovated two-bedroom apartment in Xining, a bustling Chinese city on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, where they manage a small business and spread the teachings of Jesus Christ. The couple, whose names have been changed to protect their identities, are enthusiastic and devout. They say that they could stay for decades.

"I really love being in a place where, it's like, if you're an artist, and an artist comes in and sees a blank canvas, they go heck yes – they love creating something new, and that's how I feel," said Sarah. "That's not to say that there aren't times when I cry my eyes out and get discouraged, but I know that this is where I'm supposed to be, so we're going to find joy in the midst of difficulty."

Tibet is the K2 of the evangelical Christian world – missionaries see it as a formidable yet crucial undertaking, a last spiritual frontier. Of the 400 foreigners living in Xining, most are missionaries, estimates Chris.

Proselytising has been illegal in China since 1949, when Mao Zedong declared western missionaries "spiritual aggressors" and deported them en masse, so today's evangelists work undercover as students, teachers, doctors, and business owners. Moreover, Tibetans are tough customers in the market for souls – Buddhism is central to their cultural identity, making them notoriously difficult to convert.

Despite all that, experts say that changing economic circumstances could make foreign Christians more influential in Tibetan society now than at any point in history.

Robbie Barnett, a leading Tibet expert at Columbia University, argues that the missionary phenomenon overturns the standard notion of western attitudes towards Tibet – that western society is intent on protecting Tibetan religion, while the Chinese government is more concerned with dismantling it. "If you look at foreigners there, there are people whose commitment is to the opposite – it's to replace Tibetan religion with their own religion."

More than 10 people interviewed for this article said that Chinese authorities in Tibetan areas were selectively tolerant of missionaries for reasons that range from pragmatic to borderline sinister. One is that they are a boon to local economies – they open lucrative businesses and teach at local schools for next to nothing, supplementing their meagre salaries with donations from home. Authorities may also consider missionaries politically trustworthy, reluctant to undermine their spiritual missions by openly criticising regional policies.

And lastly, the government may welcome them as a powerful counterforce to Tibetan Buddhism, with its electrifying political overtones.

"China isn't trying to destroy religion by any means, but they're trying to destroy certain parts of Tibetan religion," said Barnett. "They're not the same project by any means, but they certainly have some congruency."
'For Tibetans, everything is about religion'

Most missionaries in Tibet belong to nondenominational organisations which believe that Jesus Christ will return to the earth only when people from every social, cultural and linguistic group have been exposed to his teachings. These groups view mass conversion as a high form of ecclesiastical service, and as such, their tactics can be covert and transactional. Some lure young Tibetans with the promise of English lessons or professional training and coax them into conversion after making sure of their loyalty. Various Tibetans in Xining expressed disgust with this tactic. One likened it to bribery..."

Full article 



TIP FOR CHRISTIANS - If some aspects of Buddhist beliefs seem unfamiliar, obscure, or confusing, then bear in mind that Buddhism is a process philosophy.   Difficult aspects of Buddhism often become much clearer when viewed from a process perspective.



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Buddhism will disappear from Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma

Sri Lanka Buddha Statues will be destroyed like those at Bamiyan

From an article by Shenali Waduge

"Given the present trends we foresee a future date where Sri Lanka will be termed a “once Buddhist” nation as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Malaysia, Indonesia and probably Thailand and Burma in time to come will face. Yet, many Buddhists in Sri Lanka are not prepared to be passive observers and watch in silence their religion and culture fade away into the sunset without any resistance on their part...

...The gradual diminution of the place held by Buddhism is what has finally awoken the Buddhists of Sri Lanka. The politicians have chosen to side with the vociferous demands made by minorities because it comes with various tags that lure politicians towards appeasing their wishes ignoring the silent majority and taking them for granted as well as ignoring their own duty towards preserving the Buddhist history of Sri Lanka. We now need the injustices to be addressed and rectified because since colonial times and for 508 years now a 2600 year Buddhist civilization has been put into the background and it is time to restore the status quo of Buddhism and Buddhist culture as it existed in the pre-colonial era.

Buddhist ethos stress the need to establish a compassionate society where both man and animal exist side by side in peaceful co–existence. In such a society violence is eschewed and non–violence and Ahimsa is promoted towards all living beings. Ideally this should be the moral aim of Sri Lanka.  It is a perfect way for all the people in Sri Lanka to move forward. The Buddhist moral community embraces all living beings. This is the message of the Buddha. Our forefathers embraced it. We are morally bound to follow this noble tradition.  All that we now ask is for people to reflect and conclude that this path is the best path to follow which ensures lasting peace and peaceful co-existence."

Full article



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Bamiyan before and after

Click for larger image

Iran confiscates Buddha statues to stop promotion of Buddhism

Buddha - Cultural Invader?

From The Grauniad 

"Buddha statues have joined Barbie dolls and characters from "The Simpsons" TV cartoon as banned items in the conservative Muslim nation.

Authorities are confiscating Buddha statues from shops in the Iranian capital, Tehran, to stop the promotion of Buddhism in the country, according to a report Sunday in the independent Arman daily.

Iran has long fought against items, such as Barbie toys, to defuse Western influence, but this appears to be the first time that Iranian authorities are showing an opposition to symbols from the East.

The newspaper quoted Saeed Jaberi Ansari, an official for the protection of Iran's cultural heritage, as calling the Buddha statues symbols of "cultural invasion." He said authorities will not permit a specific belief to be promoted through such items. Ansari did not say how many Buddhas had been seized, but that the "cleansing" would continue... More



TIP FOR MUSLIMS - If some aspects of Buddhist beliefs seem unfamiliar, obscure, or confusing, then bear in mind that Buddhism is a process philosophy.   Difficult aspects of Buddhism often become much clearer when viewed from a process perspective.


 

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Scientism and the Limits of Science

Artificial Intelligence - 1950's Style

Mind and Machine

Scientism (not science itself as some people seem to believe)  is the major enemy of spirituality.  Scientism is a bleak and barren materialism that tries to reduce all aspects of the human mind to the workings of a biological machine, with no room for any spiritual or aesthetic dimension to life.

While Buddhism is quite happy with science in general, and especially with evolution, it doesn't agree with the materialistic dogma of scientism, and disputes claims that the mind can be explained or understood in physical terms. Most Buddhists  believe that the mind's ultimate nature is non-physical: 'when the body dies the 'mechanism' of the body, holding the spirit is gone and the spirit finds a new body sooner or later, perhaps immediately.'  - Alan Turing (Code Breaker, Mathematician and Buddhist Philosopher)

Scientism

Scientism is a misuse of scientific methodology beyond the limits of its applicability, including attempts to reduce all knowledge to only that which can be understood by mechanistic models. Scientism attempts to reduce all qualitative experience, and indeed all mental phenomena, to physical causes, effects and mechanisms. 

To understand why scientism is overreaching and erroneous, we need first to understand the limits of science.

The Limits of Science

The physics-based sciences construct their models, predictions and explanations by abstracting and reducing the numerous natural instances of processes operating on structures, into a few generic procedures operating on data.

Hence physical explanations will be impossible to construct, will fail, or will be inapplicable as 'category errors' for any phenomena where...

(i) Processes cannot be reduced to procedures
(ii) Structures cannot be reduced to data

I suspect that one of the intractable features of The Hard Problem is that some of the processes of consciousness are not even in principle reducible to procedures (they are 'non-algorithmic'). Similarly, qualia cannot be reduced to data. Consequently, attempts at physical explanations of the mind may be  such category errors.

The domain of science concerns those aspects of the world that can be modelled effectively and efficiently in terms of algorithms and data-structures.

'Effectively' means that the models have predictive power (and hence are falsifiable).

'Efficiently' means that the models are simpler and more general than the phenomena that they model (they embody 'algorithmic compression')

All non-algorithmic phenomena, by their very nature, are outside the scope of the physical sciences.

A materialist explanation for the mind?

Consequently, the the 'materialists',  'physicalists',  'reductionists'  and other practitioners of scientism are committed to trying to represent the three-dimensional world of causality, composition and mind, in terms of the two dimensions of algorithms and datastructures. 

This representation ultimately requires them to insert various square pegs (qualia, semantics, intentionality, freewill etc) into the round hole of computationalism.  But computation can only deal with quantitative and Boolean-logical values. It cannot manipulate any qualitative phenomena.

The lack of progress with The Hard Problem of Consciousness is one of the best illustrations of the failure of the materialist's project.

Scientism has failed to bridge the gap between brain and mind

The Abject Failure of Scientism

The Hard Problem, the realisation that the mind is not explainable mechanistically, and is thus beyond the scope of science, was first formulated by the eminent Victorian physicist John Tyndall over 140 years ago:

"... the passage from the physics of the brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness is unthinkable. Granted that a definite thought, and a definite molecular action in the brain occur simultaneously; we do not possess the intellectual organ, nor apparently any rudiment of the organ, which would enable us to pass, by a process of reasoning, from the one to the other. They appear together, but we do not know why.

Were our minds and senses so expanded, strengthened, and illuminated, as to enable us to see and feel the very molecules of the brain; were we capable of following all their motions, all their groupings, all their electric discharges, if such there be; and were we intimately acquainted with the corresponding states of thought and feeling, we should be as far as ever from the solution of the problem, "How are these physical processes connected with the facts of consciousness?" The chasm between the two classes of phenomena would still remain intellectually impassable.

Let the consciousness of love, for example, be associated with a right-handed spiral motion of the molecules of the brain, and the consciousness of hate with a left-handed spiral motion. We should then know, when we love, that the motion is in one direction, and, when we hate, that the motion is in the other; but the "Why?" would remain as unanswerable as before."

Everything we have learned about the structure and physiology of the brain in the century and a half since Tyndall's statement has taught us a lot about the structure and physiology of the brain.  It has not progressed one inch towards closure of the explanatory gap of the Hard Problem.

For a detailed discussion of why the mind is a non-physical, fundamental aspect of the universe which is not derived from anything else, see Confronting Materialism and the Delusion of the Mechanical Mind.

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH! For the good of your religion, think less!

Evolution is ungoodthinkful

Thoughtcrime Prevention in England
More on the war between religion and science, with a report on a proposed debate on evolution at South Kensington Madrassa (formerly known as Imperial College) which had to be cancelled due to intimidation by followers of The Religion of Peace™.    

Evolution is such a threat to their politicised religion that they can't tolerate even hearing it debated. In order to censor their own thought processes, they need to shut down any external temptations towards heretical thoughtcrime. Darwinism especially is doubleplusungood.

Ministers of Truth
The reason that evolution is such a major threat to the RoP is that jihadists believe the Koran is the literal word of God.   Any major error in the Koran would reveal it to be a hoax, and everything built upon it to be founded on a 1400-year-old confidence trick.   So it's all or nothing, there's no scope for flexibility or compromise. The Koran can't just be true in some parts and fictitious in others. Either the Koran is divinely authored, or the whole thing is a fraud.

Saving spirituality from scientism
As attitudes harden and polarize in the war of religion against science, perhaps only the rational approach of Buddhism can find a middle way between the rock of irrefutable scientific fact, and the hard place of totalitarian religious dogma.

The full story is here




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Buddhism Subject Index

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Secular Buddhism - Is it secular, and is it Buddhist?

It's Buddhism Jim, but not as we know it!

The phasers are out for Secular Buddhism

'Secular Buddhism' has been attracting a lot of flak recently.  But is 'Secular Buddhism' a misnomer?

What exactly is meant by 'secular'?  Is the word being misused?   And can a system that has been deliberately stripped of all metaphysics, spirituality and transcendence still be described as Buddhism?

Does that fact that Secular Buddhists accept physicalism lead them inevitably down the slippery slope to mechanistic reductionism - the unavoidable conclusion that the mind is nothing more than a biological machine?

Has Secular Buddhism sold it's soul (or at any rate its mental continuum) to scientism, due to its failure to understand the limits of science?

Full article here

Are you nothing but a machine?

Are you just a machine?  

More particularly, is your mind just a machine - nothing but the workings of a biological computer?

Or are there some things that a mind can do, that no machine can?

Being 'about' something, and understanding and creating meaning, seem to be beyond the abilities of machines.

Minds know and perceive objects.   In contrast, words, sentences and symbols can only be about things in a derivative sort of way, in so far as they transmit or evoke a primary 'aboutness' in the mind of the beholder.
 
And physical things, such as electrical circuits, computer inputs and outputs, don't possess aboutness in any form. 

'Aboutness', together with qualitative experience (qualia) and free-will, are the Holy Trinity of exclusively mental activities that defy materialistic explanation.     Full article here.

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Buddhism Subject Index

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‘He who tends to the sick tends to me’ – The Buddha

From The Nation

Concept of healing in Buddhism

By  Manjari Peiris  Sunday, 30 December 2012 00:00

 

  The Buddha said that it is the responsibility and duty of the community to look after the sick

‘He who tends to the sick tends to me’ – The Buddha

The Buddha encouraged his disciples to look after the sick. The Blessed One made this famous statement “He who attends the sick attends me,” when he discovered a desperately ill monk with an acute attack of dysentery, lying in his grubby robes. On this occasion the Buddha with the help of Ananda Thera washed and cleaned the sick monk with warm water. He said that it is the responsibility and duty of the community to look after the sick.

On many instances the Buddha tended to severely sick people and setting an example. Once when a monk was discovered with sores all over his body with pus oozing out from the sores, and abandoned by fellow monks, the Buddha boiled water and washed the monk with his own hands and cleaned and dried the robes. After listening to the Buddha’s sermon the monk attained Arhanthood and soon passed away...

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Is the Mystery of the Mind beyond the Limits of Science?

'The mind is not the brain'
 - Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

Science cannot explain how events in the brain produce mental experiences, or how mental intentions produce effects in the brain, such as those which are transmitted via the nervous system to give rise to the voluntary movement of muscles.  This gap in our understanding of mind/brain interactions is known as The Hard Problem.

Over 140 years ago John Tyndall wrote:
"... the passage from the physics of the brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness is unthinkable. Granted that a definite thought, and a definite molecular action in the brain occur simultaneously; we do not possess the intellectual organ, nor apparently any rudiment of the organ, which would enable us to pass, by a process of reasoning, from the one to the other. They appear together, but we do not know why. 

Were our minds and senses so expanded, strengthened, and illuminated, as to enable us to see and feel the very molecules of the brain; were we capable of following all their motions, all their groupings, all their electric discharges, if such there be; and were we intimately acquainted with the corresponding states of thought and feeling, we should be as far as ever from the solution of the problem, "How are these physical processes connected with the facts of consciousness?" The chasm between the two classes of phenomena would still remain intellectually impassable. 

Let the consciousness of love, for example, be associated with a right-handed spiral motion of the molecules of the brain, and the consciousness of hate with a left-handed spiral motion. We should then know, when we love, that the motion is in one direction, and, when we hate, that the motion is in the other; but the "Why?" would remain as unanswerable as before."

And in those intervening 140 years, science has made no progress whatsoever in addressing these questions.

So why is the Hard Problem so hard?

Is it just that we aren't yet smart enough to solve it, or is it that we never will be smart enough to solve it?  Or is the Hard Problem totally different from any other scientific problem because it involves a non-physical system: the Mind?

Read the full article at Rational Buddhism.

Buddhism in the British Army

From the Daily Mail

'Buddhism is experiencing an extraordinary upswing in popularity in the armed forces.

Since 2005, the number of servicemen and women practising the religion has risen from 200 to 3,800. Around 2,800 are Gurkhas, whose home nation Nepal has pockets of Buddhism.

But the other 1,000 are British, with many converting since they joined the military.

According to spiritual leaders, the reason behind the phenomenon is that Buddhism allows service personnel to escape the stresses and strains of military life.

Sunil Kariyakarawana, the Buddhist chaplain for the armed forces, said: ‘Buddhism has a different perspective about things.

'The military is a very stressful place. People go to war, that is one factor, and have to fight.

'Personnel see a lot of suffering in theatre. People are finding that Buddhism can help with these mental agonies.

'It is laid back and they can practise their own way.'

Dr Sunil said Buddha, who lived 2,500 years ago, never ruled out force: 'Sometimes you have to choose war as the least bad option.'

Read the full article



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