>I'm not going to enter the Buddhism vs Objectivism fray for
>reasons that may be obvious.
Hmmm. Buddhist pacifism in action, eh?
I used to practice a martial art called 'aikido'. Aikido is a defensive martial
art in which the object is to defend yourself non-violently. This is done by
neutralizing and/or immobilizing the attacker, instead of responding with
strikes, chokes, etc. Sometimes this question would come up to an instructor:
"If an aikidoist fought other types of martial artists in a street
fight, who would win?"
The instructor would evasively answer the question, by saying:
"A real aikidoist would never be in a street fight."
Some aikidoists thought that their awareness was so high, that they could
always avoid a violent confrontation,. In other words, "That could never happen
to me." But, that's not true as some aikidoists I know who made such claims,
later did get into violent confrontations. It would be more honest if the
instructor said, "Aikido is not the best martial art for a street fight, perhaps
jiujitsu is better."
Using an aikidoist excuse to avoid admitting a fact about aikido is like
using a Buddhist excuse to avoid putting Buddhism under scrutiny. Such pacifism
does not make the possibility that Buddhism is a big hoax, any less real.
>From the article about Zen:
> In Zen training every concept is held up to
>scrutiny, nothing is left uninvestigated,
Does this include the concept of Zen itself?
> it shows a way to eliminate
>those memes that survive by pretending to be furthering our
>own interests -- and even to be us! -- but whose interests are
>not really aligned with our own
Like the memes of Buddhism.
>Any comments?
Yeah, I got comments. Get off that pillow and into the forum, like a good
gladiator.. (I'd love to have a flame war with the Dalai Lama but I don't think
he has a computer.:)
-David
Rosdeitcher