American Buddhist Net

SEOUL (AFP) — Thousands of philosophers from around the globe gathered here Wednesday for their first world congress in Asia to discuss ways to enhance dialogue between different cultures, organisers said.

The 22nd World Congress of Philosophy, being held under the theme of "Rethinking Philosophy Today," has drawn more than 3,000 prominent philosophers from some 150 countries.

It marked the first time that the event, held every five years, has taken place in Asia since it began in Paris in 1900. All of the previous world meetings were held in Europe or the Americas.

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Sunday July 20, 2008
By Austin Cline

One of the more popular myths about atheism is the idea that it's some sort of ideology, philosophy, religion, or creed. Some religious theists just can't understand how atheism can be anything less than that; in fact, some are so much in denial about what atheism is that they will go to great lengths to insist that it must involve some set of beliefs, assertions, and ideas about the world which is analogous to their own.

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Among the greatest minds in Indian philosophy and Sanskrit literary traditions was Prof. G.N. Chakravarthy. This scholar, who constantly renewed his understanding of the ancient knowledge systems to tackle the problems of the present, passed away last Friday.

Friday, Jul 04, 2008

...While the West scoffed at the Indian approach of seeking solutions for individual and civilizational issues in the spiritual realm, dogmatic Oriental scholars who nurture a standpoint that is as one-sided as this, seek all answers in the transcendental and mystical, refusing to see its historical basis in the material world. It was for these reasons, that towards the end of his life, he was interested in studying Buddhism and its relationship with the Vaidika tradition.

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June 30, 2008

CAMDEN, MAINE: The Camden Philosophical Society will present Greg Fahy for a lecture titled Buddhism and the Concept of Dependent Origination on Thursday, July 10 at 4 p.m. at the Camden Public Library.

Many Buddhist philosophers emphasize the concept that nothing exists independently of the web of causation. Fahy said this has important implications for personal identity as well as for Buddhism’s ethical prescriptions for relieving suffering by eliminating craving.

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“The mind is everything. What you think you become.” -The Buddha
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Book Review of "The Secret History of the World", by Jonathan Black
June 24th, 2008
John Evans

...The simplest way to explain his subject is to state that science has become a militant materialist philosophy that believes matter precedes mind. Some scientists have even called consciousness “a disease of matter,” as if it were an interloper in a senseless universe.

This view is the complete opposite of what a majority of the greatest minds throughout history have believed — or better, known.

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How to complain, feel better ... and get your own way

By Paul Dalgarno

WE ARE born complaining. Wrinkled and restless, we kick our legs and scream at the world that comes to meet us. Anything less would seem absurd (and medically suspect).When we're dying we might complain in words, if we are able, or with an anxious tug of the catheter if not. Between starting and ending we carp, bitch, moan, whine, backstab and protest. We bellyache and argue; we bruise and we bond. We overthrow governments or smash cups against walls, according to our means and frustrations. Complaint is with us all the way, but is it good for us or bad?

Julian Baggini, philosopher, thinks the former, but with reservations. Essentially it depends what our gripe is, how we complain, and to whom. Get it wrong and no-one will like you. Get it right and you go from mediocre meathead to noble savage.

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China's New Confucianism by Daniel A Bell

Reviewed by Sunny Lee
Jun 7, 2008

BEIJING - As China is slowly reeling from the terrible earthquake that jolted the nation, Bi Baokui praised, in a piece titled "Reflection on the earthquake", Premier Wen Jiabao, who within two hours of the earthquake was already on an airplane en route to the disaster site, as embodying "the Confucian spirit of humanity". Bi forgot to praise the Chinese Communist Party - which many people would customarily do in such situations. Perhaps he can be forgiven on that; Bi is a Confucian scholar.

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We see colours, hear sounds and feel textures. Some aspects of the world, it seems, are perceived through a particular sense. Others, like shape, are perceived through more than one sense. But what sense or senses do we use when perceiving time? It is certainly not associated with one particular sense. In fact, it seems odd to say that we see, hear or touch time passing. And indeed, even if all our senses were prevented from functioning for a while, we could still notice the passing of time through the changing pattern of our thought. Perhaps, then, we have a special faculty, distinct from the five senses, for detecting time. Or perhaps, as seems more likely, we notice time through perception of other things. But how?

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By Manuel L. Quezon III

MANILA, Philippines - The ancient Chinese believed that the "mandate of Heaven" was revealed by tangible signs, such as flood or famine. Such misfortunes were indications that the legitimacy of a ruler was waning. Confucius elaborated the idea further, and taught that the "mandate of Heaven" was dependent on knowing the moral order of the universe, and demonstrating it in the six relationships that govern superiors and subordinates (i.e. minister to prince, friend to friend, teacher to student).

From "The Analects of Confucius" (the L. Giles translation) come some useful principles to ponder. The first two extracts concern definitions of good government.

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I like to think of myself as a rational person. I don’t hold with superstitions or superstitious behavior—I don’t believe in fairies or gods, and I think that supplicational prayer is foolish. I believe that the methods of science have evolved into admirably rigorous tools for extending, clarifying, detailing our understanding of the universe we inhabit and our own material beings, and I am persuaded and amazed by the picture of the material world that modern science has composed. I have faith in science.

I also have faith in my own ignorance. I’ve studied widely and diligently—science, and literature, and some history, and the foundational literature of many of the world’s spiritual traditions; I know a lot, about a lot. And I have absolute faith that what I don’t know dwarfs what I know. I am profoundly ignorant.

And I have faith in the Buddha and his Dhamma (Sanskrit: dharma). That last faith has become more and more important to me over the past several years. It owes, in part, to the fact that the Buddhadhamma acknowledges my ignorance. It shows me how my ignorance is the foundation for all of the dissatisfaction that characterizes this worldly existence; it also describes a clear and persuasively logical path that may lead to an end to ignorance and suffering. Several times in my life, I have taken the first faltering steps onto that path, and I have been almost immediately confronted by something that tested my faith. That is the doctrine of kamma (Sanskrit: karma) and rebirth, and it induces doubt because it seems to conflict with that other faith—the faith in science and in the infinite nature of our ignorance.

I don’t think that I’m alone in my confusion....

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4/23/08
Jesse Kornbluth

...What they forget to teach you in school is that Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) was a student of the teachings of Epictetus (55-135 AD). One man was an emperor, the other a former slave who lived simply and wrote not a word. But of the Stoics, Epictetus seems to me to be the one to read.

The value of Epictetus is that he is, literally, a practical philosopher -- if you're looking for deep thoughts, big ideas or anything that leads to the linguistic and mathematical analysis we now call philosophy, he's everything you don't want. His concerns are the here and now: reality, life, death. And he's not about to quibble over their ambiguities.

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5 Apr 2008

...Einstein's religious views have been a matter of considerable controversy. Max Jammer, the well-known Jewish historian and philosopher of science, wrote a thoughtful book, Einstein and Religion, concluding that for Einstein 'religion' was definitely not 'atheism'. Einstein himself said that: 'You will hardly find one among the profounder sort of scientific minds without a religious feeling'. Yet in his best-selling and much-publicised atheist polemic, The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins, who takes most of his Einstein quotes from Jammer, categorises Einstein as 'atheistic'.

...[Einstein] detested any idea of indoctrination or fundamentalism, but admitted that conventional religions had a role in setting ethical standards. Dawkins would disagree, considering that 'the cause of all this misery, mayhem, violence, terror and ignorance is religion itself'. Einstein also venerated the founders of the major religions, especially Jesus and Buddha; Dawkins might be more sceptical. Einstein even found the elements of cosmic religion in the Psalms and the Proverbs of the bible, and particularly in Buddhism.

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Now, I'm all for tolerance and understanding. And I sure can't see the point in getting all fired up about there being one path (and one path only!) to God or ultimate reality or whatever you want to call it. Still, I do appreciate the pope's position on the dangers of moral relativism.

Uh, Buddhism, anyone? Robyn
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April 5, 2008
By Gary Stern

Is America, a land where many hold tolerance and pluralism to be sacred values, ready to hear a papal warning that not all beliefs are equal and that some truths trump others?

One of Pope Benedict XVI's main messages is that the West is falling under the poisonous spell of "relativism" - the idea that moral values can vary from culture to culture and person to person. Such a belief system, he repeatedly cautions, erases the possibility of universal or absolute truth and sticks a dagger in the heart of religious conviction.

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March 31, 2008

Pettigrew, AK (PRWEB) March 31, 2008 -- In the spirit of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," author How Kuff explores the current state of humanity through the happenstance meeting of seven world travelers in his philosophical novel "Changing History"

..."Changing History" examines the biggest issues of the 21st Century through the travelers' compelling first-person narratives. Their diverse backgrounds vary greatly across age, gender, culture and race, bringing a wide variety of viewpoints to their reflective conversation. The travelers' emotionally charged tales expand on the nature of their relationships to the world around them and share their personal struggles with self-expression, discrimination, politics, economics, religion, love and war.

When it becomes clear that their stories are all connected on a metaphysical level, the travelers begin to develop a new understanding of humanity. Taking insight from Buddhism, quantum physics and deep ecology, "Changing History" promotes the idea of world citizenship and the innate interconnectedness of all living things. "We are intimately connected to all that has occurred before and to all that will occur in the future," Kuff says. "We have tremendous power through our present actions to change the past and make the future."

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One of the most powerful objections to Pascal’s Wager is that it illicitly assumes that if there is a way of getting into heaven then it is by believing in God. There are many other possible entrance criteria for heaven, however, and on some of these criteria it is by disbelieving in God that we earn an infinite, eternal reward. It may be, for instance, that there exists a God that punishes believers and rewards nonbelievers, and that it is in our interests to disbelieve in God. This objection threatens to undermine Pascal’s Wager.

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‘I’ve experienced happiness in three different ways’

Sunday, March 02, 2008
Nadine Kreisberger

Fritjof Capra, physicist and philosopher is also the author of several international bestsellers, especially The Tao of Physics which makes an assertion that physics and metaphysics (spirituality) are both inexorably leading to the same knowledge.

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Saturday, March 1, 2008
By Mike Tymn

While watching "The Question of God" one night on PBS, I sat perplexed.

The program, moderated by Dr. Armand Nicholi, a psychiatrist and Harvard professor, had a theoretical debate between Sigmund Freud, the atheist, and C.S. Lewis, the believer, on the existence of God. Afterward was a panel of educated believers, agnostics and atheists.

My confusion? They never got past the issue of whether God exists but discussed whether order can exist in the universe without a higher intelligence, whether God is a product of the need to believe in something greater, and how there can be a God when there is so much evil in the world.

As I see it, the issue should have been whether consciousness survives physical death. If God exists but consciousness does not go on, what difference does it make if there is a God? Knowing if God exists doesn't in itself help us understand the purpose of our lives or give real meaning to them.

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February 27, 2008

During the early part of the Middle Ages, there arose two notable contributions to the practice of criminal justice. The first was the emergence of the practice of the ordeal. Law was largely unknown. There gradually evolved the custom of putting the witness or defendant to some physical test, the result of which would show whether he or she was guilty or not. For instance, the accused might be tied and thrown into water. If he or she floated to the top, it indicated guilt. The reason was "theological": "For the pure nature of the water recognizes as impure, and therefore rejects as inconsistent with itself, such human nature as has once been regenerated by the waters of baptism and is again infected by falsehood."

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Most of us want more of it - but have you asked yourself why?

2007-11-01

William Shakespeare waxed on it. George Carlin joked about it. The economy is built on it.

What is it?

Why, stuff, of course.

Since the first humans began coveting nonessential objects, the pursuit of pleasurable stuff has been part of daily life.

...Whether viewed as a force behind “progress” or as a burden to be shed, humanity’s long and complicated relationship with material possessions can’t be denied. But perhaps it can be better understood.

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Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He lived a life of great simplicity and had few possessions. Some quotes:

“When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.”

"We are disturbed not by events, but by the views which we take of them. I must die. Must I then die lamenting?"

A look at Nietzsche's Criticisms of Buddhist Philosophy

By Omar Moad

Comparisons between Buddhism and the various schools of existentialism have revealed a number of parallels. Such studies have frequently centered on each tradition's metaphysical approach and the fact that they all appear to share some form of phenomenological methodology. In the area of ethics, however, existentialism and Buddhism generally seem to differ radically. This difference is the most marked in the case of Nietzsche.

Nietzsche is interpreted nowadays as having been a major pioneer of existentialism in the western world, and certainly deals with many of the same problems and even takes positions similar to those that emerge in Buddhist philosophy. In places, however, he explicitly attacks the Buddhist ethical prescription as diametrically opposed to his own doctrine of life-affirmation. For Nietzsche was not uninformed when it came to Buddhism. Some scholars claim that he '...was probably one of the best read and most solidly grounded in Buddhism for his time among Europeans'. Be that as it may, when philosophers juxtapose their own views against others, it becomes imperative to determine to what extent they understand and accurately depict the ideas they are attacking.

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By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

Korean philosophy that evolved within Asian philosophical studies has been mostly unknown in the Western philosophical tradition.

To bring Korean philosophy to the center of the discussion of high-profile thinkers, the 22nd World Congress of Philosophy will be held at Seoul National University from July 30 to Aug. 5 under the auspices of the Korean Philosophical Association.

...``Many Western philosophers have downplayed Asian philosophy as they regard it as a part of religion. With their bias against Asian philosophy, Seoul has had to vie for the bid with Greece, which is home to Western philosophy,'' said Lee.

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Good to pause sometimes and consider how much the French have given to the world. ABN
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January 5, 2008
Wendy McElroy
ifeminists.net

In 1733, the philosopher who has been credited with ushering in the French Enlightenment, Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire, published a pivotal work entitled Letters Concerning the English Nation. Although written in French, the twenty-four letters first issued from London in an English translation, because the material was considered too politically dangerous to the author and to whomever printed it for the work to appear in France.

Voltaire was no stranger to such controversy. Some years before, after being beaten up by the hirelings of an aristocrat whom he had offended, Voltaire had been thrown into the Bastille (for the second time). He had been released after pledging to stay at least fifty leagues away from Paris. Voltaire chose to go as far as England, where he stayed for roughly two and a half years. The result of the sojourn was the Letters on English religion and politics, which finally appeared in France in 1734 as Lettres philosophiques, or Philosophical Letters.

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2007-11-4
Prof. Manik Lal Shrestha

Buddha's thoughts and teachings are often described as materialistic philosophical dialectical thoughts, pacifist religion and stoic teachings. Fredreich Engels, the co-author of The Communist Manifesto called Buddha "one among the earliest dialecticians in human history." All the descriptions are about the philosophical or religious aspect of Buddha's teachings. The economic aspect of Buddha's teachings, particularly the economic impact of Buddha's teachings in the society of his time and a bit later are significant.

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