Category: Buddhism

Panpsychism, pansignaling, and Buddhism

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Panpsychism means “all mind” or mind in all things, with an emphasis on cognition being a fundamental aspect or part of nature.

Pansignaling means “all signaling” or signaling in all things, with an emphasis on signaling being a fundamental aspect or part of nature.

I like the term pansignaling because it gets us to look at the signals, without which there is nothing.

Another word that is close to these two is panexperientialism, which connotes that “the fundamental elements of the universe are ‘occasions of experience’ which can together create something as complex as a human being.”

These ideas or similar can be found in the Huayan and Tiantai schools of Buddhism.

Highly recommend giving these ideas some thought and reading the links provided above.

I  tend to favor thinking of this stuff from the signaling point of view. A signal can be found, defined, analyzed, and so on. A signal is a fairly objective thing. When we consider signals and consciousness, it is very natural to consider that signals are parts of networks and that networks can be parts of bigger networks.

As I understand it, panexperientialism holds the view that atoms have experience, and that molecules have experience as do the atoms that make them up… and so on till we get to cells, organs, brains, human consciousness. Human consciousness, which is fundamentally experiential, is what humans mainly think of as experience. At all levels, the “parts” of human consciousness also are conscious or cognizant and thus capable of experience. Thus, there is no mind-body problem. Cognition or awareness is part of nature from the very bottom up. For example, a single bacterium can know to move toward something or away from it.

Life is “anti-entropic signaling networks” that organize, self-organize, combine, cooperate, compete, eat, and change constantly. From this, we can see where impermanence and delusion as described in Buddhism come from.

When matter breaks down into waves and laws, it becomes information, but similar processes are still at work. In Buddhist terms we find again dependent origination, no intrinsic self separate from other information, impermanence, rational structure, karma (the work of this producing that), the primary consciousness found in deep samadhi.

first posted FEBRUARY 25, 2017

A picture of early Buddhism based on what we can be reasonably sure of today

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As ascetics,31 the Śramaṇas (Buddhists) owned little more than a simple robe and a few other necessities. Thus did Gautama Śākamuni, ‘sage of the Scythians’, wander, meditating and searching for answers, before his “awakening”. He may well have met others doing the same thing, and studied with some of them, but we have no remotely credible evidence that he knew anything about Jains, Ājīvikas, or other non-Brahmanist sects. The traditional view, which actually accepts this problematic notion as dogma, has not been seriously questioned for a long time. Yet these sects are unattested in any dated or datable Pre-Normative Buddhist sources. It is because their teachings needed to be refuted and rejected by much later Buddhists that they eventually appeared in the written Buddhist tradition, but in works that are patently late doctrinally, full of magic and other forms of fantasy, and unreliable in every other way. Chronological incongruities reveal that the putatively “early” forms of what eventually became identifiably Jain, Ājīvika, and so on, did not yet exist as such anywhere near the time of the Buddha, but took on recognizable forms only much later due to heavy influence from Normative Buddhism, therefore no earlier than the Saka-Kushan period.

~Beckwith, Christopher I.. Greek Buddha: Pyrrho’s Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia (pp. 70-71). Princeton University Press

Greek Buddha: Pyrrho’s Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia

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Pyrrho of Elis went with Alexander the Great to Central Asia and India during the Greek invasion and conquest of the Persian Empire in 334–324 BC. There he met with early Buddhist masters. Greek Buddha shows how their Early Buddhism shaped the philosophy of Pyrrho, the famous founder of Pyrrhonian scepticism in ancient Greece.

Christopher I. Beckwith traces the origins of a major tradition in Western philosophy to Gandhara, a country in Central Asia and northwestern India. He systematically examines the teachings and practices of Pyrrho and of Early Buddhism, including those preserved in testimonies by and about Pyrrho, in the report on Indian philosophy two decades later by the Seleucid ambassador Megasthenes, in the first-person edicts by the Indian king Devanampriya Priyadarsi referring to a popular variety of the Dharma in the early third century BC, and in Taoist echoes of Gautama’s Dharma in Warring States China. Beckwith demonstrates how the teachings of Pyrrho agree closely with those of the Buddha Sakyamuni, “the Scythian Sage.” In the process, he identifies eight distinct philosophical schools in ancient northwestern India and Central Asia, including Early Zoroastrianism, Early Brahmanism, and several forms of Early Buddhism. He then shows the influence that Pyrrho’s brand of scepticism had on the evolution of Western thought, first in Antiquity, and later, during the Enlightenment, on the great philosopher and self-proclaimed Pyrrhonian, David Hume.

Greek Buddha demonstrates that through Pyrrho, Early Buddhist thought had a major impact on Western philosophy.

link

Recommended reading for The Ethical Skeptic, and others of course. I am just finishing Beckwith’s Empires of the Silk Road, which will transform your understanding of world history if you are not already familiar with his work. Looking forward to reading Greek Buddha next. ABN

Psycholinguistics: our normal interpersonal communication system inevitably produces significant error

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Our normal interpersonal communication system inevitably produces significant error; thus leading to misery, personality disorder, mental illness. In spiritual terms, the normal ways we talk and listen carry toxic seeds of ignorance (and evil) that scatter everywhere. Even the sciences are affected.

Without the FIML corrective, nothing will change.

I have done FIML long enough that I feel deeply sorry for everyone who does not do it.

It’s not super easy to do FIML, to correct the mistakes that cause so much suffering, but it can be done with no more effort than learning to cook well or play the piano passably well. And like those skills, it’s fun to do once you get going with it.

Societies collapse because ignorance, greed, and madness accumulate and rot them out from inside. It happens to all of them. It is happening to us very seriously right now.

Marriages, friendships, and individual lives collapse for similar reasons. Errors build on errors, minds overwhelmed; suffering ensues.

I beg of you. Give it a shot. Learn FIML.

Within a short time you will see what it does, how it does it, and why it is so necessary for a good life.

Buddhism, Islam and Religious Pluralism in South and Southeast Asia

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In Thailand, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, Buddhists see strong links between their religion and country, as do Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia

As some practices and philosophies related to Buddhism have become more commonplace in the United States and other Western countries, many Americans may associate Buddhism with mindfulness or meditation. In other parts of the world, however, Buddhism is not just a philosophy about mind and body – it is a central part of national identity.

In Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Thailand – countries where at least 70% of adults are Buddhist – upward of nine-in-ten Buddhists say being Buddhist is important to being truly part of their nation, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey of six countries in South and Southeast Asia.

A bar chart showing that religion and national identity are tied together in Buddhist-majority countries

For instance, 95% of Sri Lankan Buddhists say being Buddhist is important to be truly Sri Lankan – including 87% who say Buddhism is very important to be a true Sri Lankan.

Although most people in these countries identify as Buddhist religiously, there is widespread agreement that Buddhism is more than a religion.1 The vast majority of Buddhists in Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Thailand not only describe Buddhism as “a religion one chooses to follow” but also say Buddhism is “a culture one is part of” and “a family tradition one must follow.”

Most Buddhists in these countries additionally see Buddhism as “an ethnicity one is born into” – 76% of Cambodian Buddhists hold this view, for example.

These findings come from a Pew Research Center survey conducted among 13,122 adults in six countries in Southeast and South Asia. Interviews were conducted face-to-face in Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand and on mobile phones in Malaysia and Singapore. Local interviewers administered the survey from June to September 2022, in eight languages.

This article provides a good overview of religious beliefs within the countries mentioned at the top. ABN

NY District Attorney Sandra Doorley who was caught speeding and berating cops releases apology

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link

Whether you like her or not, from a Buddhist point of view this is a good apology. She takes full responsibility, briefly explains why she thinks she did what she did but does not turn that into an excuse. She disciplines herself and in essence vows never to do it again (an important part of a Buddhist apology). She deserves forgiveness from the public for this incident and, while she should reflect on it fully for a year or so, she should also gradually put it out of her mind and move on after that. I do not know anything else about Doorley and am just commenting on her apology. ABN

Tibetan Buddhist viharas were the model for European colleges and Islamic madrasas

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Central Asian scholars also developed an Islamic system of higher education modeled on the Central Asian system of the Buddhist vihâra, or monastic college. The vihâra was supported by a tax-exempt pious foundation that paid the expenses of the students and also of the teacher or teachers, who lived in the vihâra with the students. The primary method of teaching was oral lecture and debate, and the main subject of study was the Dharma, or Buddhist law and theology. These fundamental elements were taken over wholesale by the Arabs, who adopted even the distinctively Central Asian form of the vihâra architectural plan—a square structure with a large courtyard, each side of which contained chambers for the students and teachers plus four îwâns, large half-open halls in the form of gateways. The vihâra seems to have been Islamicized as the madrasa in Central Asia in the eighth and ninth centuries, though it is only noted in historical sources somewhat later.

Beckwith, Christopher I.. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present (p. 154). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.

Medieval Western European culture grew intellectually as a direct result of contact with Muslim Spain and Palestine. The translation into Latin of Arabic books introduced new, exciting, and often controversial ideas. The work of al-Khwârizmî54 (Algorithmus) translated as the Book of Algorithmus introduced Arabic numerals, including the zero and “algorithmic” calculation along with them, while the Algebra introduced advanced algebraic mathematics. They were revolutionary to the scientifically oriented minds of Western Europe. The translation of previously unknown philosophical and logical works of Aristotle, along with the works of the great Islamic Aristotelian philosophers, also caused fundamental restructuring of Western European thought. The ideas accompanied at least one important institution. The first European college,55 the Collège des Dix-huit or ‘College of the Eighteen Scholars’, was established in Paris in 1180 by Jocius of London (Jocius de Londiniis) after his return from the Holy Land.56 It was the oldest of the colleges that formed the original University of Paris. The college retained most of the essential characteristics of its direct ancestors, the madrasa and vihâra, including the pious foundation that supported the student residents and a professor,57 and perhaps the architectural form as well.58 The transmission of Islamic knowledge, techniques, and institutions to the West thus fueled the intellectual revolution of the High Middle Ages.

Beckwith, Christopher I.. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present (pp. 179-180). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.

The ancient roots of the comitatus

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The core comitatus consisted of a small number of warriors, who are called or referred to as friends. Chinggis Khan himself had four: Khubilai, Jelme, Jebe, and Sübedei, whom Jamukha characterizes as the four fierce wolves or dogs of Chinggis. The characterization of the comitatus warriors as wolves or other fierce animals goes all the way back to Proto-Indo-European times. The core group—usually a small number of men—committed ritual suicide (or was executed) to accompany the lord if he predeceased the group, and each man was buried “armed to the teeth” for battle in the next world. The comitatus warriors took their oath freely and, in doing so, broke their original connections to their clan or nation. They became as close or closer than family to their lord, they lived in their lord’s house with him, and they were rewarded lavishly by him in return for their oath. The comitatus is attested archaeologically in burials, historically in descriptions of cultures from all parts of Central Eurasia, and in early literary texts. The most famous are perhaps the Rig Veda hymns to the deified comitatus of Indra, the Marut chariot warriors. A vivid example is found in a dialogue between the lord and his warrior friends where Ahi is the snake-demon enemy, the dragon of many Central Eurasian heroic epics.

Beckwith, Christopher I.. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present (pp. 13-14). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.

The lord and his comitatus formed the heart of every newborn Central Eurasian nation. In Central Asia the warriors of a typical ruler’s full comitatus, even that of a mere governor, numbered in the thousands and was extremely expensive to maintain. In the Middle Ages, the comitatus and ideas of rulership gradually changed with the adoption of world religions, which frown on suicide or ritual murder, but they otherwise continued down to the conquest of Central Eurasia by peripheral powers.

Beckwith, Christopher I.. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present (p. 15). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth

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Thus have I heard:

On one occasion the Blessed One was living in the Deer Park at Isipatana (the Resort of Seers) near Varanasi (Benares). Then he addressed the group of five monks (bhikkhus):

“Monks, these two extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the household life. (What are the two?) There is addiction to indulgence of sense-pleasures, which is low, coarse, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable; and there is addiction to self-mortification, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable.

“Avoiding both these extremes, the Tathagata has realized the Middle Path; it gives vision, gives knowledge, and leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment and to Nibbana. And what is that Middle Path realized by the Tathagata? It is the Noble Eightfold path, and nothing else, namely: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right samadhi. This is the Middle Path realized by the Tathagata which gives vision, which gives knowledge, and leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment, and to Nibbana.

“The Noble Truth of Suffering (dukkha), monks, is this: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, association with the unpleasant is suffering, dissociation from the pleasant is suffering, not to receive what one desires is suffering — in brief the five aggregates subject to grasping are suffering.

“The Noble Truth of the Origin (cause) of Suffering is this: It is this craving (thirst) which produces re-becoming (rebirth) accompanied by passionate greed, and finding fresh delight now here, and now there, namely craving for sense pleasure, craving for existence and craving for non-existence (self-annihilation).

“The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering is this: It is the complete cessation of that very craving, giving it up, relinquishing it, liberating oneself from it, and detaching oneself from it.

“The Noble Truth of the Path Leading to the Cessation of Suffering is this: It is the Noble Eightfold Path, and nothing else, namely: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.

continue reading

(I have taken the liberty of changing the translation of three of the elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. Of those three, I believe right samadhi is the most important. When samadhi is translated as concentration, it communicates poorly. Samadhi is the profound subjective experience of ‘ultimate reality’ or ‘Buddha nature’ or ‘cosmic consciousness’. Right samadhi is the subjective meditative experience that ties all of the Buddha’s teachings together. ABN)

A Good Description of Right Samadhi, the Eighth Element of the Noble Eightfold Path

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Theise provides a good description of Right Samadhi at 6:02 min, prompted.

Buddhist philosophy and practice is founded on samadhi states, which might be described as the doors which open to the temple of Deepest Reality. Samadhi states are available to all people. They are the experiential part of Buddhism. They have to be experienced to make sense, and once experienced all of Buddhism will make sense.

Western civilization has almost no traditional awareness of samadhi. We have scores of philosophers and religious thinkers, but no samadhi. It is a glaring omission, one that has led us astray in many ways. Fortunately, today more people are beginning to see what samadhi states are, as Theise illustrates. Be sure to watch the whole clip as it will provide context to what he says about samadhi.

Buddhism is sort of implicitly ‘panpsychist’ or based on consciousness as a primary aspect of reality. Mind Only or Yogacara Buddhism makes this claim more explicitly. Samadhi is beautiful, joyful, wonderful. It will change you very deeply for the better or make you realize you don’t need to be changed at all. ABN