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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 24th, 2023

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  • Thank you for this. I have been casually interested in Buddhism for a long time, but often annoyed by tendencies in the readings to still chase after some sort of God’s grace, or a new state of being, or any other end game that denies the importance of what you and the rest of reality are actually experiencing. Nevertheless, even a very light study as I have done has been useful to me as a counter to many deeply assumed concepts and gives a way to explain other ways of seeing. I think just like any philosophy, the parts that can be construed or misconstrued to support the status quo within yourself or your community (which I include desire for specialness, desire to look away from pain) are going to be the most attractive and popular parts.

    When I read this,

    Stephen Batchelor eloquently describes his practice as a method for confronting-rather than transcending- the often painful mystery of life. But Batchelor seems to have arrived at what he calls an “agnostic” perspective in spite of his Buddhist training-not because of it.

    I think you can’t say it is in spite of the training if he feels it’s through the training he got there. But I agree, it’s not a place a lot of Buddhist practitioners seem to be aiming at.









  • It’s an interesting comparison because it seems to me dueling comes from times and places where personal reputation was much more important to life destiny than now due to a lack of protective legal and other institutional infrastructure that dampens the risks in living and working with strangers.

    So maybe any rising sensitivity in the present is due to the feeling that this infrastructure is weakened.