MJD’s Comments (group member since Aug 18, 2018)

MJD’s comments from the Secular Sangha: A Secular Buddhist Group group.

Loretta wrote: "I am a devout Roman Catholic. "I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord".

With that being stated, I'm not very familiar with ..."

I just want to say that while there certainly are some Buddhist perspectives that have literal beliefs in supernatural ideas (i.e. reincarnation, karma, gods, etc.) that seem to be in direct opposition to your faith (and the faiths and non-faith of others), my intention with this group is to focus on a secular perspective (i.e. focusing on the non-supernatural elements and viewing the supernatural ones as allegory) that is hopefully useful for a wide rang of people with a wide rang of worldviews.

Loretta wrote: "I am a devout Roman Catholic. "I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord".

With that being stated, I'm not very familiar with ..."

Welcome to the group.

Piyangie wrote: "The Buddhist concepts of "self" and how one can become enlighten through understanding self are what intrigue me the most."

I think the Buddhist concept of the self was explored well in the group book A History Of Indian Philosophy, Volume I. I'll be honest and say that the book was a bit dry at times, but I think that the detached academic tone helped in presenting Buddhist (and Hindu and Jainist) philosophy in a straightforward manner.

Piyangie wrote: "Hi all! I'm Piyangie and am a Buddhist of Theravada sect. I'm really glad to join a non-religious group interested in Buddhist teaching. Thank you for the invitation MJD."

For a purely non-religious book that incorporates Buddhist concepts, I highly recommend the group book Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris

Piyangie wrote: "Hi all! I'm Piyangie and am a Buddhist of Theravada sect. I'm really glad to join a non-religious group interested in Buddhist teaching. Thank you for the invitation MJD."

Thank you for joining. My interest in Theravada has been growing since I read Food for the Heart: The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah and some of the pali canon such as Wisdom of the Buddha: The Unabridged Dhammapada

Kelly wrote: "This will probably sound as non-academic as it is... lol. For me life is all about how we treat others. So the Golden Rule is it for me. When I read fiction I find that if it triggers emotion then ..."

I think that you may like the book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker, particularly Chapter 4 - The Humanitarian Revolution.

I say this because Pinker argued in chapter 4 that "The growth of writing and literacy strikes me as the best candidate of an exogenous change that helped set off the Humanitarian Revolution." He went on to argue that an increase in people reading novels may have contributed to an increase in empathy among the general population in Western Europe, which then led to a decrease in violence in Western Europe.

Kelly wrote: "Hello all. I know some of you from other groups. My name is Kelly and while I have a son who is a Philosophy major I really don't enjoy it. LOL. However, I am intrigued by Buddhism and so the group..."

Welcome to the group. While there are some books in the group book list that may not appeal to you (like the academic "Routledge" books I have listed like Metaphor and Literalism in Buddhism: The Doctrinal History of Nirvana ) there are books that are more literary (like The Gospel of Buddha and The Light of Asia ).

Feel free to browse the list and see what books you would like to read. Hopefully there are a few that are a good fit for you.

One of the more interesting parts of the The Lotus Sutra is where the the Buddha, who is often characterized as ever in pursuit of the truth, seems to come out in favor of the right to lie from altruistic motives ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upaya#P... ) [side-note: I also see interesting parallels between the parable of the burning house in this sutra and the parable of the cave in [book:The Republic|30289] by Plato ]

For those interested in the subject, one of the better refutations in philosophy on this supposed right to lie - in my opinion - would be "ON A SUPPOSED RIGHT TO LIE FROM ALTRUISTIC
MOTIVES" by Immanuel Kant: http://www.mesacc.edu/~davpy35701/tex...


For a more contemporary book the philosophy of the right to lie for any reason for those interested in the subject I would recommend a book that was used in an ethics class I took in grad school, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life by Sissela Bok

I found this to be a nice little book on Buddhist philosophy and meditation. I think that it works well as either an introduction or refresher to these subjects.

I found every essay in this book very interesting. I was particularly interested in the development of Buddhism in Africa, which is a subject that I don't think I have encountered anywhere else before or since reading this book.

When I first opened this book and saw the table of contents I thought that each chapter could be read as a self-contained essay on an individual issue (like a textbook). I soon discovered that the book needs to be read cover to cover as a whole because each chapter contains concepts that build on one anther.

So, if you look at the table of contents and think that you are interested in just reading a chapter or two near the end that have titles that interest you I think you should resist the urge to skip over the earlier content.

I'll try to give a one sentence definition that encapsulates everything I've read on the subject:

Buddhism is a framework to cultivate "nibbana" and "metta" through various practices and understandings, such practicing mindfulness and better understanding the impermanence of Being.

I found this to be an interesting deconstruction and questioning of what an academic understanding of "Buddhism" is.

John wrote: "While I still have some interest in political philosophy (one of the first texts I read was The Communist Manifesto and I had an attempt at reading Leviathan), at this poi..."

If you like the Stoics (for the record, I like them as well) you may like the group book Wisdom of the Buddha: The Unabridged Dhammapada. I think that there are a lot of parallels.

For example, I think that there are parallels between Of Anger by Seneca and the chapter on anger in the Dhammapada.

Here are two online translations of the chapter:

https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN...

http://www.buddhanet.net/dhammapada/d...

John wrote: "MJD,
You seem to have assimilated a lot of philosophical lessons from your readings. Have you been studying philosophy long?

While I think I have some "nuggets" of wisdom from my readings, it feel..."

My undergrad was in political science and my masters is in public administration, so I have some background in political philosophy and ethics from my undergrad and grad years in a general sense. I also took an intro class into philosophy and a class purely on existentialism as an undergrad. I also took a class purely on ethics in grad school.

For me, while I do not think that there is a substitute for reading original philosophical text as a whole, I do think that reading summaries of them (such as articles from Wikipedia) alongside reading the texts themselves are a great help to me.

I am also a fan of the approach that the organization The School of Life has in terms of how to contemplate philosophy. The School of Life seems intent on teasing out practical life lessons in even the most esoteric works of philosophy, and since I started reading philosophy with that in mind I think I've started to get a lot more out of it.

I also like the the approach that Joseph Campbell took with his study of myth, trying to tease out universal themes from diverse myths from around the world. I have incorporated that into my reading, trying to find common underlying themes in diverse philosophical works across the world and across different times, and I think that I've got a lot out of this form of reading as well.

I for one love the videos that The School of Life put out, and I love this book.

I have also read and enjoyed two other books put out by this organization: Calm: Educate yourself in the art of remaining calm, and learn how to defend yourself from panic and fury. and On Confidence.

This seems similar to the theology of Martin Luther, with the emphasis on "faith" over "works." For a more purely philosophical book on this frame of thought I highly recommend the book A Treatise on Good Works by Martin Luther.

In terms of getting a secular philosophy out of it, I think that this frame of thought may have a point in the sense that "right action" may be an emergent property of "right belief." That is, it may be good to focus on believing the right things (i.e. that men and women have equal capabilities on the whole), in order for one to automatically do the right thing (i.e. not be discriminatory in hiring practices on the basis of sex).

For me I am interested in the Buddhist analysis of the "self."

For me I really like what I've read from the Theravāda school (such as the group books Food for the Heart: The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah and Wisdom of the Buddha: The Unabridged Dhammapada) in terms of straight forward philosophy of the mind, but I also tend to like the Zen tradition in terms of the poetic spirit of the writings (such as the group book 122 Zen Koans).

I really found the analysis of the metaphor of the blown out flame in relation to the conception of fire in the Upanishads interesting. It is interesting to contemplate that thousands of years of Buddhist tradition in much of the world was based in part on a misunderstanding of what was meant by a single metaphor.