They criticise what deserves criticism and give credit where it's due. Almost all religions teach compassion, which is a good thing. Some of them have dubious metaphysical tenets or practices, which deserve criticism.
One reason for the distinction you raise is that many people regard the Buddhist metaphysic and its emphasis on individual empirical investigation as far more plausible than the Christian metaphysic and the Christian emphasis on faith.
But that's a separate issue from calling on the government to suppress something because it's a "cult", or "mind-wank". People should be free to mind-wank as much as they like, as long as they're not harming others. That's freedom of religion.
Well, I guess the fascists were going to crawl out of the woodwork eventually.
From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong#Beliefs_and_practices):
Falun Gong aspires to enable the practitioner to ascend spiritually through moral rectitude and the practice of a set of exercises and meditation. The three central tenets of the belief are 'Truthfulness' (, Zhn), 'Compassion' (, Shàn), and 'Forbearance' (, Rn).[28] Together these principles are regarded as the fundamental nature of the cosmos, and are held to be the highest manifestation of the Tao, or Buddhist Dharma.
Truthfulness, compassion and forbearance? Holy mother of god, how horrible! We should suppress these people asap. Quick, call Cisco.
That's interesting... but the argument in your last sentence -- which I acknowledge doesn't represent the whole gist of your comment -- is a version of the infamous Pol Pot Defence (in which Pol Pot says "What, criticise me? What about Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Satan? I'm not as bad as them. Go criticise them.")
If Cisco knowingly supplied equipment to suppress Falun Gong, make them pay now, not in 50 years' time. They're as good a place to start as any. Set a precedent, then carry it through to all the other bastards.
...is that he's connected to Bayer, maker of pesticides, whose confirmed bee-killing effects were notably absent from this study.
It's described in detail here (CNN.com).
Robert J. Ekas is obviously the American representative of what will become a worldwide movement.
In South Africa, a university student who may or may not have flipped off the police in a presidential cavalcade was summarily arrested, had a bag put over his head and was detained while his home was searched. Nice.
This looks really great. But for me, a mistake is that the touchpad is in front of the keyboard. You have to move your arms forward and back when you want to switch; using one hand on each is tricky if the touchpad registers your dangling sleeve or your wrist.
I think it would be much better if the total area of the touchpad was split between the two side of the keyboard. Then you could have both hands on the touchpad or one on the touchpad and one on the keyboard, and you wouldn't have to do the forward-back thing with your arms.
We disagree, then. But I think your attitude is an act of faith.
I would agree that Qi is not physical, but that doesn't mean it's not real. That it can't be detected by any known scientific instruments should not surprise us, as scientific instruments are designed to detect only physical things. So for instance, scientific instruments detect the physical correlates of consciousness but not consciousness itself -- and, thus influenced, some schools posited that mental states (e.g. emotions) aren't real.
But, like nonphysical but nevertheless real mental states, Qi can be detected and affirmed by your own experience. You can conduct scientific experiments into this sort of thing. You can do the practice as the experiment, and you can experience the results. You can retain your rationality and your skepticism throughout, and have experiences that are most accurately and comprehensively explained by a "Qi" model.
Nonexistent in your humble opinion, nomadic. If you were inclined to spend a few months doing Qi Gong or some other practice, you might have experiences that would change your opinion.
And just for interest's sake, people confuse the real with the fictional all the time. For instance, many people think there is a real, unitary, unchanging self behind all of their experiences, like a little homonculus just behind the eyes. That's about as real as it gets for most people, but that kind of self doesn't exist at all.
Since the word Qi is already used to describe something rather different, it is a pretty idiotic name for this idea. It merely accords with the co-opting of all sorts of Eastern concepts for marketing Western stuffs, in the footsteps of 'Zen' which nowadays stands for just about anything you'd want in a product.
I agree with you *almost* entirely, Darkness404, but in the UK press alone you can see that the military career option is still glorified and being a soldier still positioned as a Good Thing To Do -- and they're fighting in Afghanistan. The idea of being a soldier not as unpopular or short of street cred as we might like it to be. On the contrary, it has unfortunately retained a significant degree of 'residual manliness' from the days of nationalism. The nationalism is still there, but weaker (thankfully) and subtler. I suspect the situation is similar if not broadly identical in much of the USA's media.
Blizzard can get the best of both worlds like this:
1. Player buys Starcraft 2
2. Player logs on to Battle.net ONCE, and authenticates
3. Having authenticated, Player can play on LAN. Without authentication, LAN play is unavailable.
This way, Blizzard gets the best of both worlds, and so do we. There's no need to exclude LAN support altogether, since its inclusion in this model carries no penalties for anyone. Or am I missing something massive?
Your ironic point, denzacar, is easily made and quite valid, but not nearly so straightforward as it seems.
You use the word "civilised" without single quotes, as though it is unproblematic. You tacitly but inescapably suggest that areas (and people?) which lack roads, health care, formal education and a constant hum (all features of civilisation) are not 'civilised'. That is very problematic, as it assumes the primacy of your own system of judging what constitutes 'civilisation' and does not admit the possibility of any other. But since you are talking about people who are very much 'other', that is absurd.
You also seem to suggest that the absence of all these things is, in fact, a lack. These may not have been your intentions, of course, but they are implications nonetheless.
The value systems of people in 'uncivilised' areas may well differ altogether from our own but be completely valid on their own terms. Don't conflate this with a romanticisation of poverty, but the San of southern Africa, for instance, have no concept of private property but would (and this is my assumption) nonetheless place unimaginably greater value on an untarred swathe of desert stretching to all horizons and the sight of the milky way in the night sky than they would value 'formal education' and modern 'entertainment'.
Quite right. Buddhism may be more intellectual than other religions, but its final application is to the "inmost yearnings of the human heart". That means it is a religion. It is also very definitely a 'spiritual' tradition, in that it contains methods for realising our ultimate nature and aligning our way of being with that nature. And Buddhism should not try to disavow either of those simply because the terms 'religious' and 'spiritual' are unfashionable.
Whether Buddhism is truly nontheistic is debatable. Certainly it rebuts the notion of an anthropomorphic creator God. But doesn't the notion of the Dharmakaya make it a kind of pantheism?
But finally, who cares? Not Buddhists, who are supposed to understand well the emptiness of names and labels.
Slashdot Mirror
If you're so keen to convince me, why not provide a few links of your own? We can go link for link -- I'll stand you the Wikipedia link.
Here are a few on the cult issue specifically:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/falungong3.htm
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,165166,00.html
They criticise what deserves criticism and give credit where it's due. Almost all religions teach compassion, which is a good thing. Some of them have dubious metaphysical tenets or practices, which deserve criticism.
One reason for the distinction you raise is that many people regard the Buddhist metaphysic and its emphasis on individual empirical investigation as far more plausible than the Christian metaphysic and the Christian emphasis on faith.
But that's a separate issue from calling on the government to suppress something because it's a "cult", or "mind-wank". People should be free to mind-wank as much as they like, as long as they're not harming others. That's freedom of religion.
Well, I guess the fascists were going to crawl out of the woodwork eventually.
From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong#Beliefs_and_practices):
Falun Gong aspires to enable the practitioner to ascend spiritually through moral rectitude and the practice of a set of exercises and meditation. The three central tenets of the belief are 'Truthfulness' (, Zhn), 'Compassion' (, Shàn), and 'Forbearance' (, Rn).[28] Together these principles are regarded as the fundamental nature of the cosmos, and are held to be the highest manifestation of the Tao, or Buddhist Dharma.
Truthfulness, compassion and forbearance? Holy mother of god, how horrible! We should suppress these people asap. Quick, call Cisco.
Well. That is pretty damning.
That's interesting... but the argument in your last sentence -- which I acknowledge doesn't represent the whole gist of your comment -- is a version of the infamous Pol Pot Defence (in which Pol Pot says "What, criticise me? What about Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Satan? I'm not as bad as them. Go criticise them.")
If Cisco knowingly supplied equipment to suppress Falun Gong, make them pay now, not in 50 years' time. They're as good a place to start as any. Set a precedent, then carry it through to all the other bastards.
...is that he's connected to Bayer, maker of pesticides, whose confirmed bee-killing effects were notably absent from this study. It's described in detail here (CNN.com).
Robert J. Ekas is obviously the American representative of what will become a worldwide movement.
In South Africa, a university student who may or may not have flipped off the police in a presidential cavalcade was summarily arrested, had a bag put over his head and was detained while his home was searched. Nice.
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-02-19-no-middle-finger-to-prez
Fortunately the media kicked up a big fuss about it. It's not illegal to be rude.
This is why Slashdot should have +6 awesome
This looks really great. But for me, a mistake is that the touchpad is in front of the keyboard. You have to move your arms forward and back when you want to switch; using one hand on each is tricky if the touchpad registers your dangling sleeve or your wrist.
I think it would be much better if the total area of the touchpad was split between the two side of the keyboard. Then you could have both hands on the touchpad or one on the touchpad and one on the keyboard, and you wouldn't have to do the forward-back thing with your arms.
250-Foot Hybrid Airship In Which To Spy Over Afghanistan
if you please
Heheh. Okay re the humility thing.
We disagree, then. But I think your attitude is an act of faith.
I would agree that Qi is not physical, but that doesn't mean it's not real. That it can't be detected by any known scientific instruments should not surprise us, as scientific instruments are designed to detect only physical things. So for instance, scientific instruments detect the physical correlates of consciousness but not consciousness itself -- and, thus influenced, some schools posited that mental states (e.g. emotions) aren't real.
But, like nonphysical but nevertheless real mental states, Qi can be detected and affirmed by your own experience. You can conduct scientific experiments into this sort of thing. You can do the practice as the experiment, and you can experience the results. You can retain your rationality and your skepticism throughout, and have experiences that are most accurately and comprehensively explained by a "Qi" model.
No worries. Keep it surreal.
Interesting, thank you tygerstripes -- I'm now a lot less ignorant :)
Nonexistent in your humble opinion, nomadic. If you were inclined to spend a few months doing Qi Gong or some other practice, you might have experiences that would change your opinion.
And just for interest's sake, people confuse the real with the fictional all the time. For instance, many people think there is a real, unitary, unchanging self behind all of their experiences, like a little homonculus just behind the eyes. That's about as real as it gets for most people, but that kind of self doesn't exist at all.
Since the word Qi is already used to describe something rather different, it is a pretty idiotic name for this idea. It merely accords with the co-opting of all sorts of Eastern concepts for marketing Western stuffs, in the footsteps of 'Zen' which nowadays stands for just about anything you'd want in a product.
If you think you'll be able to get over the withdrawal symptoms of kicking your News Corp dripfeed, you could always try
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Parent is so concise and accurate that it deserves +6.
I agree with you *almost* entirely, Darkness404, but in the UK press alone you can see that the military career option is still glorified and being a soldier still positioned as a Good Thing To Do -- and they're fighting in Afghanistan. The idea of being a soldier not as unpopular or short of street cred as we might like it to be. On the contrary, it has unfortunately retained a significant degree of 'residual manliness' from the days of nationalism. The nationalism is still there, but weaker (thankfully) and subtler. I suspect the situation is similar if not broadly identical in much of the USA's media.
In astrology, Jupiter is considered the "greater benefic," the planet that bestows fortune, luck, and positive benefits.
Just sayin'.
China can fuck right off.
Can someone tell me what's wrong with this idea?
Blizzard can get the best of both worlds like this:
1. Player buys Starcraft 2
2. Player logs on to Battle.net ONCE, and authenticates
3. Having authenticated, Player can play on LAN. Without authentication, LAN play is unavailable.
This way, Blizzard gets the best of both worlds, and so do we. There's no need to exclude LAN support altogether, since its inclusion in this model carries no penalties for anyone. Or am I missing something massive?
Definitive (adj.): supplying or being a final or conclusive settlement.
Which proves beyond doubt that of which it is evidential.
As opposed to ye olde ordinarey evidence which merely contributes to the probability that something is likely.
Your ironic point, denzacar, is easily made and quite valid, but not nearly so straightforward as it seems.
You use the word "civilised" without single quotes, as though it is unproblematic. You tacitly but inescapably suggest that areas (and people?) which lack roads, health care, formal education and a constant hum (all features of civilisation) are not 'civilised'. That is very problematic, as it assumes the primacy of your own system of judging what constitutes 'civilisation' and does not admit the possibility of any other. But since you are talking about people who are very much 'other', that is absurd.
You also seem to suggest that the absence of all these things is, in fact, a lack. These may not have been your intentions, of course, but they are implications nonetheless.
The value systems of people in 'uncivilised' areas may well differ altogether from our own but be completely valid on their own terms. Don't conflate this with a romanticisation of poverty, but the San of southern Africa, for instance, have no concept of private property but would (and this is my assumption) nonetheless place unimaginably greater value on an untarred swathe of desert stretching to all horizons and the sight of the milky way in the night sky than they would value 'formal education' and modern 'entertainment'.
Thanks to this ground-breaking scientific research, submarines will be even better equipped to collide with each other.
Quite right. Buddhism may be more intellectual than other religions, but its final application is to the "inmost yearnings of the human heart". That means it is a religion. It is also very definitely a 'spiritual' tradition, in that it contains methods for realising our ultimate nature and aligning our way of being with that nature. And Buddhism should not try to disavow either of those simply because the terms 'religious' and 'spiritual' are unfashionable.
Whether Buddhism is truly nontheistic is debatable. Certainly it rebuts the notion of an anthropomorphic creator God. But doesn't the notion of the Dharmakaya make it a kind of pantheism?
But finally, who cares? Not Buddhists, who are supposed to understand well the emptiness of names and labels.