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Herbus
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Registered: 10/19/04
Posts: 1,477
Loc: Reading the map...
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Why East beats West...
#5406882 - 03/16/06 12:51 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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When I read Western religion... I feel like laughing...
When I read Eastern religion, specifically from India...
It's like reading my own theology in someone else's words...
Eastern religion usually coincides with science, unlike its Western counterpart...
Pretty cool, although the more I read/learn the less original I tend to feel...
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: Herbus]
#5406900 - 03/16/06 01:03 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Obviously you are not familiar with gnosticism, or any of the other esoteric traditions in the West.
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Herbus
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Registered: 10/19/04
Posts: 1,477
Loc: Reading the map...
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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: Silversoul]
#5406924 - 03/16/06 01:17 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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I am I just didn't feel like making a long post, ya dig?
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: Herbus]
#5406941 - 03/16/06 01:30 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Did you also not feel like making a meaningful post?
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fresh313
journeyman


Registered: 09/01/03
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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: Silversoul]
#5406953 - 03/16/06 01:33 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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fireworks_god
Sexy.Butt.McDanger


Registered: 03/12/02
Posts: 24,855
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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: fresh313]
#5408355 - 03/16/06 01:14 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Paradigm said: Did you also not feel like making a meaningful post?
It's an expression of passive, lazy thinking. 
The nature of communication is to bridge the gaps between one's thoughts (as in, that which one wishes to communicate) and the understanding and thoughts of one's audience. Either the message wasn't originally very formulated, or perhaps the communication of the message was undeveloped. 
Two phrases come to mind that naturally work agansit this. "Elaborate", and "Define your terms". Further inquiries from that point effectively draw the idea out further. Of course, most people tend to become emotionally upset when they are questioned, even when there is no context by which to judge if one is being threatened, which shouldn't pertain to discussion anyways...

 Peace.
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If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
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TheCow
Stranger

Registered: 10/28/02
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Eastern religion is as silly, if not sillier then western. At least western its like, yea we got fanciful stories nigga. You think we give a shit huh? Yea we got that god shit that floods the whole world, yea he destroyed a motherfuckin city when he found out people were ass fucking. You got a problem with that man? We got some big ass nigga named Thor, and we got that Valhala shit where to get there you have to be stabbin a mothefucker to get in.
Personally, as far as amusing silliness goes, I think the west wins, and spirituality I find to be meaningless in any context, so Eastern religion just strikes me as useless.
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silver22
Stranger
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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: TheCow]
#5408602 - 03/16/06 02:03 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Eastern religion is the basis' for many religions that have surfaced in the Western world. Eastern cultures and societies are very different from 'ours,' in the West. As a whole, I agree with you--the East surpasses the West in spirituality.
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Turn
Hey Its Free!

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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: silver22]
#5408617 - 03/16/06 02:09 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Its proabably because your jaded from living in the west. And Eastern religons have a few thousand years on Western, it really makes a difference. Those anchienct cultures came up with alot of cool stuff just from being around for so long.
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: Herbus]
#5408676 - 03/16/06 02:27 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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As for Eastern religion coinciding with science, I'd like to have a few things explained to me scientifically:
- How is it that lotus blossoms bloomed instantly in the young Siddhartha's steps?
- How is it that Siddhartha's mother gave birth to him through her side instead of her vagina, and still managed to survive?
- What scientific evidence is there to support the Buddhist belief that people were once able to fly, and lived to be 1,000 years old?
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MystikMushroom
I RULE YOU!
Registered: 10/11/04
Posts: 400
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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: Silversoul]
#5409043 - 03/16/06 03:54 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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wEsT SiDe!!! Representin'!!!! Yayer!
Many diffrent paths to choose from, ultimatley they are all trying to reach the same type of goal...trancendence...
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fresh313
journeyman


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transcendthis
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wilshire
free radical


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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: Herbus]
#5409600 - 03/16/06 06:03 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Eastern religion usually coincides with science, unlike its Western counterpart...
western philosophy and science are very tightly linked.
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goatboy7
The ArchaicRevivalist

Registered: 08/03/05
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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: wilshire]
#5409684 - 03/16/06 06:24 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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I think what Herbus was referring to regarding Science and the East are things like "The Tao of Physics" or "The Dancing Wu-li Masters".
-------------------- "If the words 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' don't include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp it was written on." --Terence McKenna "Ordinary morality is only for ordinary people."--Aleister Crowley
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dblaney
Human Being

Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: Silversoul]
#5409707 - 03/16/06 06:31 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Paradigm said: As for Eastern religion coinciding with science, I'd like to have a few things explained to me scientifically:
- How is it that lotus blossoms bloomed instantly in the young Siddhartha's steps?
- How is it that Siddhartha's mother gave birth to him through her side instead of her vagina, and still managed to survive?
- What scientific evidence is there to support the Buddhist belief that people were once able to fly, and lived to be 1,000 years old?
I've never heard any of those little tidbits, but I suspect they come from folklore or metaphor.
For instance, the first one, lotuses blossoming in his footsteps could mean that he awakened people ("healed people"), or that he was so in tune with Reality that he simply exuded It, and since the lotus is/was holy, they said that he left them in his footsteps.
The third item I've never heard about, but I suspect it comes from some school that is a little irrational, or it's from a story/parable.
The second item, birth from the side, I have no idea what that means, but I wouldn't get caught up on it, for it wouldn't have mattered if the historical Buddha had 1000 hands. (Though it would have looked kinda silly ) What's useful is what he taught.
I tried to be as scientific as possible, lemme know how I did
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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Silversoul
Rhizome


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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: dblaney]
#5409714 - 03/16/06 06:35 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
I've never heard any of those little tidbits, but I suspect they come from folklore or metaphor.
Maybe so, but is it fair to treat Buddhist folklore as metaphorical while giving a literalist treatment to Western religion?
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dblaney
Human Being

Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: Silversoul]
#5409786 - 03/16/06 06:53 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Oh no, absolutely not fair, in fact I would imagine that almost all of the religious folklore from across the globe is metaphorical or parable-like in nature.
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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Deviate
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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: Silversoul]
#5409813 - 03/16/06 07:01 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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i think what paradigm is implying is that the history of buddhism contaiins many mystical tales and stories which certainly defy western science. this is one reason i find it bothersome when people say "buddhism is not a religion". there is nothing that truly seperates buddhism out from the realm of religion, in fact it really has the same or a similar metaphysical belief structure as other religions.
in my opinion, the important difference between buddhism and religion as it practised in the west, is that in buddhism the inner path has been preserved. for instance buddhsim makes it very clear that you will not attain enlightenment simply by declaring buddha as your savior, your job is to become like buddha. in western christianity on the other hand, the belief that jesus was divine and all other humans being are sinful is still very widespread. i think this is a big reason that eastern religions often seem so much more appealing to people who have only been exposed to orthodox christianity.
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dblaney
Human Being

Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: Deviate]
#5409866 - 03/16/06 07:16 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Indeed. Buddhism is a broad term though, as there are many different schools of it. The one that I find most interesting is the Mahayana school. Taoism and Zen are extremely closely related. The idea of religion is generally a system of beliefs. Beliefs, and consequently, most religions, are based on wishful thinking, searching for some absolute, fixed something that they can depend upon not to change, in spite of the fact that reality, by its very nature is in a constant state of flux.
In this sense, Zen is very appealing because it relies more on faith than belief. Faith in this context meaning a total acceptance of Reality as it unfolds.
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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Fospher
Crime FightingMaster Criminal


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Re: Why East beats West... [Re: Herbus]
#5410960 - 03/17/06 12:39 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Eastern religions tend to focus more on looking within yourself to find the answers, an introversive approach. Western religious thought is giving up yourself to Jesus Christ and letting him lead the way, for he knows best. Becoming his student of thought, and letting him make the decisions, for he is, after all, the omnipotent and only God.
Why are you struggling so hard picking out one or another? I find that different religions compliment each other.
The Christian belief is to "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God", while the Taoist or Buddhist belief is to transcend our mundane reality to a transcendental level of thought. I'm a devout Christian, yet I meditate daily and love the Book of Tao. I'm also really heavy into Neo-Shamanism. I only consider Jesus Christ to be my one and only God, but I find I come closer to Him by studying other beliefs.
You know, I've said it before, and actually Jiggy gave me a good rating for my quote, but I believe that to be fully critical you should not reject one and accept another, but be able to discern difference.
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