Marsha said: ...While I wouldn't want you to leave the MOQ & American Pragmatists track, I hope you'll keep Buddhism in mind for another decade. The MOQ being a synthesis of East and West, Buddhism has something very valuable to consider too.
dmb says: No doubt. "Zen" is in the title and Northrop's East-West fusion is Pirsig's main inspiration. Scholars from the East find sanity in William James and I've been reading Western translators like Alan Watts since before I was born. Its not Buddhism that baffles in general but the tetralemma's math-like structure never worked for me. Seems like an overly complicated way to say a simple thing. Still don't see anything I'd recognize as logic in it. > > Marsha > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "david buchanan" > To: > Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 10:09 PM > Subject: Re: [MD] The tetra lemma > > > > Thanks, Marsha. > > I found this section especially helpful. It explains what an essence is and > confirms my hunch that such an idea is "obviously false" and "a profound > misconception of reality". Apparently, the metaphysics of substance is > something even worse than materialism. Its downright crazy. Independent and > immutable? Like what?!? Even a materialist will admit that stars are born > and die, that mountains wash away, that even the universe has a life span. > This nonsense has got to be the vestige of some forgotten religion. > > Emptiness and Lack of Substance > The doctrine of impermanence is intimately related to the doctrine that all > things lack inherent substantiality. The Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna > argued that things cannot have separate essences because this would result > in an unchanging world: “If there is essence, the whole world will be > unarising, unceasing, and static. The entire phenomenal world would be > immutable” (FWMW, p. 72). In other words, if something has its own separate > essence, then it is entirely separate and without dependence upon anything > else for its existence. As a result, it can never be affected or changed. > Thus, if things had essences, then the whole world would be immutable and > static, which is obviously false. The conclusion is that all things are > empty of any such essence. This doctrine of emptiness (sunyata) is > fundamental to Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. Similarly, Whitehead states > that “it is fundamental to the metaphysical doctrine of the philosophy of > organism, that the notion of an actual entity as the unchanging subject of > change is completely abandoned” (PR, p. 29). Process philosophy departs from > substance philosophy by denying any isolated, individual essence to things. > The idea that things have essences is at best a useful abstraction, and at > worst a profound misconception of reality: “The simple notion of an enduring > substance sustaining persistent qualities, either essentially or > accidentally, expresses a useful abstract for many purposes in life. But > whenever we try to use it as a fundamental statement of the nature of > things, it proves itself mistaken” (PR, p. 79). ...An important instance of > this mistake is the Cartesian assumption that the human subject is a > fundamental essence prior to human thought.... > > [The whole article is at > http://www.integralscience.org/whiteheadbuddhism.html ] > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Got Game? Win Prizes in the Windows Live Hotmail Mobile Summer Games Trivia > Contest > http://www.gowindowslive.com/summergames?ocid=TXT_TAGHM > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ _________________________________________________________________ Reveal your inner athlete and share it with friends on Windows Live. http://revealyourinnerathlete.windowslive.com?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WLYIA_whichathlete_us Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
