Hi Horse, I agree with what you posted. I have a comment on the last part:
On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 10:58 AM, Horse <[email protected]> wrote: [Mark previously]> >> I certainly know that I exist, be it as a codependent arising or whatever. >> The fact that things do >> not inherently exist is obvious from chemistry and physics where >> everything is made up of something smaller, down to the infinitely small. > [Horse] > But even saying that you know that you exist is the result of a belief in > concepts, many of which are themselves derived from illusions - and I'm not > sure how co-dependant arising helps either. Trying to dis-entangle real from > illusory is an almost impossible task - even starting from something as > basic as 'I think therefore I am' or whatever. [Mark] Yes, tricky indeed. So, we resort to rhetoric and try to sound convincing. When I state that I know I exist, we have two concepts that can be manipulated as argument. Those are "knowing" and "existing". Both can occupy the MD for ages if we want them to. To directly address your comment, I could state that to have a belief in concepts is a good indication of existence. Codependent arising does not help an argument, and it is simply a personal awareness. For some such an awareness has meaning and leads to peace. For the Buddhist such a thing removes all desires and results in unselfish altruism. The Buddhist lives for others, and not for her/himself. Finally, I prefer the Taoist statement: "I am therefore I think". It makes more sense to me since one has to be to think. Using it the other way around is putting the cart before the Horse. Thanks for your response. Mark > > It's all a bit tricky really! > > Horse > > -- > > "Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production > deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid." > — Frank Zappa > > 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/md/archives.html > 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/md/archives.html
