Hi Michael, On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 8:49 PM, Michael R. Brown <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, 118 - > >> Quality does not have an antonym. > > How about the Buddhist "Dukkha"? > [118] Yes I agree, this is a suitable antonym for our use of the word Quality.
> I don't know if the issue has been run into the ground, but Bob's writing > about motorcycles running well or not so well brings to my mind. Those > moralistic English translators saying "Life is suffering" were way out of it > and have done a lot of mischief. Alan Watts' writing first called it to my > attention [118] It would seem that the concept of "suffering" is a Western and Christian interpretation of Buddhism, "dying on the cross" and all that. However, I don't think this form of suffering is what is meant. A better translation of "Dukkha" would be "unsatisfactory". That is, "Is this all there Is?" Often I have seen the word "meaningless" used, as in "this whole existence is meaningless." This brings us to the modern experiment of Existentialism. For many the root of this philosophy lies in the utter meaninglessness of life. Interesting, however, that such philosophers use logic to show that since it it meaningless, we must seize the day and glorify in such meaninglessness. I have never understood the logic there, but is a good example of how meaning can be derived from anything. So, in this sense, Quality is synonymous with Meaning. > > The way I like to translate the Noble Truth is "Sometimes, life gets out of > joint." I don’t get along with American Buddhists so well - they get so > self-denying. I remember walking around Berkeley and seeing so many > anxious-looking ladies in scratchy-looking cotton skirts, very "simple > living" and not so happy, with their little eyeglasses and wanting to be so > pure. America gets so heady about its Buddhism. It seems to bring out a > latent Puritanism. Bah. [118] Yes, of the four Noble Truths I like the fourth one best. For me it is the best example of what is meant by "Noble". I do not mind the American Buddhists, at least those of the Zen persuasion. But let us remember that the term Buddhism was coined by the West at the beginning of the 1900's, so it is not what the original is. > >> As Aldus Huxley famously said on his deathbed while tripping on acid: "I >> have seen the way things appear to be, now I will see how they truly are". > > What did he think he had been seeing?? [118] He thought he had been seeing the world of appearances. > >> Here we have a good example of the world of appearances being converted to >> the world of essence. > > They ain't separate. It's our silliness to think they are. [118] Well, perhaps, but typically when I yearn for something, that something exists. If I yearn for a bowl of chicken soup, it is because I expect to get one. To yearn for meaning, or, for Quality, would indicate to me that it does exist. In Christianity this is termed the Kingdom Beyond; in Islam it is a bunch of virgins; in Buddhism it is Nirvana, or the ending of the death and rebirth cycle; in Taoism it is being one with the Way. So, I would contend that the world of illusion and the world of no illusion are two distinct things. My only question is whether we have to die to experience the latter. I guess only time will tell... > > 118 > http://www.fuguewriter.com > 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
