Hi Marsha, Gautama was a philosopher in the same vein as Socrates. He used dialectics to bring about understanding. Any writings of his philosophy were written after he was dead, sometimes a long time. The same can be said for Jesus and Solomon. Buddha had a disregard for writing since he knew such words are always misinterpreted and abused.
He was confronted with a self-adsorbed society where the ego was rampant (sound familiar?). People imagined that they were their thoughts. As was his custom, he professed to those types that the Self does not exist. Each situation required a different type of approach. This is a method of dialectics to wake one up. The end goal of such "bargaining" was to achieve the Middle Way. He would never say that there was really no Self since that is an attempt at enlightenment through extremes; something that he abandoned. If one wants to counter ones current thinking with the opposite to achieve the Middle Way, then that is good. If one truly believes that there is no self, Nirvana cannot be reached. Nirvana means to breath out. That is, to not cling to one's breath. Believing in No-Self is like holding one's breath. Mark On Oct 6, 2011, at 2:49 AM, MarshaV <[email protected]> wrote: > > Greetings, > > > For others who might be interested in consciousness and are no-self absorbed, > I just started reading another book on the subject and would recommend it as > excellent: > > > 'Self, No Self?: Perspectives from Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian > Traditions', edited by Mark Siderits, Evan Thompson & Dan Zahavi. > > > http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199593809 > > > > > Editorial Review: > > Self, No-Self? is a welcome product of a rare endeavor: the attempt to bring > insights from diverse schools of thought to bear on a question of deep > philosophical interest... Drawing upon considerations from various schools of > Buddhism, Indian Philosophy, phenomenology, analytic philosophy, and > cognitive science, the papers in Self, No-Self? cannot fail to advance both > the reader's understanding of the issues at play and her grasp of the history > of the non-Western approaches to those issues. Although the self is the main > focus of this collection, students of the nature and structure of > consciousness will find much food for thought... It is a virtue of this > collection that it draws attention to the connection between the study of the > self and subjectivity and the issues of the nature of consciousness... Robert > J.Howell, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. > > > > > > > > > > > > > ___ > > > 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
