Even if it were possible to trace every event/phenonema right back to the Big
Bang - a belief in God is neither required nor a logical result of doing so. To
a Buddhist, conceptual thinking in relation to phenonema is transcended and a
more material, empirical method can be employed (zazen springs to mind in this
sense). If you take a look around the room where you are now you`ll see lots of
phenonema (actually, everything you see is phenonema). Same with all your
senses. Can you give meaning to all you see, hear, touch etc? Does the feel of
your bum on the seat have meaning? Does the taste of your last
cigarette/meal/drink have meaning? Does the sound of the air-conditioner
have meaning? You probably wouldn`t even notice these small (insignificant?)
sensations unless they were pointed out because, quite frankly, we`d go insane
if we noticed all thse things and attached meanings to them. However, the more
noticeable phenonema we tend to give meanings
to: a faimily member dies on Christmas Day, a comet is visible on your child`s
birthday etc. Again, a theist will colour these (selected) events with a
supernatural twist, but in Buddhism they are all `just` events. We can`t
call it "senseless stupidity" because that judges the events too subjectively.
Even less so are they "unconnected". This is what interdependent origination is
trying to point out. To give every phenonema a meaning doesn`t make sense
because each phenonema is conditioned and interconnected in an infinite number
of ways. According to Buddhism, you can`t take one event and give it some
divine/supernatural meaning (although we try) and isolate it from a preceding
conditional event. All lines drawn this way are purely arbitary and just a
convenient way to label the meaningless `meaningful`. This doesn`t result in
cold detachment, but gives the observer/experiencer of phenonema a better sense
of equaninimity. After all, Buddhism
isn`t interested in metaphysical explainations, but in ending suffering only.
Mike.
----- Original Message ----
From: Al <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, 3 July, 2008 7:15:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Zen] Dear Bill
From: mike brown >to give any phenonema a sense of purpose would require
giving that phenonema a sense of purpose right back to the Big Bang. So
there. >
Which is exactly what a belief in God means. You are saying that in the
Buddhist concept it is all just senseless stupidity and mindless unconnected
events?
__________________________________________________________
Not happy with your email address?.
Get the one you really want - millions of new email addresses available now at
Yahoo! http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/ymail/new.html
