Heh. Dumbledore was a wise man!
Good for you!
BTW there is no Creator God in Buddhism. He wasn't a prophet or a son of God because you can't be the son of something you do not believe in.
I just reread what I said and I can see why you misunderstood what I meant...but yes, I know this.
When I said I was uncertain about the existence of a creator, I wasn't meaning to contrast that with Buddhism at all. Rather, I was just indirectly addressing the general assumption among monotheists that anyone who doesn't necessarily believe in God is automatically some kind of nihilist who believes there's no greater meaning to life whatsoever.
I tend to see monotheism as problematic especially given you can't get past the Word of God. Can't go into much debate after that which i find irritating.
He was an ordinary human being who through his own actions moved from the conditioned to the Unconditioned (a state coined to describe something ineffable by wannabe Buddhas!)
Whoops look im on a soapbox...sorry bout that. Interconnectedness had bad press til Bertolanffi came up with Systems Theory which shows how without cooperation and awareness of the whole, you risk atrophying and dying. Much as I love USA, i noticed when i was there the extent to which your country is Americocentric...I thought if i was Dictator of USA Id get all citizens to TRAVEL to other countries. some American citizens have really screwy ideas about other types of people.
You're right about this. In America, we hardly ever even consider the existence of other countries, languages, etc. I think some of this comes naturally from relative geographical isolation and distance from most other countries, but a lot also comes from the government's arrogant foreign policy and the almost religious "America is number one in everything!" propaganda we've been fed since birth (we meaning everyone born since the 50's or so). Until I started actually interacting with Europeans in online games about ten years ago, I was always very insulated from everyone in the outside world. Everything outside our borders is just this vague amorphous "other," and it can be really hard for us to wrap our heads around the idea that "even in today's day and age," real human beings actually live in other countries, speak other languages, have other cultures, etc. Most of us are just not really exposed to any of that. I believe that as America is humbled, this will eventually change...but for now, you're right that a lot of us have "really screwy ideas about other types of people."
Sad! if you talk about altruism and cooperatives you are immediately tarred with a great crimson brush and called a socialist...whereas really, for some people it is more a spiritual perspective.
I think that's more common on this forum than anywhere else, and I consider it a defense mechanism a lot of us have developed in light of the fact that
most people who talk about these things are usually overtly or covertly advocating collectivism, socialism, charity at gunpoint, etc. Whenever I hear people talking about altruism and cooperatives and such, my subconscious tends to put my senses on alert and I start thinking, "Wait...where are you going with this?"
However, defense mechanisms against actual socialists aside, I am not Ayn Rand, and I wholly endorse voluntary altruism, charity, and cooperation. I know I was personally born with many advantages others don't have, and those are simply accidents of birth. I detest the idea of coercion, but ultimately, I have every intention of voluntarily helping the less fortunate, once I get my own bearings in life. (That's not to say I don't already try to help out a bit...it's just that right now, the bulk of my efforts are focused on planning for my own future.)
Ever read "Lord Jim?" by Joseph Conrad. The Mate who had fantasies for years about his ship going down and he cast himself as chief hero and saved everyone and basked in glory. Then one stormy day it actually happened and he accidentally saved himself and everyone else drowned and he had to live with himself and revamp his view of himself.
You evidently have more faith in human nature than I do. I think i might stick to dogs and horses. Much more straightforward!
No, I've never read that! Still, I have this notion that if I ever allowed myself to consider myself a coward, that doubt would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I've noticed that as I grew up, I developed along a path laid by the expectations others had for me. My loved ones' high expectations and hopes instilled high personal standards in me...so my hope is that by setting the bar high and
forcing myself to be who I want to be, I will in fact become that person. This may just be my own thing or it may be more universal...but I really believe it helps.
