Dhamma Wheel

Only this

I am not sure to what extent the four noble truths are to be "understood". This approach rules out other possibilities such as the 4NT being a function, akin to the red pill in the movie "The Matrix", or simply a linguistic trick.

I'm not sure how we would decide whether your proposal would "work" or not? What would the criterion for success be? You suggest plausibility twice in the OP, and my point is that it is less plausible than what we already have in the suttas. I encountered an example in the news, just now, that supp...

I'm not sure how we would decide whether your proposal would "work" or not? What would the criterion for success be? You suggest plausibility twice in the OP, and my point is that it is less plausible than what we already have in the suttas. I encountered an example in the news, just now, that supp...

I'm not sure of your point here. If you are saying that the buddha was not a good teacher in that his words did not motivate people to behave well, then some better examples would be appreciated. Emphasizing goodness and denouncing evil is not purely Buddhist, nor makes the Buddha good or bad teach...

No, I don't think condemning the action was an attempt on the Buddha's part to remove the person out of the equation. Those people in the sutta who were assailed by insects and the sun, and were speared and splashed with boiling oil or tortured by the king, were the same ones seeking sensuality. Re...

Yes, the Buddha certainly used condemnatory language, as regards the actions, rather than the person. He appears repeatedly to have said that certain behaviours were unskilful, wicked, or evil. Note that he often points out that the results of these behaviours will be experienced in this life and i...

Sure. some of the above is in line with what I have written and what I believe, but some of it is not. The Buddha said that our unskilful behaviour is rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion. I do not know if you agree, but training in morality is an aspect of the teachings that is associated with se...

Well, let's test your gut feeling on the anvil of my self awareness! You state the tenets of that notoriously slippery and much misunderstood term, and I'll let you know if I would "go beyond" them. To simplify: 1- Not every attempt to go beyond common sense explanation of a phenomena such as "evil...

Who are you to decide what is "a threat to the abuser, either perceived or actual"? Someone who understands English. The abuser is a threat to the abused. This is accurate in the reality of common sense, but in our attempts to understand the Buddha's teachings, we sometimes push the boundaries and ...

Associating Nibbana with permanence is not appreciating the complexity of the human dilemma. It is the Unformed, the Unconditioned, the End, … the Everlasting , the Invisible, the Undiversified, … the Island, the Refuge, the Beyond. ~ S 43.1-44 Or a mere fantasy for those who have not attained it. ...

Associating Nibbana with permanence is not appreciating the complexity of the human dilemma. Human behavior can no less be described accurately through the desire to annihilate then the desire to continue. To put it differently, both death as the end or an endless cycle of birth and death present im...

I cannot imagine a belief in an essence (or lack of) without reference to feelings, and essence is also linked to purity or lack of. If there is no belief in an essence, then what is there to purify? And if there is an essence, how can it be dirty, ie. such that it would need purifying? And if the ...

Had this hypothesis been true, then the Arahant would be able to transcend both physical pain and the stress associated with it, and yet, we are told that Arahants do not transcend physical pain. But the question is, how bad is an arahant's physical pain? Perhaps even the worst physical pain that i...

The perception of pain as repulsive is not explained adequately through social theories. Probably, this is where distinguishing feelings from emotions becomes useful. This fatalism is somehow acknowledged in the teachings. The arrow of physical pain cannot be transcended, not even by the Arahant, h...