This doesn't sound like "non-existence as we know it" (do we know non-existence?) Doesn't sound like existence either. There is that dimension, monks, where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither dimension of the infinitude of space, nor dimension of the infinitude ...

We've been putting up with the damage caused by militant monotheism for 2000 years, isn't it about time we challenged it? Who is included in "we"? Which group do you mentally associate yourself with? Do you see how group identification is a manifestation of personality view (sakkaya-ditth...

Why do apologists instinctively blame somebody else as a way of avoiding the issue? Blame the west, blame Israel, blame anybody, just don't talk about Islam needing reform. :shrug: You should not resort to the inflammatory tactic of calling someone an "apologist" for raising larger questi...

It probably does, but how is that relevant to the question of Islam needing reform? A growing number of Muslims are saying that Islam does need reform and they should be supported. The mediaeval aspects of Islam simply don't belong in the 21st century. Which mediaeval aspects in particular do you h...

Do you think if we alienate 1.6 billion people across the world, it will help or hinder the fight against ISIS? Islam does need reform though. Does the ideology behind this sort of thing need reform too? Or no. http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/i/newscms/2014_30/585976/pc-140726-gaza-truce-mn-915_066693e...

I'm talking specifically about the current topic, the Paris attacks, but I have left room to generalize to similar acts. Not only terrorism, but war generally, even in tribal societies. It's an old issue. So I see no need for a definition. Terrorism is just a strategy. The US go - we blow you up, t...

Pinetree wrote:From my limited knowledge, the cause behind terrorism is hate and greed.

Can you define "terrorism" ? Who commits "terrorism"? Is it only Muslim groups?

pilgrim wrote:The world has to defeat ISIS ideology

The most basic problem of which is trying to achieve political goals with murder, right?

Take your pick. That is precisely what ISIS wants. In February this year, in a chilling editorial in its propaganda magazine, Dabiq, Isis laid out its own strategy to eliminate what the writer, or writers, called “the grey zone”. This was, Isis said, what lay between belief and unbelief, good and e...

Suffering -> Faith -> Joy -> Rapture -> Tranquility -> Happiness -> Concentration -> Knowledge and vision of things as they really are -> Disenchantment -> Dispassion -> Emancipation -> Knowledge of the destruction of the cankers http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/wheel277.html

Perhaps the modernists and the traditionalists are not as far apart as they might seem. In both cases the end is annihilation. The modernists just have the annihilation come earlier... They are miles apart. The "tradition" says things I've never heard from a "modernist" - for ex...

Can those who insist there is "no evidence" of rebirth provide a hypothetical example of something they would consider "evidence"? Sir A. J. Ayer, the logical positivist guy, had a pretty good one. He argued that it would be sufficient for the truth of the belief that the man st...

Can those who insist there is "no evidence" of rebirth provide a hypothetical example of something they would consider "evidence"?

The strong tendency for self-identification in relation to the body is probably one reason. Also, it's good to ground mindfulness in the body, it spreads the energy around and has a balancing and grounding effect.

if only we could read the Brahmajala Sutta to learn about foundations for views... I'm looking at the Brahmajala Sutta, it talks about the foundations for certain views being rooted in prior lives, as well as the direct meditative recollection of prior lives. How does that make evidence for rebirth...