Oh, this is so fancy! I mean, really. It looks like you've found (part of) a solution to a problem I've been struggling with hopelessly for a long time!Subharo wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2018 10:14 pmNo, that would be virtually impossible. ESS's, by their nature, defend themselves from changes! The concept of the ESS helps me to quit being upset that modern Buddhism has "drifted" away from the Buddha's original ESS, because that "drifting" happens completely naturally (well, actually, the "drifting" is not really random, but is rather highly, highly ordered, which is what ESS's "push towards").
If I can see the ESS itself with a sense of anatta, that frees me from getting upset (or oppositional) towards any one person or group.
However, if you know the ESS Buddhism and how it functions, then how can you possibly know the Buddha's original ESS (ESS Dhamma)?
How do you distinguish ESS Buddhism from ESS Dhamma?
And how can you learn the ESS Dhamma, if you distance yourself from the ESS Buddhism?
This is where I get stuck.
And similarly, if you were to walk down the street and someone behind you called you a moron, you'd get upset; but when you turned around and saw it was a drunk person or someone with Down Snydrome, your anger would instantly dissipate.Here's a great analogy of this, from "The Way of Chuang Tzu", translated by Thomas Merton:The Empty Boat
/.../
The thing is that you've learned about anatta (and Chuang Tzu, for that matter) from those same monks!When I hear many monks I've met voicing views which I would categorize as Confucian or Hindu (and they think they are representing the Buddha's Dhamma, parroting vague, intensely-clever euphemisms and aphorisms they've been taught by their teachers), I try not to get upset, and I don't directly oppose them. This takes restraint, and a measure of equanimity. I try to see that person with a sense of anatta (the anatta especially being seen on their side of the conversation) and try to think to myself "that's just an ESS spewing out of this misguided person's mouth."
How do you deal with that?? How do you make sense of that?