compare & contrast buddhadhamma and post-modernism

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Dhammarakkhito
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compare & contrast buddhadhamma and post-modernism

Post by Dhammarakkhito »

the world arises in our own mind, discriminating between sense bases and their respective objects
concepts are proliferated thru language and logic
there is truth to be discerned however via direct knowledge. i dont find it coincidental that i got really interested in pomo right before converting
what do you think?
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Bundokji
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Re: compare & contrast buddhadhamma and post-modernism

Post by Bundokji »

Stephen Batchelor wrote the following good article:

https://www.stephenbatchelor.org/index. ... tmodernity
And the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus, saying: "Behold now, bhikkhus, I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness!"

This was the last word of the Tathagata.
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Dhammarakkhito
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Re: compare & contrast buddhadhamma and post-modernism

Post by Dhammarakkhito »

"Yet it is just within this fathom-long body, with its perception & intellect, that I declare that there is the cosmos, the origination of the cosmos, the cessation of the cosmos, and the path of practice leading to the cessation of the cosmos.”
https://suttacentral.net/an4.45/en/thanissaro

"The monk who hasn’t slipped past or turned back, transcending all this objectification, sloughs off the near shore & far — as a snake, its decrepit old skin. The monk who hasn’t slipped past or turned back, knowing with regard to the world that “All this is unreal,” sloughs off the near shore & far — as a snake, its decrepit old skin. The monk who hasn’t slipped past or turned back, without greed, as “All this is unreal,” sloughs off the near shore & far — as a snake, its decrepit old skin. The monk who hasn’t slipped past or turned back, without aversion, as “All this is unreal,” sloughs off the near shore & far — as a snake, its decrepit old skin. The monk who hasn’t slipped past or turned back, without delusion, as “All this is unreal,” sloughs off the near shore & far — as a snake, its decrepit old skin.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .than.html

"By & large, Kaccayana, this world is supported by (takes as its object) a polarity, that of existence & non-existence. But when one sees the origination of the world as it actually is with right discernment, ‘non-existence’ with reference to the world does not occur to one. When one sees the cessation of the world as it actually is with right discernment, ‘existence’ with reference to the world does not occur to one.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .than.html

i didnt read the article but i opened it in a tab
"Just as the ocean has a single taste — that of salt — in the same way, this Dhamma-Vinaya has a single taste: that of release."
— Ud 5.5

https://www.facebook.com/noblebuddhadha ... 34/?type=3

http://seeingthroughthenet.net/
https://sites.google.com/site/santipada ... allytaught
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TamHanhHi
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Re: compare & contrast buddhadhamma and post-modernism

Post by TamHanhHi »

If I remember correctly, post-modernism is also marked by moral relativism (i.e. good and bad are subjective to people's and cultures) and anti-essentialism, which proclaims that there are no solid truths, just subjectivity all around.

That would be in opposition to the Dhamma, at least as portrayed in the Early Canon. There is good and bad, which can be known, and people can awaken to the Truth.
Bundokji wrote: Fri Apr 27, 2018 3:16 pm Stephen Batchelor wrote the following good article:

https://www.stephenbatchelor.org/index. ... tmodernity
Bachelor's post hinges on the notion of emptiness as meaning there isn't any solid substance to anything, not even the Dhamma. But that isn't the case at all. If it were, what would be the point of practicing? Practice wouldn't matter.
Stephen Bachelor wrote:‘Buddhism’ denotes something else. But what is it really? The answer: nothing you can put your finger on. To fix the elephant in either time or space is to kill her. The elephant is both empty and perplexing. She breathes and moves--in ways no one can foresee.
He uses the blind people and the elephant analogy (Ud 6.4) to talk about Buddhism, but that's not how it's used in the suttas. The quote criticizes wanderers of other sects and those without clear knowledge of the Dhamma. The blind people are the ones who don't know the difference between what is Dhamma and what is non-Dhamma. Those who do know have sight. That's right view.
"Monks, the wanderers of other sects are blind & eyeless. They don't know what is beneficial and what is harmful. They don't know what is the Dhamma and what is non-Dhamma. Not knowing what is beneficial and what is harmful, not knowing what is Dhamma and what is non-Dhamma, they keep on arguing, quarreling, & disputing, wounding one another with weapons of the mouth, saying, 'The Dhamma is like this, it's not like that. The Dhamma's not like that, it's like this.' —Ud 6.4
Buddhism doesn't breathe and move. Buddhism is just a name. People (who are subject to change) are the ones who breathe and move, and of course since the Buddha, people have molded the teachings to fit their circumstances and views. But the essence of the Dhamma doesn't change. As the Buddha himself said, the path is the path. Liberation doesn't lie outside of it.

It's up to us to figure out what is Dhamma and what is non-Dhamma, but how can we do that if we don't make a distinction between the two?
"In the same way I saw an ancient path, an ancient road, traveled by the Rightly Self-awakened Ones of former times. And what is that ancient path, that ancient road, traveled by the Rightly Self-awakened Ones of former times? Just this noble eightfold path." —SN 12.65
There may be certain things in common with post-modernism as a philosophy, but where post-modernism is fluid, I think the Dhamma is very solid.
"Just as a large banyan tree, on level ground where four roads meet, is a haven for the birds all around, even so a lay person of conviction is a haven for many people: monks, nuns, male lay followers, & female lay followers."AN 5.38
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