Sunday, January 29, 2012
Rebirth and Liberation
Similar to the view presented in the Bhagavad Gita, Buddhism's central proposal is rebirth and the suffering of continuous life. This proposal is hugely counter intuitive to the western mind, and in fact in some neo-pagan philosophy it is the embracing of eternal life that leads to the end of suffering. Instead of trying to reach enlightenment, one should be happy with and find comfort in rebirth.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Self and self in the Gita
One of the most striking things about Bhagavad Gita is the clear demarcation between the Self (capital S) and the self. According to the glossary the 'Self is translated from the word Ātman which means "the innermost soul of every creature, which is divine." Sanskrit's use as a language for the divine and mystical experiences would explain why it would have specialized words to describe different parts of the spiritual mind, beyond the basic English 'self.'
The Ātman has nothing to do with the self in the conventional sense, and seems to be more like the equivalent of a soul. The self, a mental construct conducive to attachment to the world, is actually an obstruction to finding the Self/Ātman/soul. So interestingly the philosophy that the Gita puts forward is the opposite of an egoist philosophy that emphasizes the denial of the self in order to advance towards unity with God.
The Ātman has nothing to do with the self in the conventional sense, and seems to be more like the equivalent of a soul. The self, a mental construct conducive to attachment to the world, is actually an obstruction to finding the Self/Ātman/soul. So interestingly the philosophy that the Gita puts forward is the opposite of an egoist philosophy that emphasizes the denial of the self in order to advance towards unity with God.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
What is peace?
I'm Brian Fitzpatrick, a rather nondescript anglo-irish kid from a medium sized town in eastern Massachusetts called Tewksbury. One of my earliest experiences regarding religion was in school, there had been a snow storm going all day and right before we were about to leave for home the principle announced over the intercom "Due to weather conditions CCD has been canceled for today." Every student in my line of sight cheered. Now I wasn't a Catholic (which I found out that day put me in the minority in Tewksbury) but I knew that CCD was as boring as Sunday school, just like everything else to do with church.
After that when I became a teenager I developed a healthy fear of death, and like many teenagers, went window shopping for a spiritual palliative for my troubles. The thing was no matter how much I wanted to surrender to certain interesting and exotic beliefs I was also a natural skeptic who couldn't quite believe in things I hadn't seen or couldn't be proved.
At this time I have found two doctrines that I do have deep faith in that are not necessarily mutually compatible. Maybe primarily I am a Buddhist, I started with the doctrines I could take up as obviously true and I trust in the ones that I can't yet verify myself. In Buddhism all metaphysical doctrine are secondary to practice, and through practice you supposedly will find the truth of the metaphysical doctrine.
My second faith wouldn't be conventionally called a faith, but if you (like me) define religion as an ideology where you find comfort it counts. I am a marxist/communist/anarchist/leftist believer. Now that's sort of an ambiguous title, but fundamentally it means I believe in the rational progression of history, and that at the heart of that progression is Great Crime committed by the ruling classes against the rest of us.
So that should be the last of my self-centered ramblings for the course, I felt it best to get that bit out of the way before I assumed some level of neutrality for the rest of my posts. I really enjoy exploring this topic in my own time and I can't wait to have some interesting discussions with y'all.
After that when I became a teenager I developed a healthy fear of death, and like many teenagers, went window shopping for a spiritual palliative for my troubles. The thing was no matter how much I wanted to surrender to certain interesting and exotic beliefs I was also a natural skeptic who couldn't quite believe in things I hadn't seen or couldn't be proved.
At this time I have found two doctrines that I do have deep faith in that are not necessarily mutually compatible. Maybe primarily I am a Buddhist, I started with the doctrines I could take up as obviously true and I trust in the ones that I can't yet verify myself. In Buddhism all metaphysical doctrine are secondary to practice, and through practice you supposedly will find the truth of the metaphysical doctrine.
My second faith wouldn't be conventionally called a faith, but if you (like me) define religion as an ideology where you find comfort it counts. I am a marxist/communist/anarchist/leftist believer. Now that's sort of an ambiguous title, but fundamentally it means I believe in the rational progression of history, and that at the heart of that progression is Great Crime committed by the ruling classes against the rest of us.
So that should be the last of my self-centered ramblings for the course, I felt it best to get that bit out of the way before I assumed some level of neutrality for the rest of my posts. I really enjoy exploring this topic in my own time and I can't wait to have some interesting discussions with y'all.
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