Our highlighted member of the week is Jon Shell. He attended an event hosted by the ETSU Dharma community with an open mind and came out with a thoughtful review. here is his review and is worth discussion. Take the time to read this and if you have a chance go to an event yourself to come to a rational conclusion.
We look forward to future events where more people can attend and have open minds to come to their own conclusions on these hot topics.
So I had the wonderful...well, I take that back.
ahem.
I had the interesting experience of watching a presentation by the dharma community and another group at ETSU, shown in the ball hall auditoruim just an hour ago.
The movie started describing some guy who couldn't enjoy his life, and so he goes to practice zen buddhism to find some sort of meaning for himself.
There's a lot of vague nonsense in the presentation that often contradicts itself. Such as the "don't think" philosophy, and yet they are thinking all the time to prove that you shouldn't think.
Long story short, the conclusion the young man arrived at was that he wanted to find his "not self".
what the?
Maybe I'm too much of a practical utilitarian realist, but... I don't see the point behind it all."
This post doesn't reflect the views of the entire ETSU Atheist and Freethought Club of and is provided as is for your viewing pleasure. We neither endorse nor oppose the views of the ETSU Dharma Community or the people that attends their events.
I've actually attended some seminars on this idea of the "un-self." It can actually make a ton of sense in relevence to atheism. I actually had the opportunity to attend a seminar given by a well respected monk who discuss the topic.
ReplyDeleteMost Western philosphy and culture carries this idea of the "soul" or "self" as one might call it. This is a somewhat concrete establishment of individual identity. This suggest that a person or oject is somewhat static and in essence never changes. Most Buddhist deny this idea. You can look at the self as the present in relevance to the past and the future, always in contant flux and undergoing change, so this idea of the self becomes somewhat irrelevant, because nothing is concrete. I am not the same as I was yesterday or the day before that. I'm constantly changing into something new, and that can really apply to nearly everything. The only things that are constant are matter and energy, for they cannot be created nor destroyed.
Of course, I'm not entirely certain if this was brought into perspective in the film presented.
Now, as far as "No-think" philosophy, can that exist? I couldn't imagine (maybe that's the problem. I'm thinking about it too hard). lol