Buddhism (1)

Buddha based his entire teaching on the fact of human suffering.* Existence is painful. The conditions that make an individual are precisely those that also give rise to suffering. Individuality implies limitation; limitation gives rise to desire; and desire (tanha)** causes suffering -since what is desired is transitory, changing, and perishing. It is the impermanence of the object of craving that causes disappointment and sorrow (cause/effect: one suffers because one desires). 

I'd like to spin this idea of desire with the idea of EROS as an embodied striving for well-being that connects us with things, animals and people, which situates us in the world with others. EROS is the fundamental energy by which we relate to all that is. SIN might be seen as human desire gone astray, a corruption of the basic potency for relation. SIN is a "desire" in the form of a will-to-control that aspires to secure itself by mastering all around it. Ridden with anxiety about its own lack of control, it reduces what is other to the self, placing a stranglehold on all that is not-I in order to guarantee absolutely its own self-perpetuation. By effectively closing itself off from the other, a genuine relation is negated in a posture of solipsism. Augustine referred to this selfish attachment "cupiditas," a need-based form of desire that seeks its own satisfaction above all else and therein refuses its genuine relation to creation and the Creator. 

2- By following the "path" taught by the Buddha, the individual can dispel the "ignorance" that perpetuates this suffering. 3- Reality, whether of external things or the psycho-physical totality of human individuals, consists in a succession and concatenation of microseconds called dhammas. 4- Moreover, contrary to the theories of the Upanishads, the Buddha did not want to assume the existence of the soul as a metaphysical substance. Life is a stream of becoming, a series of manifestations and extinctions. The individual ego is a delusion; the objects with which people identify themselves -fortune, social position, family, body, and even mind-are not their true selves. Nothing is permanent.

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*Suffering in this context is equivalent to disquietude. The mind is in a state of restless anxiety. Tahna (as mental state) is a vicious cycle (if one's desires are fulfilled it will, of itself, lead to one's lasting happiness or well-being). Such beliefs normally result in further craving/desire and the repeated enactment of activities to bring about the desired results. **I want to explore this idea of desire in the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze: "There is only desire and the social, and nothing else". What does it mean? 1- I can think of desire negatively, as striving to achieve what I do not have. 2- Alternatively, desire can be thought of affirmatively. It is not that "I" have desires; it is from desire that an "I" become. Desire will be nothing more than the development, production or assertion of what "I" will be or can become. So, Deleuze problematizes the idea of desire, as the affirmation or production of difference.

Confucius the pedagogue

Confucius was born in the small feudal state of Lu (noted for its preservation of the traditions of ritual and music of the Chou civilization). 1- Confucius' ancestors were probably members of the aristocracy who had become virtual poverty-stricken commoners by the time of his birth. His father died when Confucius was only three years old. Instructed first by his mother, Confucius then distinguished himself as an indefatigable learner in his teens. 2- Confucius had served in minor government posts before he married a woman of similar background when he was 19. It is not known who Confucius' teachers were, but he made a conscientious effort to find the right masters to teach him, among other things, ritual and music. Confucius' mastery of the six arts-ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and arithmetic- and his familiarity with the classical traditions, notably poetry and history, enabled him to start a brilliant teaching career in his 30s. 3- Confucius is known as the first teacher in China who wanted to make education available to all men and who was instrumental in establishing the art of teaching as a vocation, indeed as a way of life. Before Confucius, aristocratic families had hired tutors to educate their sons in specific arts, and government officials had instructed their subordinates in the necessary techniques, but he was the first person to devote his whole life to learning and teaching for the purpose of transforming and improving society. He believed that all human beings could benefit from self-cultivation. He inaugurated a humanities program for potential leaders, opened the doors of education to all, and defined learning not merely as the acquisition of knowledge but also as character building. 4- For Confucius the primary function of education was to provide the proper way of training noblemen (chün-tzu), a process that involved constant self-improvement and continuous social interaction. Although he emphatically noted that learning was "for the sake of the self" (the end of which was self-knowledge and self-realization), he found public service a natural consequence of true education. In his late 40s and early 50s Confucius served first as a magistrate, then as an assistant minister of public works, and eventually as minister of justice in the state of Lu. It is likely that he accompanied King Lu as his chief minister on one of the diplomatic missions. Confucius' political career was, however, short-lived. His loyalty to the King alienated him from the power holders of the time, the large Chi families, and his moral rectitude did not sit well with the King's inner circle, which enraptured the King with sensuous delight. At 56, when he realized that his superiors were uninterested in his policies, Confucius left the country in an attempt to find another feudal state to which he could render his service. Despite his political frustration he was accompanied by an expanding circle of students during this self-imposed exile of almost 12 years. His reputation as a man of vision and mission spread. Confucius was perceived as the heroic conscience who knew realistically that he might not succeed but, fired by a righteous passion, continuously did the best he could. At the age of 67 he returned home to teach and to preserve his cherished classical traditions by writing and editing. He died in 479 BC at the age of 73. According to the Records of the Historian 72 of his students mastered the "six arts," and those who claimed to be his followers numbered 3,000.

Teachings of Sri Aurobindo

Let's analyze some of the teaching of the Hindu philosopher Sri Aurobindo Ghose.

There is a basic human aspiration for the good life: Freedom (as inner peace), The Spiritual (a realm of good purpose and contentment) and  becoming ONE. One can become ONE, God (by overcoming adviya).

First, let's take a look at Aurobindo's general idea of planes of existence.

Nature evolves by contradiction (see dialectics). The apparent chaos of reality brings Aurobindo's idea of Harmony (sort of the kensho of Zen Buddhism)

Harmony means a deliberate decision not to fall for adviya in a given situation. Let's take world hunger, for example. The problem of food shortage in the world is not so much due to lack of food, but lack of policies and agreements in the production and distribution of food, as well as means to develop the Third World. A higher harmony takes all the parties to move beyond ego and self-concern to solve "the problem" (Is it Capitalism?). The question makes sense, but how to approach it from the position of the individual?

The greater the disparateness, the greater the opportunity for change.

Aurobindo analyzes the limits of science: 1- science is fixed in the material view of reality, 2- science does not perceive the subtle forces of life based on the vital, mental, and spiritual dimension of life, thus 3- science sees only part of the truth, not the whole of the phenomenon ("the spiritual").

Aurobindo thinks that science becomes irrational by denying other planes of life. Not so, it's not the province of science to establish something beyond its province. On the other hand, Aurobindo is right that we tend to see too linearly, preventing ourselves the acquisition of more integral forms of knowledge (what I'd call broadening our symbolic insights).

For Aurobindo, both materialism and Hindu asceticism miss the point. One negates the spiritual, the other the material. Here Aurobindo comes up with the idea of Cosmic Consciousness.

Perceiving the ONENESS:  For Aurobindo, matter is a form of spirit, the body of spirit. So, matter is spirit. (There is a similarity between Aurobindo and Hegel here, though there are important differences as well).

Perceiving ONENESS means seeing differently. Also "willing" a different outlook at things. Not falling for the tamas of thought. It means embracing ALL. ACCEPT ALL. It doesn't mean falling for anomie. By understanding FACTicity (the existentialists gave up and called it absurd). One learns UNDERSTAND and respect FACTicity.

This needs to be explained in more detailed with Aurobindo's Metaphysics.

Swami Vivekananda

Religion is realization; not talk, not doctrine, nor theories, however beautiful they may be. It is being and becoming, not hearing or acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming changed into what it believes.-- Aphorisms.

They alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive. This is the gist of all worship – to be pure and to do good to others.-- Aphorisms.

Thus we find that Maya is not a theory for the explanation of the world; it is simply a statement of facts as they exist, that the very basis of our being is contradiction, that everywhere we have to move through this tremendous contradiction, that wherever there is good, there must also be evil, and wherever there is evil, there must be some good, wherever there is life, death must follow as its shadow, and everyone who smiles will have to weep, and vice versa. Nor can this state of things be remedied. We may verily imagine that there will be a place where there will be only good and no evil, where we shall only smile and never weep. This is impossible in the very nature of things; for the conditions will remain the same. Wherever there is the power of producing a smile in us, there lurks the power of producing tears. Wherever there is the power of producing happiness, there lurks somewhere the power of making us miserable.-- Maya and Illusion, Vol. II, Complete Works of S.V.

Notes on Buddhism

Julie Mehretu, Black City, 2006.

... l'homme n'est pas ce qu'il est, il est ce qu'il n'est pas.-- Jean Paul Sartre

Buddhism is a spiritual movement founded by Siddhartha Gautama in India in the 6th century BC and became the first multicultural spiritual tradition in the higher civilization of the Eurasian world. Buddhism lasted in India for some 1500 years, until it disappeared from India as that country became progressively dominated by Islam. Buddhism moved then to Ceylon, China (first century AD), Korea (fourth century AD), and Japan (sixth century AD); eastward into Burma, Thailand (third century AD), Cambodia (fourth century AD), Indonesia (third century AD) and the other countries of southeastern Asia with the exception of the Philippines. It became the dominant spiritual movement in Tibet (eight century AD), and Mongolia (thirteen century AD).

The teaching of Buddha was handed down to succeeding generations in the form of a threefold refuge: the Buddha, the teaching and the community. These are three aspects of the Buddha reality. 1- The teaching itself is a form of Buddha presence. The teaching is supreme insofar as it is in virtue of the teaching that a person is guided to experience the saving illumination concerning the nature of sorrow and the way to release from sorrow. 2- The community has a certain priority since it carries and sustain the entire Buddhist tradition. 3- The doctrine would have had no inner development or preservation or propagation except through the community. Yet supreme over everything is the Buddha reality.

The Message
Buddha's teaching was transmitted orally to his disciples. It consists of the theory, the path and the sangha. The core of the theory is the concept of human suffering and the possibility of emancipation. Individuality implies limitation, desire causes suffering since what is desired is transitory, changing and perishing.

Reality
Reality is composed of dharmas (components) or a succession of microseconds of existence. Buddha departed from the teachings of must Hinduism by not having a precise eschatology (a theory of final things). Life is a stream, a river, of manifestations and extinctions. There's nothing permanent and thereby no fixed self. To make clear this concept Buddhism puts forward the theory of five constituents 1- rupa or corporeality or physical form, 2- feelings or sensations (vedana), 3- ideations (sanna), 40 mental formations or dispositions (sankhara), and consciousness (vinana). Human existence is only a composite of these aggregates.

Karma
Buddhists accept the notion of karma, however, this presented a problem with their notion of no-self. How could one prove that one can reincarnate with a no self, i.e. with no permanent subject? Some scholars have considered this to be unsolvable. The relations between existences has been compared to the analogy of fire, which maintains itself unchanged in appearance and yet is very different in every moment. A sort of ever changing identity.

The Four Noble Truths
There are four noble truths. 1-The truth of sorrow, 2-the truth that sorrow originates within us from the craving of pleasure, 3-the truth that this craving can be eliminated and 4-the truth that a methodical path must be followed to obtain this goal. Otherwise human beings would remain indefinitely in samsara.

The Eightfold Path
Hence Buddha formulated the law of dependent origination or paticca-samuppada) whereby one condition arises out of another, which in turn arises out of prior conditions. Given the awareness of this law, the question arises as to how one may escape the continually renewed cycle of births, suffering and death. There must be a purification that leads to overcoming this process. Such a liberating purification is effected by following the Noble Eightfold Path constituted by 1-the right views, 2-the right aspiration, 3-the right speech, 4-the right conduct, 5-the right livelihood, 6-the right effort, 7-the right mindfulness and 8-the right meditational attainment.

Nirvana
The aim is to be rid of the delusion of the ego, freeing oneself from the fetters of this mundane world. One who succeeds has achieved enlightenment. The term is nirvana translated as dying out. But nirvana is not extinction. And Buddha repudiated this. Buddhists search for salvation, not annihilation. Although nirvana is often presented as negative, it can be seen as the ultimate goal for salvation in Buddhism.

List of terms for our test next Thursday (Vedanta, Jaina & Yoga)

EARLY VEDANTA

Atman/Brahman: The two-in-one idea of the universal Self. As a monad, it’s the real immortal soul of human beings. Atman is hidden deep, but it can be known by discipline and meditation.
Brahman: An essence without attributes, or beyond attributes: The Universal principle of selfhood.
Brahma: God as creator, one of the trinity in Hinduism, the other two Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer.
Bhakti: Devotion, worship, love.
Maya: Illusion, what we take for “reality” but it’s not. It’s similar to Plato’s “forms.”
Avidya: Ignorance: that is, the path of evil and alienation from true selfhood.
Moksha: The final liberation and release from all worldly bonds. Moksha is the highest of the four human goals: artha (wealth), kama (pleasure) and dharma (duty)
Dharma: (skt: “carrying, holding”): That which determines a true essence. Righteousness; the basis of human morality; the lawful order of the universe and the foundation of all religions. Dharma is inseparable from one’s karma since dharma can be realized only to one’s karmic situation.
Karma: (skt: “deed”) 1- A mental or physical action, 2- The consequence of a mental or physical action, 3-The sum of all consequences of an individual in this or in previous life. Each karma is created by each person’s samskara (or impressions= mental formations forces)
Jñana: Wisdom, higher knowledge.
OM: The cosmic sound, heard in deep meditation; Holy word taught in the Upanishads.
Samsara: The constant and endless cycle of life and death.
Yajna: Sacrifice


JAINA

Karman: Bits of material, generated by the person's actions, that bind themselves to the life-monad or soul through many births. This has the effect of thwarting the full realization and freedom of the soul.
Kalpa: A world cycle. A period of time comprising 4,320,000 yrs. Pali-kappa is an endlessly long period of time. The metaphor is that of a piece of silk rubbed one on a solid piece of rock one cubic mile in size every 1000 yrs. When this wears the rock away, a kalpa has passed.
Jiva: “One who lives in the body,” a mortal being. The embodied self, which identifies with the mind as ego. It creates the notions of duality and causality and thereby becomes bound to the cycle of birth and death. It has been defined as a life-monad.
Ajiva: Non-soul, inanimate substance. Ajiva is divided in two categories: non-sentient (i.e. a feeling being) material and non-sentient and non-material.
Kevala: State of omniscience. Kevala is necessarily accompanied by freedom from karmic obstruction by direct experience of the soul's pure form, unblemished by its attachment of matter.
Ratnatraya: The basis of Jaina ethics. It comprises 1- the right knowledge, 2- right faith and 3- right conduct. They must be cultivated at once. Right faith leads to calmness and tranquility, but right faith leads to perfection only when followed by right conduct. Knowledge without faith and conduct is futile. Right conduct is spontaneous, not a forced mechanical quality. Attainment of right conduct is a gradual process. The process to achieve this is ahimsa.
Ahimsa: Skt (non-harming) Jaina doctrine of non-violence. Since thought gives rise to action, non-violence of thought is more important than non-violence of action. It is also one of the five virtues in Raja-Yoga.
 
YOGA

Pakriti: The matter-principle, uncaused cause.
Purusha: The supreme self.
Dukkha: Sorrow or basic condition of existence because of the essential nature of the
unrealized man.
Gunas: the primary qualities of Nature. They are three in number: 
Sattvas: The goodness in matter, that which can be realized only through the knowledge of the enlightened subject. Tamas: The opacity, the dark quality of matter, its propensity to destruction. Rajas: The tension, dynamic force behind matter.
Yama: Restraint, the fixing of the path, to curb, to bridle.
Niyama: Spiritual discipline.
Asana: Posture.
Pranayama: Controlled breathing.
Pratyahara: Abstraction of the senses.
Dharana: (One-point concentration) or total stillness.
Dhyana: Sustained attention, chan, jhana, or zen; the eightfold path of self- absorption.
Samadhi: Simple and total overtaking of the mind by the cosmic mind.

Ramakrishna & Vivekananda

On the Ramakrishna Mission (click Ramakrishna on the left-hand side, the link takes you to Ramakrishna's Gospel). Yet another link for Vivekananda, Ramakrishna's main disciple.

For the complete works of Swami Vivekananda, here.
Vivekananda was a known Hindu poet (Here is a small selection).

list of terms for midterm exam (fall 2016)

Hinduism Vedanta / Upanishads/ Gita

Atman/Brahman: The two-in-one idea of the universal Self. As a monad, it’s the real immortal soul of human beings. Atman is hidden deep, but it can be known by discipline and meditation.
Brahman: An essence without attributes, or beyond attributes: The Universal principle of selfhood.
Brahma: God as creator, one of the trimurti in Hinduism, the other two: Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer.
Bhakti: Devotion, worship, love. Bhakti is the love felt by the worshiper towards the personal God.
Maya: Illusion, what we take for “reality” but it’s not. Similar to Plato’s “forms.”
Avidya: Ignorance: that is, the path of evil and alienation from true self-hood.
Moksha: The final liberation and release from all worldly bonds. Moksha is the highest of the four human goals: artha (wealth), kama (pleasure) and dharma (duty).
Dharma: (skt: “carrying, holding”): That which determines a true essence. Duty. Righteousness. The basis of human morality; the lawful order of the universe and the foundation of all religions. Dharma is inseparable from one’s karma since dharma can be realized only to one’s karmic situation.
Karma: (skt: “deed”) 1- A mental or physical action, 2- The consequence of a mental or physical action, 3-The sum of all consequences of an individual in this or in previous life. Each karma is created by each person’s samskara (or impressions= mental formations forces)
Jnana: Wisdom, higher knowledge.
OM: The cosmic sound, heard in deep meditation; Holy word taught in the Upanishads.
Samsara: The constant and endless cycle of life and death.
Yajna: Sacrifice. In the Gita it means an economy beyond the calculus of exchange. Action for the sake of the action.


Jaina Philosophy / Niyamsara

Karman: Bits of material, generated by the person’s actions, that bind themselves to the life-monad or soul through many births. This has the effect of thwarting the full realization and freedom of the soul.
Kalpa: A world cycle. A period of time comprising 4,320,000 yrs. Pali-kappa is an endlessly long period of time. The metaphor is that of a piece of silk rubbed one on a solid piece of rock one cubic mile in size every 1000 yrs. When this wears the rock away, a kalpa has passed.
Jiva: “One who lives in the body,” a mortal being. The embodied self, which identifies with the mind as ego. It creates the notions of duality and causality and thereby becomes bound to the cycle of birth and death. It has been defined as a life-monad.
Ajiva: non-soul, inanimate substance. Ajiva is divided in two categories: non-sentient (i.e. a feeling being) material and non-sentient and non-material.
Moksha: liberation from Samsara, the endless cycle of death and rebirth.
Kevala: state of omniscience. Kevala is necessarily accompanied by freedom from karmic obstruction by direct experience of the soul’s pure form, unblemished by its attachment of matter.
Ratnatraya: The basis of Jaina ethics. It comprises the 1- right knowledge, 2- right faith and 3- right conduct. They must be cultivated at once. Right faith leads to calmness and tranquility, but right faith leads to perfection only when followed by right conduct. Knowledge without faith and conduct is futile. Right conduct is (becomes) spontaneous, not a forced mechanical quality. Attainment of right conduct is a gradual process. The process to achieve this is ahimsa.
Ahimsa: Skt (non-harming) Jaina doctrine of non-violence. Since thought gives rise to action, non-violence of thought is more important than non-violence of action. It is also one of the five virtues in Raja-Yoga.
Pudgala: It refers to the different aspects of reality that cause the world we live in. It includes jiva & ajiva

Yoga Philosophy / Patanjali Sutras

Pakriti: The matter-principle, uncaused cause.  
Purusha: The supreme self.
Dukkha: Sorrow or basic condition of existence because of the essential nature of the
unrealized man.
Gunas: (or qualities of pakriti). They comprise: 1- Rajas: The tension, dynamic force behind matter. 
2- Sattvas: The goodness in matter, that which can be realized only through the knowledge of the enlightened subject. 3- Tamas: The opacity, the dark quality of matter, its propensity to destruction.
Yama: Restraint, the fixing of the path, to curb, to bridle.
Niyama: Spiritual discipline. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a set of prescribed actions comprising observances, requirements & obligations.
Asana: Posture associated with the practice of yoga. Usually seated in the lotus position.
Pranayama: "prana" or life force, and "ayama" to draw out. Controlled breathing in yoga.
Pratyahara: withdrawal from the senses. At this stage of supra consciousness the sensations from the senses become quiet.
Dharana: (One-point concentration) or total stillness of the mind.
Dhyana: Sustained attention, chan, jhana, or zen; the eightfold path of self- absorption.
Samadhi: Simple and total overtaking of the mind by the cosmic mind.

Stoic cosmogony (Epictetus)

Last class I hinted at some similarities between Yoga and Stoic cosmogony. For more on stoicism, click here.

I've found a good site with Epictetus' Discourses. Check it out.

For a better choice, I recommend this one.

Link for Doing Philosophy

Check out the link for our textbook, Doing Philosophy. There are quizzes, flash cards, etc.

Dharma or karma?

Your turn #2

This homework is going to take us to a different site: Make your comments here.

Please, become a friend of miami bourbaki. Yes, it's my personal site and sort of a higher forum for discussion. Be who you are, be argumentative, be yourself.

PHI 2010 T,R 9:50am (closed by Wednesday next week 11pm)

PHI 2010 MWF, 8am (closed by Thursday next week, 11pm)

The decimation of leatherback turtles in Costa Rica: Ignorance or poverty or both?

A friend sends me the following images from the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, a "Paradise on Earth."  But even in paradise there are ecological horrors:

Above a bunch of turtles after laying their eggs (it's known that the 2-to-3 hour labor of laying and burying the eggs represents a grueling task). Below a group of locals invading the beach not to help the turtles but to fetch their eggs (See that I don't use the word "steal," because, legally, turtles don't own their eggs -the disadvantage of not being human). 

Are Costa Ricans so hungry? Of course not. Can they understand the ecological difference between chicken eggs and turtle eggs? Donno.  They definitely like turtle eggs better for their pancake batter!

 

 

I cannot help thinking how many would-be turtles are there in all those sacks that will never get to swim the high seas?

 

No wonder poaching is the major factor in the decline of leatherback turtles.

It's pretty hard to watch the still impotence of the washed-out turtle loose its barely-laid offspring against such a formidable predator. These poachers are not starving. This is not to suggest that poaching and poverty -and ignorance- are not linked. It turns there is a whole industry of poaching. 

In this news, a man was caught with 4,500 turtle eggs! Can the sea turtle survive its worst enemy? Let's not waste time now examining the cause of poaching. What needs to be done now is to stop it, and the only way is to enforce the Costa Rican legislation against poaching turtle eggs.

The moral of the story? Where there is money to be made, there are always "smart" men seeking opportunities!
____________ 
According to reliable sources three of the seven species of marine turtle are critically endangered:

Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) - Critically Endangered
Kemp’s Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) - Critically Endangered
Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) - Critically Endangered
Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta caretta) - Endangered
Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) - Endangered
Olive Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) - Vulnerable
Flatback Turtle (Natator depressus) - Vulnerable

Yoga terms

Buddhi/cittam: Thought faculty, still within the mind.
Kaivalya: The ultimate state of perfection in Yoga.
Pakriti: The matter-principle, uncaused cause.
Purusha: The supreme self.
Dukkha: Sorrow or basic condition of existence because of the essential nature of the unrealized man.
Gunas: The qualities of pakriti.
Sattvas: The goodness in matter, which can be realized only through the knowledge of the enlightened subject.
Tamas: The opacity, the dark quality of matter, its propensity to destruction.
Raja: The tension, dynamic force behind matter.
Kevala: Life-monad for Jaina and Yoga.
Mahat: The Great One, or what emerges from pakriti.
Mana: The lower mind, the third in the cycle from Mahat.
Yama: Restraint, the fixing of the path, to curb, to bridle.
Niyama: Spiritual discipline.
Asana: Posture.
Pranayama: Controlled breathing.
Pratyahara: Abstraction of the senses.
Dharana: (One-point concentration) or total stillness.
Dhyana: Sustained attention, chan, jhana, or zen; the eightfold path of self- absorption.
Samadhi: Simple and total overtaking of the mind by the cosmic mind.

Gandhi's logic of ahimsa

* ... a steady progress with discipline.

Discipline is auspicious, we get more from it which gives us -more- reasons to go on.

* The power of the satyagrahi is greater than if he were violent.

We're taking violence in the subjunctive, the necessity of what doesn't occur. Think of my power vis-a-vis an ant's power. Or the sublated possibility of a miracle, one that doesn't need to happen because if it did, it would destroy the very possibility of being itself. "The miracle it happens before it happens."

* There is no defeat in a-himsa.

Not a put on, one would be defeated if the motive was wrong. Defeat begins when we give up our principles.

* In a-himsa the bravery consists in dying, not in killing.

A problematic one, because if one dies the bravery seems empty. There is another angle, "bravery" needs to be seen as a balanced, proportioned, response. And yes, sometimes people die without killing, particularly if "killing" means transgressing one's threshold.

* The satyagrahi should never have any hatred toward his opponent... must be prepared to suffer until the end.

In Hinduism, hatred is toxic, it achieves nothing. Does hate make me understand love? Yes. But there is a limit to hate. This suffering needs to be justified. It must be suffering for the right reasons.

* ...truth never himsa a cause that is just.

If it does, the cause if unjust.

* A satyagrahi is never vindictive. He believes not in destruction but in conversion.

Vindictiveness is worse than hate.

* A-himsa presupposes the ability to strike.

Here there is the presupposition, to strike presupposes the option of not-striking. Better, ahimsa means striking in a different way. A non-violent strike, the symbolic strike of not striking.

* ...injustice must be resisted. A-himsa is better, but where is does not come naturally himsa is both necessary and honorable.

* So long as one retains one's sword, one has not attain complete fearlessness.

My favorite one. Gandhi presents the carrying of the sword as a condition of fear. On the other hand, Aristotle would disagree with Gandhi that fearlessness is something worth pursuing. It would not be balanced.

* A-himsa is impossible without self-purification.

* A weak man is just by accident. A strong satyagrahi is unjust by accident.

* A satyagrahi is dead to his body even before his enemy attempts to kill him, i.e. he is free from attachment to his body and only lives in the victory of his soul.

where do we come from?

Fresh from the NYTimes and at the level of hypothesis:

Physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are reporting that they have discovered a new clue that could help unravel one of the biggest mysteries of cosmology: why the universe is composed of matter and not its evil-twin opposite, antimatter. If confirmed, the finding portends fundamental discoveries at the new Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva, as well as a possible explanation for our own existence. 

The new effect hinges on the behavior of particularly strange particles called neutral B-mesons, which are famous for not being able to make up their minds. They oscillate back and forth trillions of times a second between their regular state and their antimatter state. As it happens, the mesons, created in the proton-antiproton collisions, seem to go from their antimatter state to their matter state more rapidly than they go the other way around, leading to an eventual preponderance of matter over antimatter of about 1 percent, when they decay to muons.

Become a friend of 2070

By the way, it would be a good idea to become a follower of this site. Please, sign in! Be a friend!

Your turn #1

I had a nice time with you guys. Probing questions, nice points. I'd like to stress the fact that our conversations should not become yessing tutorials. It's good to contend, to spar, to put these ideas to the test to see if they come out of the fire unscathed. Only then, we have the best reasons to support them. 

Below, Kafka's "Prometheus" and a bit of my reference to spirituality* as "the inexplicable." I didn't want any talk about mystery in the traditional sense. We're trying to pay close attention here to metaphors. I go by the verse of Carvaka:

Springing forth from these elements itself
solid knowledge is destroyed
when they are destroyed—
after death no intelligence remains.**

We have a better grasp of the Upanishads and some of its main ideas: Brahman, atman, moksha, karma, samsara, avidya. Let's try to see the big picture. All this is pointing to a path of liberation from samsara: MOKSHA. I liked the flavor of ONENESS as doing for others, as seeing ourselves in others. What I termed social activism.

What's our duty to others?

If he who departs from the body goes to another world,
how is it that he come not back again, restless for love of his kindred?***

Which brings the discussion of karma back to the table. As Jose suggested, Karma seems like double edge sword (it needs to be further discussed).

We talked in passing of meditation as separating time/space that is worthwhile. Let's try to seek peaceful, constructive, hopeful thoughts (remember, hope should not be blind).

Let's not fall ever for what I call thetic happiness!! Mildly, detachedly, happy; a deceiving sign. As I suggested in class, suffering has a -too- bad a reputation.     

I'm sure there is more, but this is the best I can do right now. Go ahead, say what you want, but say it meaningfully, sincerely (close to 100 words!).

______
*One can find solace in "the spiritual," a highly personal symbolic constellation, where all these metaphors we've been discussing bear fruit. ** Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha by Madhava Acharya, translated by E. B. Cowell and A. E. Gough. (Paul Kegan: London, 1914). *** Patanjali Sutras.

PHI 2010 T,R 9:50am (closed by Wednesday, next week, 11pm)

PHI 2010 MWF, 8am (closed by Thursday, next week, 11pm)

The Vedas

The Vedas is the product of the Aryan invaders of the Indian subcontinent and their descendants, although the original inhabitants (disdainfully called dásyus, or "slaves," in the Veda) may very well have exerted an influence on the final product. The Veda represents the particular interests of two classes of Aryan society, the priests (Brahmans) and the warrior-kings (Ksatriyas), who together ruled over the far more numerous peasants (Vaishyas). Vedic literature ranges from the Rigveda (Rgveda; c. 1400 BC) to the Upanishads (c. 1000-500 BC). This literature provides the sole documentation for all Indian religion before Buddhism and the early texts of classical Hinduism.

2- The most important texts are the four collections (Samhitas) known as the Vedas (i.e., "Books of Knowledge"): the Rigveda ("Wisdom of the Verses"), the Yajurveda ("Wisdom of the Sacrificial Formulas"), the Samaveda ("Wisdom of the Chants"), and the Atharvaveda ("Wisdom of the Atharvan Priests"). Of these, the Rigveda is the oldest.

3- In the Vedic texts following these earliest compilations, the Brahmanas (discussions of the ritual), Aranyakas (books studied in the forest), and Upanishads (secret teachings concerning cosmic equations), the interest in the early Rigvedic gods wanes, and they become little more than accessories to the Vedic rite. Polytheism begins to be replaced by a sacrificial pantheism of Prajapati ("Lord of Creatures"), who is the All.

4- Deities: One of the principal Vedic deities was Indra, the god of war and thunder; nearly one quarter of the Vedic hymns are dedicated to him. Other key deities were Varuna, the sky god who maintains cosmic order and protects moral action; Mitra, the sun god who stimulates life and brings prosperity; Rudra, the god of violence, destruction, disease, and death; and Soma, the god of intoxicating juices consumed in ritual.

Thanks for a gret semester!

I wanted to thank you for your company, the discussions, for all the questions. It has been an honor to share time with all of you.