the prison of life

[bodach]

I went to some buddhist place in Brighton a while back, bunch of self righteous tossers, would have been better off along the road with the fucking scientologists.

 

[Dillinger4]

Don't you 'desire' for us to all learn a lesson?

 

[kyser_soze]

[QUTOE]And therefore mate, YOU WERE FAILING TO BE YOURSELF.[/quote]

Yes, if I was truly being myself I'd never have had any false expectations of quality and would never have bothered clicking on the link. If' I'd listened to my 'inner' it would have told me 'It'll just be some rambling stuff', whereas instead I thought 'Hey, it might be worth reading' and did so...to my eternal and long lasting regret...

shame on you man.

Indeed, shame on me. I fail to live up to the expectations of someone who has repeatedly demonstrated that they don't value consistency in themselves, refuse to contemplate vast areas of possible knowledge out of some desire not to pollute their mind with the thoughts and ideas of others, and has a shaky grasp of buddhism...

 

[fela fan]

One person's deep wisdom is another person's pretentious ramblings.

I've always been a bit suspicious of buddhism's claimed goal of overcoming the ego. It seems to contain 'hidden' egotistical delusions around (a) how far one can really go in transforming the self (though it's very easy to convince ourselves we've changed ourselves) and (b) the importance of this to the rest of the world.

Yeah, well i was talking to a mate about this today. If she is actually suggesting we get rid of our egos, then i can't agree with that. But who needs to agree with everything in an article in order to judge that it is of worth?

This article does not need one to agree with everything, but to disagree with one aspect of it and then write it all off is ignorance.

And no, wisdom is wisdom, it is universal. So if another person claims that wisdom is pretentious ramblings, then they're fucked.

 

[Demosthenes]

There's definitely some truth in the idea that culturally we deliberately create dissatisfaction through material comparison, (mainly by means of advertising)- because it's actually good for the economy if people are on the whole dissatisfied and think that if they get richer and can buy more things they'll be happier. I see the effects on my daughter, - occasionally it's a bit alarming.

Oliver Sacks wrote a book about it.

 

[fela fan]

Don't you 'desire' for us to all learn a lesson?

Not at all mate, i just thought it might be nice to share an article that i thought well worth reading. If 99 think it's shit, but one person hits on it, then it was worth the effort. No desire though, none. Just wanting to share what i think is good in life.

Desire is an outcome one wishes for in the future. Doing something in the present is impossible to be desire.

 

[Brainaddict]

This article does not need one to agree with everything, but to disagree with one aspect of it and then write it all off is ignorance.

And no, wisdom is wisdom, it is universal. So if another person claims that wisdom is pretentious ramblings, then they're fucked.

Ah, you have The Truth so anyone who disagrees must be fucked? I've heard that from a few people y'know.

I wasn't disagreeing with the article so much as expressing one of my disagreements with some of the key principles of the supposedly harmless buddhist 'philosophy' - some of which were expressed in the article.

 

[Dillinger4]

I never tend to trust anything that has a claim on 'universal wisdom' or 'truth'.

 

[kyser_soze]

All the time you desire to be a good parent you are denying yourself the opportunity of the object of your desire. Can't you see that? Desire is about wanting something in the future. This necessarily is stealing from the present, and the present is the only time you can be a good parent. Not the future, only now can you be a good parent. The more time you spend wanting to be a good parent (or a good learner), the more time you will fail spectacularly in being so.

What an absolute load of bollocks. I desire to be a good parent because it's a logical thing to want to be - you seem to think I spend time thinking about this (I don't have kids yet) - well I do, but only when I have time to take out to think about where I maybe want to be in the future. I arrived at the conclusion that actually focussing on the future is a waste of time - partly through the Wisdom of Ferris ('Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop to look around once in while you might miss it') and my own life experience that showed me that worrying about what *might* be distracts from the actuality of the present and usually ends up creating outcomes that resemble little of the things you wanted them to be.

 

[pinkmonkey]

I think desire is important to our lives, if we desired nothing we'd become complacent, we wouldn't bother trying to change or improve ourselves or our environment.
I think isolation could make you very arrogant self centred and possibly a bit smug. I'm not from the school of thought that Buddhism is all about locking yourself away and contemplating your navel. If you cut yourself off from society how exctly are you going to use all that compassion to change and improve things for your fellow humans? Buddhism without action isn't Buddhism, IMO.

I agree you can't change others, the change should be within you, but I don't know how you can encourage others if you are shut away in a cave.

 

[fela fan]

Why are so many people here thinking they are going to educate everyone?

I have sympathies towards Buddhism. But I don't think its right that its interpretation by one person should be used as a lesson for everyone.

I don't know who you mean by 'so many people', but i guess you're meaning me as one of them.

I'm not here to educate anybody. Why do you think that? Is is a product of your past experiences that you are now projecting onto me?

This article is not written by a buddhist, and is not about buddhism.

This article is quite long and has many points in it. Most people reading it would find bits they like, and bits they feel are wrong. Take what's good and drop the rest.

What i find yet again on urban is people who reject a whole article if it has just one thing in it they don't like or agree with. Talking about closed minds, talking about a real need to read stuff like this...

 

[Demosthenes]

Why are so many people here thinking they are going to educate everyone?

I have sympathies towards Buddhism. But I don't think its right that its interpretation by one person should be used as a lesson for everyone.

Maybe loads of frustrated educators around??

Actually, tbh, there don't seem to be many.

 

[kyser_soze]

Why have I got a closed mind for saying that this 'wisdom' is nothing unique, and contains much that has been said by a wide variety of people - many of whom didn't come to the conclusions by living in a cave.

Like I said, derivative of 00s of others, and offering no new insights on HOW such a state of mind in both the individual and mass might be achieved...

 

[Dillinger4]

I don't know who you mean by 'so many people', but i guess you're meaning me as one of them.

I'm not here to educate anybody. Why do you think that? Is is a product of your past experiences that you are now projecting onto me?

This article is not written by a buddhist, and is not about buddhism.

This article is quite long and has many points in it. Most people reading it would find bits they like, and bits they feel are wrong. Take what's good and drop the rest.

What i find yet again on urban is people who reject a whole article if it has just one thing in it they don't like or agree with. Talking about closed minds, talking about a real need to read stuff like this...

Sorry, I have just come across a few other people who seem to have some claim on wisdom, as if everybody else is ignorant.

You did say its a lesson that people would do well to learn.

Like I said, there are parts I agree with. I have sympathies towards what you say about desire etc.

You seem to have a problem with criticism though.

 

[fela fan]

Ah, you have The Truth so anyone who disagrees must be fucked? I've heard that from a few people y'know.

Yes, i can quite believe you've heard that from a few people. Amazing what you can hear that wasn't actually said. If you can hear what is not said once, then no doubt you hear this frequently. You've succumbed to your own prejudices.

 

[Dillinger4]

Yes, i can quite believe you've heard that from a few people. Amazing what you can hear that wasn't actually said. If you can hear what is not said once, then no doubt you hear this frequently. You've succumbed to your own prejudices.

Why can't you take some gentle criticism and the opinions of others?

Nobody is really that 'against' you here. Some people have valuable things to say on this subject. There is no need to be so defensive!

 

[Demosthenes]

Yes, i can quite believe you've heard that from a few people. Amazing what you can hear that wasn't actually said. If you can hear what is not said once, then no doubt you hear this frequently. You've succumbed to your own prejudices.

I heard Mark Twain once said something like: anti-semitism reminded him of a cat that sat on a hot stove once, and got burned.

"what's wrong with that?" said the anti-semite.

"the stupid cat never sat on a cold stove either."
(no offence meant BA)

 

[fela fan]

You seem to have a problem with criticism though.

It may come across that way, but i don't as it happens. What is actually happening here is that the writer is being seen to criticise the lives of westerners, and it is posters here who are unable to deal with this criticism.

 

[jæd]

What i find yet again on urban is people who reject a whole article if it has just one thing in it they don't like or agree with. Talking about closed minds, talking about a real need to read stuff like this...

Nah... Its mostly all of the article is bollocks, and has a very simplistic view of western life... (How much of a grip on it can someone who's spent 12 years in a cave have...?) It also doesn't offer any actual suggestions on how we can change, apart from spurious new-age hippy "loving compassion" stuff.

TBH, seems more like stuff a teenager would write than a respected tree-hugger...

 

[fela fan]

Why can't you take some gentle criticism and the opinions of others?

Nobody is really that 'against' you here. Some people have valuable things to say on this subject. There is no need to be so defensive!

Look mate, i can take criticism no problem, i can take different opinions. Why is this thread being reduced to talking about me, not the article? What i will refute is what is not correct. So if brainaddict or anybody says something that is not right, then i will react. It's got nothing to do with criticism.

I don't care if people are 'against' me mate, don't give a flying fuck. I've put up with that on urban for five years now, i ain't gonna start worrying about it now!

 

[fela fan]

I never tend to trust anything that has a claim on 'universal wisdom' or 'truth'.

And nor should you. But who is claiming that on this thread?

 

[Dillinger4]

And nor should you. But who is claiming that on this thread?

Damn fela. I am sorry I said anything!

You said if there is any wisdom, it is universal.

I don't have any claim to anything, but I am critical and skeptical where I see contradiction. I don't know. That is all.

 

[kyser_soze]

And nor should you. But who is claiming that on this thread?

And no, wisdom is wisdom, it is universal.

You did.

 

[nosos]

The quotes from fela on this thread remind me why I have the stupid hippy twat on ignore. Of course I'm very closed minded, my prejudice blinds from considering the profundities of the ancients.

 

[Demosthenes]

And nor should you. But who is claiming that on this thread?

Well I wouldn't say that you should automatically trust things claiming to be some sort of universal wisdom and truth, - but equally, I'd say you shouldn't rule them out, just because they look like that kind of meta narrative, - you should judge them on the merits of their content, rather than the type of narrative they seem to be.

 

[kyser_soze]

The quotes from fela on this thread remind me why I have the stupid hippy twat on ignore. Of course I'm very closed minded, my prejudice blinds from considering the profundities of the ancients.

This isn't the wisdom of the ancients, it's the wisdom of a re-emerged trogladyte...

 

[nosos]

You said if there is any wisdom, it is universal

Do you think it's universal wisdom or contextualised knowledge that got the PC built fela uses to spout this bullshit?

 

[nosos]

This isn't the wisdom of the ancients, it's the wisdom of a re-emerged trogladyte...

Stop being closed minded

 

[kyser_soze]

Universal wisdom, clearly.

I'd be interested to know the media upon which this article was transcribed too...

 

[nosos]

Stop being focus on the material, man. Open your mind to the simple wisdom contained in each and every empty or contradictory statement.