SirPalomides

Bill Maher the "great progressive" Islamophobe and racist, okay. Nathan Robinson has a great rebuttal of Maher's specious "Chinese virus" argument here: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/04/notes-on-a-nightmare-5-the-chinese-virus

Basically just delete the whole thing

Ooh we got a live one

“The Chinese government was harvesting their organs because their organs were healthier” The Falun Gong organ harvesting narrative has no solid evidence that doesn’t come from Falun Gong or Falun Gong front groups: https://thegrayzone.com/2019/09/30/reports-china-organ-harvesting-cult-falun-gong/

Right, and he believed his teaching was actually found in the Lotus Sutra itself, even if it wasn't obvious. To some extent all Buddhists had to make a decision as to what was central and what was provisional. The Mahayana corpus was huge and with no user manual on how to fit all the different practices and doctrines together. So different people came to different conclusions. Some focused on particular practices- zuochan, nianfo, etc., others on metaphysical schools like Yogacara and Madhyamaka. Big-tent schools like Tiantai and Huayan still had to make a schema of overall ranking- which sutras were supreme, which were secondary, tertiary, etc.? In Nichiren's time it had gotten to a point that several major Japanese sects, including Pure Land, were arguing exclusively for their own practice. Like Nichiren the Pure Land sects were saying that in the age of dharma decline, intense practices like zen were no longer practicable or effective. Everyone had to turn to a simpler, more popular practice, which by virtue of being easier was also Buddha's supreme teaching.

I don't know too much about Nichiren either but he seems a fascinating character. His teaching seems rather outlandish from the outside but following the steps of his reasoning it makes more sense even if it is still quite radical. One thing offputting about Nichiren is his fierce sectarianism- in his view, all other Buddhist practices are superseded or heretical. He wasn't really unique here- he owes a lot to the religious atmosphere in Japan at the time. In Japan, due in large part of political factors, Buddhism took a very sectarian turn and the differences between the sects were sharply defined, both in terms of doctrine/ practice and in patronage. This, combined with the persecution he got from other Buddhist sects, kind of painted him into a corner. I have heard Nichiren Shu is a lot less culty than SGI or Nichiren Shoshu though I have not first hand experience with any of them. I recall reading somewhere that the Buddhist monastery on Mount Tiantai in China has a statue in honor of Nichiren, which makes me curious what they make of his teaching about the mantra.

I am by no stretch a scholar and am still acquainting myself with the basics of the Confucian tradition. To answer very broadly, and with much possibility of error, the Confucian religious outlook starts with the understanding that humanity forms a triad with heaven and earth; that Heaven has imbued humanity with certain innate dispositions (called "sprouts" or "shoots" in Mencius) toward virtue; that by cultivating these sprouts we can realize our full humanity and simultaneously encompass or mirror the cosmos, and influence it accordingly. "Heaven" (Tian) is a key concept here that can take on different meanings depending on context, sometimes within the same sentence, but in its most fundamental sense Heaven is roughly analogous to the Dao of Daoism- pervasive, dynamic, generative. Perhaps it has a more involved role in the Confucian cosmos. Sometimes it is personified as Shangdi, especially with reference to the Odes and other ancient texts, but usually it is more vague (I hesitate to say "impersonal" because like the Dao I think it transcends such categories). Confucian ethical cultivation takes many forms, from statecraft and study to the arts (e.g. painting, poetry, music). Various forms of "quiet sitting" meditation have been part of Confucian practice for a long time. In conjunction with all this, the Yijing (Book of Change) is key both from a theoretical and practical standpoint in the way Confucians cultivate themselves in relation to the cosmos. There are also gods and spirits. There doesn't seem to be a clear line between the spirits of deceased mortals and other spirits. The general principle, found in the Book of Rites and also alluded to in the analects, is that a person should sacrifice to the spirits of one's ancestors and one's locality- sacrificing to spirits outside these bounds is termed "flattery" or "obsequiousness" by Confucius. The boundaries have moved over time. For instance, sacrifices to the spirit of Confucius were originally done only by his descendants, but were eventually deemed the right of every follower of his Way. Local cults could become more widespread by popular custom or imperial decree. Sacrifice directly to Heaven was in imperial times supposed to be reserved to the emperor. I'm not sure how strictly or consistently this was maintained through the ages. Now that the emperor is gone I suppose the restriction is defunct. I have never been in a Confucian temple but from what I've read the specifically Confucian ones will be dedicated to the Sage himself as well as his disciples and other figures relevant to the Way (e.g. later philosophers like Zhu Xi or legendary figures like Fu Xi). The "priests" will be scholars trained in the rites and classics. Videos of some of these rites can be viewed online. They will start with inviting the spirit(s) to attend, an animal sacrifice, escorting the spirit(s) into the temple. Strictly choreographed dances will be performed with stately music. Petitions are read out and burnt. Home ritual for venerating ancestors follows a similar pattern, though of course simplified. Zhu Xi wrote a guide to family rituals that popularized formal ancestor worship among all levels of Chinese society and which remains influential today. There is a Confucian Church that was founded in recent times (past 100 years or so) consciously organized as a structure parallel to Buddhist, Daoist, and Christian congregations, but I don't think the majority of Confucian temples are affiliated with them.

Wrong again.

Yeah, I think maybe we need to define "cultivation" here. The term 修身 (xiushen, self-cultivation) refers primarily to moral cultivation in a Confucian context.

Mengzi says: How could the fletcher be less humane than the armor maker? The fletcher is afraid lest anyone not be injured; the armor maker is afraid lest anyone be injured. So too with the healer and the undertaker. So one must not be careless about one’s trade. Kongzi said, 'A humane village is beautiful- if you choose to not dwell in humaneness, how can you achieve wisdom?' Humaneness is the glory bestowed by heaven and a person's peaceful dwelling. No one can forbid humaneness, only lack of wisdom hinders it. Who is inhumane is unwise, who lacks ritual lacks righteousness, and is a servant of others. To be others' servant and be ashamed of it, is akin to a bowyer ashamed of making bows, or a fletcher ashamed of making arrows. If this is shameful, it is better to be humane. The humane are like archers- archers first correct themselves, then shoot. Shooting and missing the mark, they blame not those who surpass them but turn and search within themselves and nowhere else. Zhu Xi's comment: Humaneness, righteousness, ritual, and wisdom are all treasures bestowed by heaven. And one who is humane is the heart of heaven and earth and all that lives- who attains humaneness first at the same time gathers all four, and this is called the extension of the primal virtue. Hence it is called "glory." When it is in a person then it is like the entirety of the root-heart's virtue, having the natural peace of heaven's pattern, without peril of sinking and drowning in human desires. Someone who ever acts within it, and does not part from it for a moment, may thus be said to dwell in peace.

So your dad was just doing his part in the process of life.

You seem to be saying murdering people around the world and torturing one's children are a bad thing, no? On what basis do you assume that?

My uncles are insisting to me over WhatsApp that the virus is a US bioweapon gone awry. This theory is apparently quite popular on Chinese social media.

Well now someone is saying the CIA knew about the virus in November . I don't buy it but man are the conspiracy theorists going to love that one.

Great article by the always great Yasha Levine talking about how our industrialized agriculture system makes pandemics more and more likely to recur: https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/30/china-origin-coronavirus-political-global-usa/

Yes, in ordinary usage, qi can mean oxygen and other gases. That is not what yuanqi is referring to. Likewise when Thales says the original principle of everything is "water" he does not mean dihydrogen monoxide.

Qi is a cosmological principle without easy definition. Calling it "oxygen" is like calling the Greek philosophers' element of water "H2O"- a complete misunderstanding of what is being talked about.

What do "perfect" and "pure" mean without any Good? There is however a difference between ultimate good and good as something relative to bad. Hence Confucians can say, with Wang Yangming, "There is neither good nor evil in the mind-in-itself" yet also call the mind-in-itself supremely good.

There's a wide variety of nuisance and malevolent spirits in the Daoist lore and different ways of warding them off. A common problem is the spirits of deceased whose family members did not offer them the proper sacrifices and care, so who wander and harm people. These are the "hungry ghosts" that dovetail in Chinese popular religion with the Buddhist pretas, though they are not really the same as the pretas as defined in orthodox Buddhist accounts. Both Buddhists and Daoists have rites for appeasing them and laying them to rest. There are demonic beings formed out of corrupt qi that prey on mortals to steal their life energy or otherwise harm them. It is also possible that they are sent by wicked sorcerers. Some beings can be either good or evil- the fox spirits, for instance. Evil foxes practice a kind of cultivation that relies on sucking life energy out of humans so they eventually become immortal nine-tailed foxes. The most common protection against demonic beings and baleful energies is the paper fu talisman, usually written with red ink on a long strip of yellow paper, with different designs and inscriptions for different purposes. Consecrated images of deities, ba-gua mirrors, and other sacred objects can do the trick too. A particularly difficult case calls for a Daoist exorcist who will have a variety of techniques, depending on the situation and the Daoist's training, for communicating with, commanding, binding, or banishing spirits.

Yeah that's totally not an empty performative gesture.

Essential quarantine viewing

It is a form of meditation, clearing the mind and concentrating on lofty and holy thoughts. There is also the idea borrowed from Buddhism that such chanting accumulated good karma. Many of the chants invoke deities to aid the practitioner. Others have some fairly esoteric alchemical content.

Oh that’s no secret, Shen Yun is a Falun Gong propaganda outfit. This article from the New Yorker is a good read: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/stepping-into-the-uncanny-unsettling-world-of-shen-yun Last year NBC published this expose of Falun Gong’s media arm which is pretty extensive: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/trump-qanon-impending-judgment-day-behind-facebook-fueled-rise-epoch-n1044121

I said “less serious about Buddhism.” You are saying they are not real Buddhists. I disagree. But if you really want to argue that put it in a different thread.

I don’t think that’s a defensible statement. Yes, some of the lamas get into some bad shit, the theocratic-feudal order was bad, and the whole tulku system seems problematic but I don’t think it could be fairly said that Tibetan Buddhists are less serious about Buddhism that the ones in China, Thailand, etc.