bradley

typewriters rotary telephones shellac records gramophones the harpsichord oil lamps wood stoves iridescent light bulbs vacuum tubes dot matrix printer paper (the ones with the strips that perforate) computer punch cards walkmans 8 tracks tape cassettes laser discs vhs ipods (... questionable) carburetors hand drills lead-based wall paint wagons carriages wind mills (the ones for milling grain) steam locomotion warfighting swords pistol dueling cavalry and their horses cannon balls schooners and the pine tar for making them sextants, for navigation powdered wigs for men feel free to add

peace is a paradox. the only way to fight aggression is to fight back. though there are many ways/strategies to fight back. its like taiji. sometimes you strike, sometimes you block, sometimes you roll back, ect. sometimes the strategy against aggression can be "non-violent." other times you might pay an army of teenagers to fly grenade bearing uavs across barren farmland at one another, while you anxiously and excitedly watch it all on twitter feeds.

agreed. i think karma is less about retribution, and more about growth, the gradual shaping of sentients over time into something better.

It is amazing though how people can justify their own "bad" actions. Some people can never consider themselves wrong or to have committed wrong because that would destroy the illusion of their ego, though they certainly cant escape karma. Some degree of enlightenment and transcendence of ego seems to be necessary to understand right and wrong, good and bad, etc.

Thats Portland for ya. I miss Portland.

im still concerned about the magic bear sex den encounter. did nungali drown and that's the end? So many unanswered questions.

granted it is an inaccessible part of the world, I dont think they were as isolated culturally as you might think, particularly in the 600-1000 CE timeframe when buddhism took over. at that time, tibet was a massive empire, which included the trade arteries through the tarim basin, an important juncture in the silk road and abutting the abbisids, as well as into india. they would have had access to a lot of cultural interchange at that time (otherwise, they'd still be practicing bön...) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_Empire

interesting. nyingma was "founded" (if that is such a thing) at the height of the abbasid caliphate. the persian world at that time was highly academic and more liberal that most would think. as I understand, most of western scientific knowledge--medicine, astronomy, mathematics, etc.--has its roots in the ancient persian world, although our history books have overwritten much of their discoveries with western names. imagine trying to do multiplication tables with roman numerals, instead of the arabic, base-ten ones we use today. al-khwarizmi, who wrote the treatise al-jabr (i.e. "algebra"), was an interesting character. the extent that the buhddist knowledge was brought in from persian texts (rather than sanskrit) does not mean that they were not buddhist texts, since the abbasid academics would have translated and studied those texts. buhddism was widespread in the califate, and promoted in certain castes at different times. perhaps the abbisid-buhddists had their own treatises and understandings, although I suspect the parchment they were written on has long decayed, or was destroyed by the mogols. you have to wonder how much ancient knowledge was lost in the destruction of the baghdad library. one thing is for sure, the ancient world was highly interconnected, much more than most would think. so it should not be surprising that people were sharing ideas, methods and techniques across cultures, and that for a particular school of thought, that there is usually no one, single dogmatic source for the knowledge. the extent that vajrayana borrowed knowledge and techniques from cultures other than ancient india, does not mean that it is not buhddism, nor impinge on its validity as a course of study.

How about The Diamond Sutra and The Sutra of Hui-neng? https://www.shambhala.com/the-diamond-sutra-and-the-sutra-of-hui-neng-496.html?srsltid=AfmBOopZRp8ESekI32yRr1kpdLx9ojL8L8DTKUGsgw06VNVfpNkr1jB2 The Diamond Sutra was the first thing Buddhist I ever read (maybe six or seven years ago), and it instantly changed my perspective on everything. Also, I think I have read that Hui neng was, and continues to be, somewhat controversial. Interested if people have thoughts on that. I also learned a lot reading through the prajñā­pāramitā sutras. Here is a translation of the 10,000 line one that I liked: https://84000.co/translation/toh11 Finally, one sutra that I continually go back to, and think about a lot, is a short Heap of Jewels sutra: https://84000.co/translation/toh118 The following interchange has stuck in my mind: The 84000 site is real interesting to browse through, interested what others think of that site. Also, I am no expert on any of this, so use at your own risk : )

okay. thanks.

you know whats right and wrong. its primordial. no ethical code, ideal, or analysis is required. righteous action needs no justification or explanation. a truely authentic person only does what is right, there is no other action

Thanks for keeping this thread going. I very much like it. It was interesting he equates the dualistic mind to attention. I have heard things about dropping your attention (actually your intention of attention) in meditation, but not stated in such a way that the dualistic mind IS attention. If anyone has thoughts on this would love to hear.

Vive la Résistance!

What if people could be enslaved but convinced them that they were not. Make them work 14 hour days for the benefit of some feudal lord, but give them the illusion that they were actually free. As I see it, the world today is basically one of feudalism, although veiled behind a complex system of debits and credits. When I think about AI, I am constantly reminded of the book Anthem by Ayn Rand. Surveillance historically has been limited by the fact that there must be someone watching it, and a small group of people, can't closely watch everybody at the same time. With AI, that changes. The systems could theoretically be nearly omnipotent, tracking individuals every movements, facial expressions, conversations, ect. What sort of feudalism does that lead to?

No, its Zappa!