Apech

One thing I learned recently is that the ancient cosmological models such as that in Genesis, the abhidharma mandala and the Lo Shu and so on - are not primitive forms of scientific cosmology but more maps of the known by which to orientate yourself. Maps of the island of the known (with the unknown usually as a void or sea or wasteland).

Not the unknown = 96% that's not god, but the unknowable.

How do you know that?

Part of Ireland (the North) is in the UK but the rest is not. The republic of Ireland is in the EU - so post Brexit there would have to be a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of ireland. This is a problem they cannot solve as apart from everything the peace process which ended the fighting (the troubles) removed the border controls. To put them back would disrupt the peace. Personally I think the UK should just say we're not having a hard border - if the EU wants to put up a wall (physical or trade barrier) then thats up to them. Goodbye - do your worst. Something along those lines.

Feline fidelity.

Not me! Never.

it just is! ok.

Love flows naturally towards the spiritually gifted yet humble ones.

Cheer up Shaddy

In all my time at DBs I have never once taken a thread off topic with jokes, silly comments or attempts at childish humour. Never once. I have never disagreed with anyone about anything ever. Never. It's a fact. Definitely.

Britain's wealth. If you are sceptical about conspiracy theories ... here's one which isn't a theory.

The movie I have watched time and time again is: and

Do I have to read the whole thing or are you going to give me a clue?

I agree the Napoleonic code does have the presumption of innocence in the penal code. What do you think about their impression of the European parliament and how it functions?

The Buddha wasn't a Buddhist, so no. Also he lived in pre-literate times so there were no texts.

Well as you probably know the Buddha refuted the idea of the atman. This is where the atman means a kind of eternal essence of a person and which was the subject of a lot of early Upanishadic teachings of his day. The best translation for atman is probably 'soul'. This would imply a permanent agent (the soul) which moves through cyclical existence (samsara) through incarnation after incarnation. A higher self which appears in various bodies and so on. As you point out the Buddha said that 'existence' which we perceive as arising through dependent origination can be analysed into five 'heaps' or 'baskets' called skandhas. These are form, feeling, perception, volitional formations (or concepts) and consciousness. So for him consciousness (vijnana) arises in dependence on its causes and conditions, such as the objects of consciousness, so subject and object are co-dependent. They arise together and when one ceases so does the other. So in this way it cannot be a permanent eternal agent in samsara. However in Mahayana Buddhism particularly there is a emphasis on samsara itself being a projection through ignorance. And so on enlightenment when ignorance departs the true nature of things is revealed - and that anything other than this is not truly existent - which leads to the idea that a being always has buddha-nature whether it knows it has or not. While this originally was just pointing to a kind of potential to be a Buddha - it was developed into an idea like 'true-nature'. The use of the word shen in Chinese in some minority schools of Daoism suggests the essence of mind - and this view was used by some early Chinese Buddhists to counter nihilist thought as in the quote from the Zhuangzi ' when our hands finish lighting the firewood, the fire continues to exist, moving from one piece of firewood to another; there is no extinction of it'. And so a suggestion of an active agent in samsara which survives death arises.

It's all in this book, which is basically someone's doctrinal thesis from Oxford University: https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/how-buddhism-acquired-soul/

Hello everyone, I have just received today Damo's completed interview. And I have to say I am stunned by the length and detail of his replies. Given that he was on a short break from a long retreat it's amazing that he found the time to do this for us and speaks volumes about his commitment and kindness. I have already sent a thank you email on behalf of TBs. As I say its quite lengthy so rather than copy paste it bit by bit onto here I am posting a pdf which you can download. Damo Mitchell's Tao Bums Interview.pdf Hope you enjoy reading this. Apech

It's always a pleasure to hear from you, Chang.

Europe has always been a kind of testing ground for the best form of rulership. If you have the patience you can see how the current nation states developed out of warring Feudal kingships over hundreds of years by watching the video below. Each country developed its own style, culture and values. The EU is a kind pasted on top set of received values - largely French/German. For centuries the British foreign policy was to not allow any one culture dominate beit Napolean, Hitler or any one else. Even in the Roman period we were a fringe nation. I think this is really why instinctively the UK does not belong in the EU.

Hi, I think you've hit upon an important question. Translation of normal texts and literature even between European languages is fraught with difficulty - so anything from the ancient world is even more difficult. It's not only Pali of course - the Pali Canon was not written down until the first century BC - but also the Chinese agamas and also versions in Tibetan. What is different about the old translations in Tibetan and Chinese is that they went to great pains to get things right. The Chinese had a protocol for translation which involved not only the original text holder but also a group of scribes, together with ann expert in classical Chinese. In this way they produced high level versions. But even then they made mistakes which had to be corrected over the generations. For instance part of the reason for the prominence of 'buddha-nature' in Mahayana texts was because the Chinese translated it to 'shen' and regarded it somewhat like the atman in Brahmanic doctrine for several generations. The Tibetans invented a script and a whole set of terminology to translate the important concepts. In contrast many translations in English are done by a single translator and cann be quite sloppy and misleading. Having said all this - the way round this problem is to find a good, competent teacher who reads the original language and receive teachings in the proper context which involves a long and detailed explanation of the text together with a transmission. If you don't want to learn the whole language you can of course study the important terms which also will be a help. But I guess if you want to be a serious scholar (unlike me ) then yes you will need to learn Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan or Chinese depending on the tradition you feel connected to.