Apech

Rosie who?

Who did Samwise Gamgee marry?

Saruman the White Gandalf the Grey (Mithrandir) Radhaghast the Brown ... and the other two

Where are the Ent-wives?

It was his birthday ... was it 111 or something like that?

Who guarded the pass of Cirith Ungol?

I respect a person who checks the source text

I'm guessing forefinger but I don't actually know.

Hey guys - this is the thread where I come to laugh, please take the political crap somewhere else.

A social democrat is not a socialist they are two different things. Conservatism is more about the wish to preserve (conserve) current institutions and social structures. There is an emphasis on the individual rather than collectives in terms of rights and freedoms. It is perfectly possible for instance to embrace something like universal health care under a conservative umbrella. Identity politics is a project of the left based on neo-marxism which replaces class struggle with various forms of oppression based on gender, race and so on. I think samurai codes and so on will be inherently conservative - especially as they embrace things like filial piety and the respect for the social hierarchy. Certainly in terms of Buddhism you will find practitioners on the left and those who are more conservative - so I don't think dharma and politics mix uniformly. Indeed the record of Buddhist countries in terms of the actual practice of compassion or human rights is decidedly patchy to say the least. I would also place myself on the left, as I think one of the roles of state is to look after and protect the vulnerable but my overall attitude is that we should ease suffering to the extent that engaging in 'hate politics' and manipulation must be avoided on the spiritual path.

Knock, knock. Who's there? Faramir. Faramir who? Faramir ten dollars you can Boromir brother.

The Rangers?

Was it Eomer ... or did you mean King Theoden himself?

.... mmmm .... not quite ... name?

Q. Who bore the ring before Gollum?

The Balrog?

In the Silmarillion? (guess)

Strider Q. What is Isildur's bane?

Grima Wormtongue Q. Who rescued hobbits from Old Man Willow?

naughty

As I understand it the 'pathway' is different. For instance the investigation of atman and its nature as not different to brahman vs. investigation into non-self and waking up to dharmakaya. So if you started to progress on one way but mix in things from the other way you could get potentially very confused and get nowhere. Having said this - Patanjali, it could be argued did exactly that - without the confusion

I think you have to place Nagarjunas Madhyamaka as a critique of whatever was being postulated at the time as being the ultimate cause. It did lead Buddhism down something of a rabbit hole of nihilism but most tantric practitioners - while they may be nominally prasangika are actually closer to Yogacara because of the positive assertions about the nature of ultimate reality.

There were two large areas of cultural tradition in Ancient India, one was Vedic and the other Sramana. The Vedic tradition followed Vedanta (the end of or conclusions of the Vedas) and the other was loosely based around Samkhya and resulted in Buddhism and Jainism. Tantra appeared in medieval India from about 600 AD when both traditions were already very ancient. Some scholars have claimed that for instance Buddhist tantra was a copy of Hindu Tantra - but actually its much more complicated and nuanced than that. I think it is probably wrong to think that by this stage there were separate boxes labelled Hindu and Buddhist - there was dharma and there were practitioners who did not operate in silos. Some of the great Buddhist mahasiddhas are recognised by Hindu traditions also e.g. Tilopa. Buddhists accept the existence of gods in the six lokas. Only modern western buddhists deny them. So Buddhist tantric mandalas include sometimes Hindu deities like Indra, Brahma and Shiva. What Buddhists don't accept is that there is one creator god who made everything and they don't identify the absolute, the dharmakaya as a deity. Ishvara is the god of Patanjalis Yoga - and his philosophy is often described as Samkhya with Ishvara - and also it could also be described as Mahayana Buddhism with Ishvara. The difference is nuanced and in the final analysis very slight. From a non-dualist practitioners point of view, that is any good yogi Hindu or Buddhist it's about actual realisation and not dogma - and so the closer those practitioners get to the final realisation the closer in view they get to each other. This probably doesn't answer your question - cos I'm rambling but anyway its an interesting question.

The 'Culture' books by Iain M Banks are quite immersive and I used to love Samuel Delany especially Nova and the Jewels of Aptor ... and Stars in his Pocket Like Grains of Sand.