Category: Buddhism
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More on the Supposed Non-Existence of the Self
Peter Lupu e-mails: In your recent post criticizing Harris' argument against the self (which is already present in Hume) you point out that the argument against the self is lacking. It is lacking, you argue, because from the mere fact that the self is not revealed in certain types of introspective experiences it does not…
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Sam Harris on Rational Mysticism and Whether the Self is an Illusion
London Karl brings to my attention an article by Sam Harris touching upon themes dear to my heart. Harris is an impressive fellow, an excellent public speaker, a crusader of sorts who has some important and true things to say, but who is sometimes out beyond his depth, like many public intellectuals who make bold…
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Conquer Desire or Misdirected Desire?
The Buddhist cure is radical all right: it goes right to the root, radix, of the matter: desire. But eschewing a salutary horticulture, it e-rad-icates the root. That is like curing a disease by snuffing out the life of the diseased. The problem is not desire, but misdirected desire. The solution is not the uprooting…
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The ‘Control Argument’ for the Anatta Doctrine
In other posts I have sketched the Buddhist doctrine of 'No Self.' I now consider an early Buddhist argument for it. Here are the words of Buddha according to the Anattalakkhana Sutta, his second discourse, the Sermon on the Mark of Not-Self: The body [rupa], monks, is not self. If the body were the self, this…
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The Dalai Lama and the Self: An Anti-Buddhist Argument
A friend refers me to a rather poor article, "The Dalai Lama, the Pope, and Creation," in which the dubious claims of the Dalai Lama are ineptly rebutted by a Catholic journalist. We read: Beyond the complex world of nature, Buddhism asserts a fundamental “nothingness.” Buddhist thought sees as illusory all distinction between beings. As…
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Against Irrationalism
The problem is not that we conceptualize things, but that we conceptualize them wrongly, hastily, superficially. The problem is not that we draw distinctions, but that we draw too few distinctions or improper distinctions. Perhaps in the end one must learn to trace all distinctions back to the ONE whence they spring; but that is…
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More on Trishna
A reader usefully supplements my post Reininger Contra Buddhism: Dear Professor Vallicella, With reference to your recent post 'Reininger Contra Buddhism' you might be intrigued by chapter 5 of D. T. Suzuki's Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist where he talks about trishna at length and states: "The later Buddhists realized that tṛiṣṇā was what constituted human…
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Reininger Contra Buddhism
Robert Reininger, Philosophie des Erlebens, p. 227: Gegen Buddhismus: Trishna nicht ertoeten (ausloeschen), sondern durch Ueberhoehung in den Dienst des Vernunftwillens stellen — sonst fehlt diesem die lebendige Kraft, die nur der Daseinsbejahung eignet (A 751, 1932). Against Buddhism: Trishna is not to be killed or extinguished, but elevated and placed in the…
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Bierce, Blondel, and Nirvana
This from The Devil's Dictionary: Nirvana, n. In the Buddhist religion, a state of pleasurable annihilation awarded to the wise, particularly to those wise enough to understand it. (Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, c. 1911) Although intended sardonically, there is a serious point here to which Maurice Blondel alludes in the following quotation: …
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All is Impermanent? Impermanence and Self-Reference
I have long been fascinated by forms of philosophical refutation that exploit the overt or covert self-reference of a thesis. To warm up, consider 1. All generalizations are false. Since (1) is a generalization, (1) refers to itself. So if (1) is true, then (1) is false. On the other hand, if (1) is…
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Easter Morning Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 15:14
Biblia Vulgata: Si autem Christus non resurrexit, inanis est ergo praedicatio nostra, inanis est et fides vestra. King James: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Orthodox Christianity stands and falls with a contingent historical fact, the fact of the resurrection of Christ from the…
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The Christian ‘Anatta Doctrine’ of Lorenzo Scupoli
Buddhism and Christianity both enjoin self-denial. But Buddhism is more radical in that it connects self-denial with denial of the very existence of the self, whereas Christianity in its orthodox versions presupposes the existence of the self: Christian self-purification falls short of self-elimination. Nevertheless, there are points of comparison between the 'No Self' doctrine of…
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Can the Chariot Take Us to the Land of No Self?
An abbreviated version of the following paper was published under the same title in The Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy, vol. 9, ed. Stephen Voss (Ankara, Turkey), 2006, pp. 29-33. ………………. According to Buddhist ontology, every (samsaric) being is impermanent, unsatisfactory, and devoid of self-nature. Anicca, dukkha, anatta: these are the famous…
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Know Thyself!
"OK," says the Buddhist, "But what's to know?"
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Kerouac October Quotation #30: The Holes in Jesus’ and Buddha’s Bags
Vanity of Duluoz, Book Thirteen, X, pp. 274-276, ellipses and bold emphases added: . . . .Mad Dog creation has a side of compassionate mercy in it . . . we have seen the brutal creation send us the Son of Man who, to prove that we should follow His example of mercy, brotherly love,…