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Determinism in Buddhism

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Budd'm intro books conflict on free will 1

Mushroom Door Poem.  12/12 Milestone. 2

 

Budd'm intro books conflict on free will

Basic Buddhist Concepts

Kogen Mizuno

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=4333012031

p. 46-47 -- asserts free will, grossly and amateurishly and non-philosophically misportrays the no-free-will position as literal passivity in the manifest realm. 

Most freewill defenders are such undisciplined, pre-philosophical thinkers, who demonstrate their incomprehension of the position they are supposedly against.  They thrive on a straw man argument, upholding their own feeling-based, unrefined, pre-critical position by refuting a version of determinism that no one has ever held.

What the Buddha Taught

Walpola Rahula

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802130313

Chapter 6 (recommended) -- portrays free will as a conventional illusion together with Self.  Rejects the notion of discovering that you are really Self or the World or God or consciousness or anything else; rejects any construction "I am actually X". 

I hold that oneself is something and exists in some way, but defining this something and the nature of this existence requires careful qualification within a defined conceptual framework.  Simple yes/no answers to ego's existence, or "I am X" constructions, can never be anywhere near precise enough -- instead, improving accuracy of thinking is a matter of "first I thought of self this way, but now I think of it this other way." 

A fair short construction is "oneself is a virtually separate, secondary controller, not a literally separate, primary controller", but this construction cannot stand without a supporting explanatory framework that elaborates each term.

There was another intro book I read with those two, that was even more literalist, doctrinaire, and superficial.  That was a milestone for me, to pick up three introductory books and have a strong, immediate sense of judging which books express the lowest and highest level of Buddhism -- which books are coming basically from exoteric vs. esoteric positions. 

>Basic Buddhist Concepts

>Kogen Mizuno

>http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?

>isbn=4333012031

>

>p. 46-47 -- asserts free will, grossly and amateurishly and

>non-philosophically misportrays the no-free-will position as literal

>passivity

>in the manifest realm.<<<<<<<<<<

>

>Mizuno is very "basic' all right.  He is a semi-decent surface

>buddhist historian, heavily conditiioned by sectarian dogma, not a

>Buddhist philosopher, by any means.

>

>dc

Mushroom Door Poem.  12/12 Milestone

Someone wrote:

>MUSHROOM IS Secret DoorUntil Now

>Emblems of Death

>And the Sun,

>The Serpent Flame

>BC-AD is the force behind it all

>A very intelligent force

>Is going to rise

>Jesus is a Myth

>Seal of Perfection,

>Sanctum Regnum

>Particle of Dust

>Wisdom of the Ages

>Grand Mystery

>Choose ye an island

>IHShVH

>Is not the

>- Secret Key -

>Remember today is 12/12

I remembered today when the computer told me the date.

12/12/1987 was my first breakthrough and intellectual puzzle solution, 16 years ago.  I had been reading Watts' The Way of Zen with full mystic intensity, and it all suddenly made sense by applying the assumption of no-free-will.  "Well why didn't you say so explicitly!  You are a poor, too-poetic-only writer!  You ought to have more command of word-combinations!" was my immediate reaction.  I have full notes from this era, which I'd like to scan and upload to show notation and style. 

Almost immediately after, on Jan. 11 1988, in the computer lab at a Mac, I thought of the block universe in mystic-state terms and cybernetic self-control terms, deepening the 12/12 discovery and breakthrough.  My Dead friend Bill said he was studying Structural Engineering.

 


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