Hmmm… disproving a philosophy that’s been around for 2500 years and has had billions of followers shouldn’t be that hard! :smack: :eek:
Yeah, that’s pretty non responsive. We can see you’re obsessed.
Again, what is it you’re hoping to get from sharing your obsession with the board? You want no part of anything that’s been sincerely suggested, won’t hear of a teacher or community, the well proven avenue to the knowledge/clarity you claim to seek, and have an ‘individual’ interpretation of the concepts and won’t hear any other.
Your ‘unique’ interpretation, and commitment to it, self evidently leave zero room for anyone to unravel the mystery you’ve manufactured for yourself.
So, what is it you are looking for, exactly?
He’s getting exactly has the wants. People paying attention to his inane posts. Oops…just feed that obsession!
I’m looking for an answer that finds fault in what they are saying. Anything that has been suggested has been tried and failed because I don’t have an answer that finds fault with the claims put forth by them. You say proven but my experience has said FAILED.
Perhaps the tool you are missing if your goal is to find fault is a mirror?
The OP is caught in samsara with his response to any answer
I see no reason to figure they’re right; but, for the sake of argument, let’s go with it for a moment. You say the world being an illusion instead of being real makes you feel like anything you do is worthless and pointless; spell out for me why the world being real would make all of that — uh, worthful and pointful?
Because it would be tangible and have an impact. In an illusion nothing matters because it’s not real.
The problem I have is that much of what Buddhism says I don’t have a response to (like the quoted text that was a huge block that I posted). Because of that it lingers and worms its way into my mind, especially since as the post says that science is arriving and what Buddhism has done for years. It makes it harder to get over it all if science is backing it in a manner of speaking.
People on here talk about doing stuff that has “proven” to work, and I say it has NOT. I have tried many things to get over and forget this stuff but my daily life just triggers the memories all over again, and when I lay to sleep the unresolved questions just flood my mind, then I wake up feeling tired and thinking I have forgotten about it am quickly reminded once again. That’s why I want a counter response to their claims because everything else I have tried is just not working.
Why do you care? Here I am, saying that what you do has a tangible impact on me; I take it that wouldn’t matter to you if I’m not real, but would if I am?
Have I got that right?
Not sure about Buddhism, but one of my favorite quotes ( supposedly by Churchill)goes something like:”success is not final, failure is not fatal: it’s the courage to continue that counts.” Fuck perfection.-that last bit is mine, lol take care friend.
OP, your opinion that the whole of Buddhism can be summed up with “the world is an illusion” doesn’t work because it has a much more layered meaning. What they actually mean is the world is a distraction. You trying to keep up with the Joneses and using other people’s lifestyles as a measuring stick for how your life should be lived is ruining you. I know, the Western culture is all about appearances, and that’s why so many westerners don’t get Buddhism.
If you’re trying to prove Buddhism is wrong, fine. It doesn’t work for those concerned about status or those who want their identities to outshine everybody else’s. It requires a change of fundamental thinking on your part, and you obviously don’t want to go that route. There are no cut and dry answers to your questions, which you can’t tolerate because you feel you didn’t need that level of context to live your life. You may as well tell everybody who practices medicine not to bother with all those years of study and expense because we have Web MD.
Bottom line is, if you want to overcome loneliness, you have to go among the people. A simple Buddha quote isn’t going to make your despair magically disappear. You have to change yourself instead.
Saying the world is a distraction isn’t much better than the world is an illusion. It’s essentially saying that things don’t matter, which is still another problem I had and still do with Buddhism. You still get those who claim that anything that appears doesn’t exist and says that Buddhism says so. Let’s not also forget that Buddhism also says that things only exist in your mind, so there’s nothing layered about what you speak of.
I don’t care about status or outshining people. From middle through high school I never kept up with the Joneses, I just did things I liked because I enjoyed them, not to prove anything. But even so that is NOT what Buddhism says, rather it just calls personal pursuits that don’t have to do with enlightenment as pointless and meaningless. So according to Buddhism I am not free to do my own thing if that thing isn’t the Dharma. Buddhism IS what’s ruining me, not what Buddhism claims is ruining me.
You can’t really compare Buddhism to medicine because one is a science while the other is debatable as to whether it is or not.
This has nothing to do with overcoming loneliness, but more with how Buddhism looks at the human condition as a problem to solve rather than something to experience. I am not always lonely, but when I am I don’t like to be told it’s some disease. Because that’s what Buddhism also refers to anger and other “negative” emotions, a disease.
The function of Buddhism is not to keep you, like, totally stoked about the general vibe and stuff. Sorry, dude.
Tangible and impactful to who? The reality I observe around me is certainly tangible and impactful to me; isn’t it tangible and impactful to you? I mean yes, if you’re unable to detect reality via your senses then I agree it shouldn’t matter to you. Are you worried about there being some other entity out there, some god or whatever, that can’t tange reality? If so, why does their perception matter to you?
Mattering just means that something has an impact on something else in a meaningful way. And the reality I’m experiencing has a big impact on me in a very meaningful way. Doesn’t it have an impact on you?
That’s kind of my problem with it. It makes it seem like everything else that doesn’t follow it is “Wrong”.
I know it’s to keep Summer safe.
As a spiritual person, who’s always encouraging my friends to be more spiritual, to get more in touch with their religious background and faith community and ultimately The Godhead… this is really hard for me to say.
But forget the religious stuff. Buddhism* is not fixing your problems. Which. You. Need. To. Face. Without excuses (like “But the Buddhist principle of Whatever I Just Read means I’m screwed… so I’m giving up.”)
*at least the shallow, Philosophical Buffet Table style of “Choose-Your-Own Religious Adventure” is clearly not working for you.
Kind of hard to “just forget” when you are reminded of the “wrongness” and what you do daily.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves
It’s MY fault I can’t forget, hardly seems likely.