MJD’s Comments (group member since Aug 18, 2018)

MJD’s comments from the Secular Sangha: A Secular Buddhist Group group.

Gary wrote: "There are many. Off the top of my head--

What is the Dharma? by Sangharkshita
Being Nobody, Going Nowhere by Ayya Khema

Then the more America books --

like Jack Kornfield's A path with Heart and..."

Have you ever read the group book Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment by Robert Wright? I think that it speaks well to your idea of needing a practice to "deprogram" oneself.

Also, I am curious if you have read either Being and Time by Martin Heidegger or The World as Will and Representation, Volume 1 by Arthur Schopenhauer? I think that both could be characterized as philosophies of "deprogramming" (Schopenhauer focusing on the need to overcome internal programs of the "will" and Heidegger focusing on the need to overcome external programs of the "they").

Gary wrote: "You may be aware that there is a community out there of former Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals. It exists on reddit and Facebook and sites like exchristian.net. There are also online sup..."

What books/writers/speakers on the topic of Buddhism would you say have been most influential to your conception of it?

John wrote: "I received this book as a gift for Christmas, so I will be reading it soon."

Hope you find parts of interest in the book (for me I really liked the scholarship to try to uncover a historical Buddha from the religious text).

I think that the book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence Michael Pollan takes a similar approach to what is meant as "spiritual" as Sam Harris does.

Here is a quote from Pollan's book that I think that Harris would agree with:

"But I have no problem using the word “spiritual” to describe elements of what I saw and felt, as long as it is not taken in a supernatural sense. For me, “spiritual” is a good name for some of the powerful mental phenomena that arise when the voice of the ego is muted or silenced. If nothing else, these journeys have shown me how that psychic construct—at once so familiar and on reflection so strange—stands between us and some striking new dimensions of experience, whether of the world outside us or of the mind within. The journeys have shown me what the Buddhists try to tell us but I have never really understood: that there is much more to consciousness than the ego, as we would see if it would just shut up. And that its dissolution (or transcendence) is nothing to fear; in fact, it is a prerequisite for making any spiritual progress. "

I liked the distinction between "having" and "being" that is brought up and discussed in this book. Makes you think.

Use this thread to discuss Alone with Others: An Existential Approach to Buddhism by Stephen Batchelor.

MJD wrote: "I really enjoyed reading his conception of "emptiness" in this book. I also liked how he argues for the practical application of disassociating existence from preconceived conceptions of its essenc..."

As I wrote in "message 3", I was seeing similarities to how this book was describing elements of Buddhist philosophy to elements I know of in existentialism. Here is an article written by someone who saw similar similarities between the two schools of philosophy:

"Existentialism Meets Buddhism: The philosophies of
Existentialism and Buddhism are more common than you
think."
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/bl...

I want to point out that I read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins before reading this book, and I am happy I did so. I think that the arguments in this book that are supported by concepts founded on evolutionary psychology are in turn supported by concepts found in Dawkins' book.

I really enjoyed reading his conception of "emptiness" in this book. I also liked how he argues for the practical application of disassociating existence from preconceived conceptions of its essence. Reminds me a lot of existentialism.

While I am a strong advocate for evaluating people's claims on the merits of the claims themselves, and not on the basis of an evaluation of the person saying the claims, I do think that the message in this book is helped out by the messenger.

That is, he serves as a good example of the human ability to live by the precepts that he is advocating. I think that this really stands out in parts where he talks about his war experiences. The idea that he can practice what he preaches lends itself to the idea that it is indeed possible for people to do the same (i.e. he displays empirical evidence for his claims with his own life story).

Here are some podcast episodes that Joseph Goldstein was on:

#4 - THE PATH AND THE GOAL
A Conversation with Joseph Goldstein
https://samharris.org/podcasts/the-pa...

#15 - QUESTIONS ALONG THE PATH
Further Reflections on the Practice of Meditation with Joseph Goldstein
https://samharris.org/podcasts/questi...

#63 - WHY MEDITATE?
A Conversation with Joseph Goldstein
https://samharris.org/podcasts/why-me...

Here is a podcast episode that the author was on talking about this book: https://samharris.org/podcasts/is-bud...

John wrote: "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation by Thich Nhat Hanh

I think this book is perfect for somebody just beginning t..."

The way that he was describing "Links of Inter-Dependent Co-Arising" it seemed like he was describing a feedback loop.

Wiki article on feedback loop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feedback

________________________________________________________

Edit: The way that he was describing it reminded me a bit of Hume's, Kant's, and Schopenhauer's writings about causality and when I looked up the wiki article on the subject I saw that they were referenced.

[Note: the below text is copy and pasted from the following link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prat%C4...

"Comparison with western philosophy"
"Jay L. Garfield states that Mulamadhyamikakarika uses the
causal relation to understand the nature of reality, and of our
relation to it. This attempt is similar to the use of causation by
Hume, Kant, and Schopenhauer as they present their
arguments. Nagarjuna uses causation to present his arguments
on how one individualizes objects, orders one's experience of
the world, and understands agency in the world.[24]
The concept of pratītyasamutpāda has also been compared to
Western metaphysics, the study of reality. Schilbrack states that
the doctrine of interdependent origination seems to fit the
definition of a metaphysical teaching, by questioning whether
there is anything at all.[131] Hoffman disagrees, and asserts that
pratītyasamutpāda should not be considered a metaphysical
doctrine in the strictest sense, since it does not confirm nor
deny specific entities or realities.[quote 3]"

I think that this is a good book for those new to the subject and those that are more advanced in their study of the subject. For beginners, I think that it serves as a good introduction as it crams in a lot of information and cites where people can study the summarized conceptions in the book in a more in-depth manner. For advanced students, I think that he does a good job pointing out areas of disagreement among Buddhist scholars, does a decent job describing positions that he opposes, and does a good job describing his positions (For example, he claims that there are three seals of dharma ["seals" being the very basic concepts that need to be included into a set of concepts for that set to be able to be called "Buddhist"] whereas others think that there is a different number of seals).

Use this thread to discuss Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment by Robert Wright.

Use this thread to discuss The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Use this thread to discuss One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism by Joseph Goldstein.

John wrote: "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation by Thich Nhat Hanh

I think this book is perfect for somebody just beginning t..."

Glad to see that you enjoyed it. If you like his style of writing I would recommend the group book The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation.

[Note: While this group is primarily set up along secular grounds for those that either don't believe in any spiritual metaphysics or believe in a spiritual metaphysics that contradicts the ones that some Buddhist thinkers hold, it is not my intention for this group to be anti-nonsecular thinking. Also of note, I think that non-secular concepts in some Buddhist writings that appear in the books on this group's homepage and elsewhere can be useful if taken figuratively even if the reader ultimately rejects the literal truth of the concepts (for example, the idea of wanting to act better to be reincarnated into a better body could be read as figurative language of wanting to act better to become a better person).

Here is an interesting website on Stoicism: https://dailystoic.com/what-is-stoici...

Video about Seneca:

Here is an interesting and informative video about Seneca, a Stoic philosopher that is quoted and talked about a lot in the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA7cg...