[Buddha-l] Hindu Fundamentalism

[StormyTet at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/7/2005 2:19:26 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
jehms at xs4all.nl writes:

And  besides that: ethical questions are quite down to earth. I don't know 
about  culture because I'm not sure what the word means. I read different things 
 about it all the time.



Hi Erik and 'Richard Basham,
 
Thanks for sharing your comments. Erik, ethical questions are quite  sticky  
-- just look at  American politics and the impact of dogmatic  ethics (often 
religious, but also consumeristic) on the state of society. As for  culture, I 
admitted to a professor not too long ago that I didn't know what  cultural 
studies was -- his response: that's alright nobody does. That is not  alright 
with me, however, which is why I am trying to conceptualize what culture  is and 
perhaps how to respond to it. Do I vote my heart, "Green party?" or the  best 
of two evils so that my vote might count?  Do I speak up and tell  everyone I 
know who is a dissatisfied dem to vote green  or do I preach  democratic 
values from an entrenched political position I do not really have  much faith in? 
Nope, ethics aren't that simple to me.
 
Richard Basham, practice and theory are too different beasts. I don't even  
like the title of Wilber's latest work : Kosmic Consciousness. I haven't  read 
it. Theoretically, the idea of a science of religion makes sense to  me. In 
practice, what you suggest you experienced is what such  theories seem to 
degenerate into -- much like most religions and economic  theories of utopia?    
 
I still think that his argument is noteworthy. Using the example of  
psychedelics: If everyone who takes a particular psychedelic drug reports that  they 
are seeing little green men over a long period of time under similar  
conditions then we may conclude  that there is a connection between  taking the drug 
and the perception of little green men. But that is all that can  be concluded. 
It tells us no more or no less. Materialist science oftens make  the faulty 
step of trying to say what the perception of these little green men  means in 
total, reducing the entire experience to a chemical reaction in the  brain. 
People who have seen little green men while taking this drug are  overstepping 
their bounds to suggest any universal meaning beyond the  perception itself.  The 
bottom line is that it is somewhat mysterious that  little green men arise in 
consciousness regularly when a particular drug is  taken. I would hate to see 
an institutional set of  dogmas raised up regarding little green men. Let the 
 perception be.  But ... if you want to experience little green  men,  go 
take the drug.
 
I am bowing out on this before I need be reminded to stay on topic.  

Stormy
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/private/buddha-l/attachments/20050807/68e00e14/attachment.html