[Buddha-l] Re: S. Pinker

[StormyTet at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/5/2005 5:00:18 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
Richard.P.Hayes at comcast.net writes:

Pinker's  views would be, I think, challenging, in quite a good way, for
people whose  thinking has been conditioned by classical Buddhist dogma.
While no  Buddhist that I know of has ever endorsed anything quite like
the Blank  Slate theory (since that would be entirely inconsistent with
any doctrine  of karma), most Buddhists who take rebirth seriously are
committed to some  version of the Ghost in the Machine doctrine, and many
East Asian and  tantric Buddhists follow some version of the Noble Savage
myth (although it  is usually called something more like the notion of
Innate or Aboriginal  Enlightenment). So the challenge for a Western
Buddhist might be to imagine  a way of presenting Buddhist practices in a
way that does not commit one to  holding on to some version of either the
Ghost in the Machine or the Noble  Savage (or aboriginally  enlightened
everyman).




Hi Richard Hayes,
 
I will be picking up a Pinker book sometimes in the next year. Not only has  
there been a thread about him on this list, but I keep running into him in re. 
 to my research. My buddhist practice has always been very simple and not  
well-grounded in doctrine (krishnamurti influence). From my understanding, the  
whole concept of a ghost in the machine was an idea that one needed to rid  
herself of (a mental crutch so to speak) in order to truly 'see.'
 
Stormy
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