[Buddha-l] Re: Multi-cause vs single-cause

[Michel Clasquin]

Benito Carral wrote:

>    I  agree with you here. It is not a consistent scripture. :) Beside
> that,  I  think  that the usual understanding of the _Kalama sutta_ is
> quite unwholesome. According to Buddhist teaching, our samsaric stream
> of  consciousness  is characterized by ignorance, so how could we rely
> on ignorance to make our decisions?

For those of us who remain unenlightened non-Buddhas, do you have an 
alternative in mind?

Decisions must be made, whether we like it or not. Yes, they will be 
imperfect decisions based on imperfect logic applied to imperfect 
premisses. But we do not have any options. Deciding not to decide is 
just as much a decision.

For example, I may decide to boost the number of my posts to Buddha-L so 
I become a regular poster and Richard will take me off the 
to-be-moderated list. But I do not know how many posts are required to 
make me a regular poster. And Richard may see through my little scam and 
keep moderating me anyway. My decisions are based on a profound 
ignorance of lots and lots of conditions applying to Buddha-L. But that 
does not stop me from making that particular decision. If I decide that 
increasing my number of posts is not worth the effort, because I am so 
ignorant of the factors involved, that too is a decision, made on the 
same conditions of ignorance, but now with a little more reflexivity.

And in the end this too is temporary, and I will probably end up posting 
whenever I have a loud-mouth opinion that I don't want to keep to 
myself, and moderation procedure be damned!

But if anyone here has something better in mind on which we can base our 
decisions, please, decide to let us know!