[Buddha-l] Anomalous doctrines

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Wed, 2005-03-23 at 01:56 +0000, Stephen Hodge wrote:

> This msg has turned out to be rather long so I hope it will get posted 
> unscathed 

The size limit for messages is normally 10,000 characters. Your message
was 25% over that. In the future it would appreciated if everyone could
keep within the size limitations by breaking a long missive into parts.
There is, by the way, no limit on how many messages per day a person can
send.

> - I could say more and expand on many of the points I have raised 
> above (I have not even touched on Tantra !), but I am sure that these will 
> find occasion to emerge in the intelligent and scholarly debate I hope this 
> stimulates.

What is there to debate? As you say, all these points are well known.
For as long as there have been canons Buddhists have had a choice
between two views of nirvana. Which one chooses is a matter of personal
choice. The beauty of it is that no one will be disappointed. If a
person strives for eternal beatific vision and gets oblivion, she won't
be around to be disappointed. If a person strives for oblivion and only
gets eternal bliss, she probably won't complain too loudly. (Well, given
my present mentality, I would complain like hell if I didn't get
oblivion, but I'm so bloody far from nirvana that my vote doesn't count
for much.)

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico