[Buddha-l] there he goes again (sam harris)

[Richard Hayes]

On Thursday 26 October 2006 18:38, Alex Wilding wrote:

> The attempt to wrest some reinvention of "meditation" without "the
> beliefs of Eastern religion" seems likely to miss the point almost
> entirely.

Our experiences apparently differ. The contemplative exercises I have 
consistently found most useful are the four foundations of mindfulness and 
the mettaa-bhaavanaa, neither of which buy in any way into beliefs of any 
kind.

> What is "meditation", after all?

A pretty much useless word in desperate search for a meaning. I think there 
should be a twenty-year moratorium on its use---along with a fifty-year ban 
on the use of such meaningless expressions as "enlightenment."

> This is quite apart from the hubris I am inclined to assume would be needed
> to undertake the task of extracting what is useful and leaving the rest.

Aside from some forms of extreme fundamentalism, just about everyone is in 
favour of some kind of discernment. One has no choice but to try to discern 
what is useful for oneself and for others from what is not. Such discernment 
need not entail hubris. Indeed, it may well be a path to humility.

-- 
Richard P. Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes