[Buddha-l] Doxastic minimalism (was: flat earth?)

[Richard Hayes]

On Thursday 17 May 2007 16:31, Vicente Gonzalez wrote:

> from the little of what I know,  Freemasonry is involved with rituals
> until the excess.

Well, yes. But so what? I don't think anyone in this discussion has said 
anything about rituals, either for or against. I personally have no 
objections to ritual at all. Hell, I even shake hands with some people. 

I think the point I was trying to make about my own familial heritage is that 
of the six ancestors I mentioned, at least five were seriously dedicated to 
being freethinkers. Freedom in allowing people to think as they please is a 
hallmark of Freemasonry, Unitarianism, Universalism, and generic liberal 
small-p protestantism. Atheism is much more dogmatic, but I seem to have 
escaped that influence in favor of agnosticism. As for Christian Science, I 
know hardly anything about that. All I know is that my grandmother almost 
died as a child and had a seemingly miraculous recovery when a bunch of 
Christian Scientists in Kansas prayed for her, and she spent the rest of her 
life thinking maybe she owed her life to the power of prayer. Maybe she was 
right. Or maybe it was just being in Kansas that saved her. Whatever the 
truth of the matter may have been, she never tried to foist her beliefs off 
on anyone else and seemed quite happy baking cookies for anybody, no matter 
what they believed. I'm not sure if it was being from Kansas that made her 
like that, or being a farm girl, or being married to a Freemason or being the 
grandmother of a future Buddhist. It's one of the many things about which I 
have no opinion.

> The point is when the philosophical suppression of rebirth can be so
> wrong as the kamma suppression for the people who are using them.

Nobody that I know off is talking about suppressing anything. As far as I can 
tell, most of us who don't think much in terms of traditional Buddhist mythic 
categories find other mythic substitutions. So the campaign (insofar as there 
is one at all) is not at all about getting rid of either rituals or 
mythology. Rather, it's about giving people all the latitude they need to 
find the rituals and myths they personally find helpful. That's all.

> Anyway, if now you go to an Italian event, I hope you will see yourself
> succumbing to some gnocchi ritual to validate with your own experience.

I've been to a few Italian weddings before. Both of my children married 
Italians. Italian weddings are a lot of fun. At least 1000 people show up, 
all of them somehow related to the bride, and people eat until their eyes 
cross, and the next morning at least fifteen drunks are found in the swimming 
pool. Of course, when I go anywhere, I studiously observe the precepts and 
sit off in a corner being mindful. That's my favorite ritual.

-- 
Richard Hayes