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

[Vicente Gonzalez]

Jackhat1 wrote:

Jac> Thanks for pointing me toward this sutta. I hadn't read it
Jac> before. I  perhaps read it differently than you. I thought the
Jac> Buddha was taking the sacred  out of the rituals to make them more
Jac> in tune with Buddhism.
Jac>
Jac> I'm not against rites and rituals. They are useful to some
Jac> people. But,  they can also get in the way. The first level of
Jac> attainment in Buddhism is the  stream enterer. One of the fetters
Jac> one has to overcome to reach this level is  not to have blind
Jac> acceptance of rites and rituals, that is, belief that rites  and
Jac> rituals in themselves buy us anything.

I understand exactly in the same sense of yours. Just look by the
other side; the utility of rituals in Buddhism is to take out the 
sacred meanings.

Note in the Suttas Buddha appears against a blind devotion present
in his time. However, in subsequent times Buddhism claimed the
rituals are only useful means. Role of ritual then is quite clear in
Buddhism, although of course today the popular distortions specially
in Asia, are enormous. These distortions are in great part unavoidable.
There is education, etc..  however, always there is an space for such
things in the human being. In the West we have hordes of people going
to tarot and new age things. Many of that people are not religious
neither stupid, just they need it. 

Then sounds more fruitful assuming this reality so the ritual can be
the best possible, and then eventually abandoned. At least I
understand the Sutta in this way, because the ritual only has sense
when there is something to discover. Buddha explain to him, and that's
all. Maybe that man repeated or not but now it doesn't care.

But I suppose the discussion is when the lay Buddhist homunculus born
in the academics alchemy is interesting but still not able to give
these meanings. Or maybe simply this world is not reasonable.


best regards,