[Buddha-l] Meatphysical warfare

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

jkirk schreef:
> Erik,
> I'm perplexed by your use of the term "metaphysical movements" here.
> In what way is Buddhism metaphysical?  Maybe Mahayana Buddhism, the
> prevalent type in China? 
> But chan isn't metaphysical, is it? 
> Certainly Falun Gong is--I'd call it magical rather than metaphysical,
> though.
> Joanna
> ============= 
>
>   
Hi Joanna,
my use of the word certainly is in line with Chinese philosophy during the Ming and Qing dynasty, and not very different from the use of the word in analytical philosophy and even phenmenology.
The word 'metaphysics' came about by Theophrastos, pupil of Aritotles who made a category of Aristotles books called 'meta ta physica', meaning that which comes after the (books about) physics. These books were about reality in general and categories of reality. Later the word came to mean a philosophy about things above nature. So every proposition that is not about concrete things and events, i.o.w. that is not scientific or is not open to scientific investigation is in fact metaphysical. Buddhanature is a metaphysical subject as are cakra's, a subtle body, karma, ritual etc. Magic is metaphysics because it claims the possibility of unnatural causality, in fact it confuses semiotic manipulation with natural causation. A ritual is a transformation of meaning and not a causal event, but magicians claim they can change things through rituals. Of course one can say that a thing changes
if the meaning changes, but that would mean that magic is just practical psychology and not magical anymore. 

Erik

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