[Buddha-l] Enlightenment vs The Enlightenment

[jkirk]

How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World : a Short History of Modern
Delusions---sounds like a worthwhile book.

Jayarava:
"In these increasingly barbaric and superstitious times I think
Buddhists (Buddhist intellectuals anyway) will have to find some
way of incorporating the spirit of the Enlightenment into our
practice. Otherwise we run the risk of following the general
trend towards unreason and "obscurantist bunkum"." 

How could we have any quarrel with this?  Of course, one person's
bunkum might be another person's truth (or Truth--however, the
lower case item is less dogmatic). One reason why it often all
seems so iffy, even when we who think we are being reasonable
find others to be unreasonable. When I first got on this list, I
was all ready to start talking about mumbo jumbo, but quickly
realised that it wouldn't be skillful, considering the many
different views of folks on the list. One can still attack the
mumbo jumbo of politicians, deconstructionists and "spirituals"
of various sorts (always of course remembering to relate it to
the main topic of the list), but even doing that has provoked in
the past some sharp protest. 

Joanna