[Buddha-l] Fsat Mnifdlunses?

[Dayamati]

On Aug 14, 2009, at 2:06 PM, Dan Lusthaus wrote:

> These are fun (or annoying) games to play -- amusing ways to dawdle.  
> But
> eventually one has to reach a ni"scaya and move on. Or else one  
> doesn't move
> on.

There is nothing in the world that I regard as more potentially  
dangerous than niścaya, that psychological state of certainty that  
one's convictions are not merely the effects of one's very limited and  
narrow condition, but some Truth that others must accept if they are  
to move on. It is niścaya that makes it impossible for one to move on,  
not the lack of it. Or so my experience leads me to believe.

>> In
>> the final analysis, I don't think it matters in the slightest.
>
> Here we completely disagree. But since you are not ceding my point,  
> I guess
> it does matter to you after all.

Not if you pay close attention to the antecedent of "it", which is in  
the sentence that you deleted so as to quote me out of context. I have  
never said or implied that nothing matters to me. What I did say was  
that it does not matter to me whether the early Buddhists did or did  
not deny a self. I would add that it does not matter to me whether or  
not there is a self to argue about. There is no point to cede here. My  
statement was simply a statement about myself, not a claim to anything  
beyond my own observations of my own tastes.

By the way, Dan, have you and your analyst ever worked through why it  
is so important to you to have people cede your point and why you find  
it so difficult ever to admit there may be some legitimacy to  
positions other than your own? I think it may be about time for you to  
stop reading Buddhist texts and take up a new hobby. Ever considered  
growing carrots?

Dayāmati
rhayes at unm.edu