[Buddha-l] Conditioned Mind?

[Richard Hayes]

On Jul 6, 2010, at 8:42 PM, R B Basham wrote:

> Interesting read (appended) may be meaningful to some buddha-lers. It
> has me reconsidering whether 'bold-ness' is the reaction or as suggested
> is a pre-condition. In any case, one is confronted with the
> 'dynamic' (conditioned mind??) frequently nowadays.

The gay Chinese Canadian author Wayson Choi has a notion of what he calls "toxic certainty," which manifests as religious extremism, fundamentalism, particularism, patriotism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia and so forth. What he calls toxic certainty is, of course, an overcompensation for insecurity and fear and a projection onto others of one's own willingness to be dangerous to those who feel alien.

Here on buddha-l, we're all aliens.

Richard