[Buddha-l] Buddhists taking a stand against Islamaphobia

[curt steinmetz]

On 8/7/2012 4:37 PM, Dan Lusthaus wrote:
> The most compelling argument against the type of idealist closure Erik 
> recounts is to slap them -- hard -- in the face, repeatedly, until 
> they relent and admit there is a physical reality that impacts their 
> mental experience without being reduced to it exclusively. And while 
> they are considering whether to revise their position, one can ask 
> them between slaps: "If this is all in your head, why are you hitting 
> yourself?"


Although what Dan says here might sound harsh, it is precisely the 
teaching method recommended by Epictetus almost 2000 years ago:

"Do you grasp that you are awake? 'No,' he says, 'For I do not [grasp 
it], when in my
dreams I have the impression that I am awake.' Then this impression does 
not differ from
that? 'Not at all.' Do I argue with him any further? And what fire or 
iron do I use on
him, so that he perceives that he is deadened? Although he perceives, he 
makes as if he
does not; he is worse off than a corpse. This one does not see the 
conflict: he is badly off.
That one sees it but is not moved and does not make progress: he is 
still more wretched.
His sense of shame and modesty has been cut off, and his reason has not 
been cut off, but
brutalized."
Epictetus, Discourses, 1.5 ("Against the Academic Sceptics")

Curt