comparative religion
Is energy the true currency?: Energy spiritualists
The oldest curriculum The Vedic tradition calls it prana — the breath that animates all living things. The Chinese call it qi — the vital force flowing through body and world. The Lakota call it wakan — the sacred power pervading nature.... What makes learning about the ultimate easier in the modern era, and what makes it harder?: Integralists
The spectrum In 1977, Ken Wilber proposed something either outrageously presumptuous or quietly obvious: the world’s wisdom traditions are not in contradiction. They are describing different stages of the same developmental sequence.... What makes learning about the ultimate easier in the modern era, and what makes it harder?: Perennial philosophy
The same mountain In 1945, Aldous Huxley assembled what the mystics had been saying for three thousand years in different languages: the Sufi and the Vedantin and the Christian contemplative and the Zen practitioner are describing the same territory. The vocabularies differ.... What makes learning about the ultimate easier in the modern era, and what makes it harder?: The Story
Ten thousand people in silence In 2003, a Burmese meditation teacher named S. N. Goenka filled Madison Square Garden with ten thousand people sitting in silence. Most had found their way there through a website.... What is consciousness?: Contemplatives
The fish asks about water There is an ancient story. A fish swims to an older fish and asks, "What is this thing called water?" The older fish says, "You were born in it, live in it, will die in it. You are looking for the one thing you cannot lose." That is the entire debate.... "Our" culture has fetishized Buddhism in a way that over-represents its goodness. Here’s what I believe is a cultural observation:
The buddhism that landed in the
West
has mostly been interpreted through a Green or higher lens (occasionally Orange like Sam Harris), so people thinkBuddhism
is (1) itself green and (2) a coherent concept (rather than a wide and branching set of interrelated and sometimes contradictory religions, lineages, philosophies, cultural beliefs, etc). People say things likeBuddhism is a philosophy, not a religion
for example, orbuddhism has more transformative practices
oris more mystical.
Often they’re comparing it to Christianity. I think this is mistaken; I think they’re the same, but most of the
Christianity
in the West is interpreted through an Amber or lower lens, because that’s what’s most available in our own culture. This would be true of the vast majority of the Buddhism in Thailand and other places where it’s commonplace. Mostly Buddhists in countries where it’s the majority religion (equivalent of Christianity) are worshipping statues or getting a meal and an education, not contemplating Nagarjuna and nonduality. All the critiques people throw at so-called Christianity are actually critiques of lower levels of development, and all of the praise people throw at so-called Buddhism is actually praise of higher levels of development. In other words, unsurprisingly, I’m claiming that all the criticism and praise is projection and not inherently in the religions themselves. This leads me to an almost-prediction: I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing Orange and Green and Teal interpretations of Christianity in Asia and the Middle East, where it’sforeign.
I want to say more about Christianity at higher levels, and I want to say more about why I think this noticing matters, but I’ll save that so I can go ahead and post before 3p central.
Jordan observes that Western interpretations of Buddhism often project it as a higher-level, coherent philosophy as opposed to a diverse set of traditions, contrasting this with Christianity in the West, which tends to be seen through a more traditional lens.... "Our" culture has fetishized Buddhism in a way that over-represents its goodness.
Here’s what I believe is a cultural observation: The buddhism that landed in the "West" has mostly been interpreted through a Green or higher lens (occasionally Orange like Sam Harris), so people think "Buddhism" is (1) itself green and (2) a coherent concept (rather than a wide... Can we handle the truth? If UpTrust works the way it’s intended, it will make truth more accessible. But what percentage of the population currently has the capacity to face truth?
Perhaps alongside truth, the tech will make the skills for being with the truth more accessible too. And avoidance will come in for the assist when needed?
In this case I’m referencing truth that arises by quantity of overlapping consensus. From what I recall, one of the ways Ken Wilber sussed out the AQUAL map was taking every wisdom, philosophy, religion, theory, etc that he could find, and the more of those that a concept was...