[MD] Buddhism's s/o

[Mary]

Hi Marsha,

At various times people here have said that the Intellectual Level cannot be
"just SOM" because that would exclude Eastern intellectual patterns.  I've
asked which patterns, but never got a list.  It's so refreshing to hear you
come forward with the idea that Buddha was using the same logic we employ to
think through the problems of the human condition.  When you start thinking
about this argument that the East doesn't use SOM, and you start dissecting
it -  why do they think that, then why do they think "that" all the way
down, a couple of things come to mind.

Either (like me) many people don't know much about the East and so subscribe
to a lot of vague ideas about what people must think about over there, or
there's a subtle form of racism at work.  You know, they're "other" and
"foreign" so they must think differently than we do.  Kind of silly.  

Mary

MarshaV
> Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 3:13 PM
 
> To recap why I think Buddhism cannot be used as an exception to
> the Intellectual Level being SOM, I offer these to quotes that indicate
> that Buddhism used logic and the scientific method for an objective
> study of 'Mind'.
> 
> 
> "... So at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the Buddha's
> path,
> observation plays an extremely important role.  This is similar to the
> role that
> objective observation plays in the scientific tradition which teaches
> that when
> we observe a problem we first formulate a general theory followed by
> specific
> hypothesis. We find the same thing happening in the teaching of the
> Four
> Noble Truths and here the general theory is that all things have a
> cause,
> and the specific hypothesis is that the causes of suffering are craving
> and
> ignorance."
> 
> "   Experience in Buddhism is comprised of two components - the
> objective
> component and the subjective component.  In other works, the things
> around
> us and we the perceivers.  Buddhism is noted for its analytical method
> in the
> area of philosophy and psychology.  What we mean by this is that the
> Buddha
> analyzes experience into various elements, the most basic of these
> being the
> five Skandhas or aggregates - form, feeling, perception, mental
> formation or
> volition and consciousness.   The five aggregates in turn can be
> analyzed
> into the eighteen elements (Dhatus) and we have a still more elaborate
> analysis in terms of seventy two elements.  This method is analytical
> as it breaks up things.  We are not satisfied with a vague notion of
> experience,
> but we analyze it, we probe it, we break it down into its component
> parts like
> we break down the chariot into the wheels, the axle and so on.  And we
> do
> this in order to get an idea how things work. When we see for instance
> a
> flower, or hear a piece of music, or meet a friend, all these
> experiences
> arise as a result of components.  This is what is called the analytical
> approach.
> And again this analytical approach is not at all strange to modern
> science and
> philosophy."
> 
> 
>    (Peter D. Santina, 'Fundamentals of Buddhism',BAUS)
> 
> ___
> 
> 
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