[MD] Buddhism's s/o

[Mary]

Hi John,

> Hi Mary,
> 
> 
> >
> > Beliefs are static and difficult to overcome - so be careful what you
> > choose
> > to convince your children of.
> >
> >
> 
> 
> Careful indeed, Mary.  Weight is also difficult to lift, but muscle
> needs
> resistance in order to develop.  I was asking a question about the
> value of
> mental development from resisting the dogma that religion puts on your
> "barbells".
> 
[Mary Replies] 
I know that, John, which is why I see more value in not having to overcome
limiting beliefs.  If you start out with shackles on it's really hard to
make progress in the journey.  Since we have a limited amount of time,
wouldn't it be better to start out with comfortable walking shoes instead?
You might get farther down the road.  Or are you implying that my
open-minded upbringing makes me mentally inferior to your herculean efforts
to overcome childhood indoctrination? 

> So the fact that we hand our children all our hard-earned insight on a
> plattitudinal platter, I reckon is akin to bringing them into a world
> where
> they don't have to strive for anything.  Water comes from a tap, food
> from
> McDonalds, ideas from tv.  Give me about one more generation of this
> and I
> predict humans too flabby to think themselves out of whatever mess our
> rapidly collapsing economy devolves into.

[Mary Replies] 
It was really great back in the good old days when my Mother had to pick
cotton every fall just to pay for her school shoes.  That built character,
and taught her that she didn't like picking cotton. 

You give people far too much credit.  The greatest struggles of life are the
internal ones.  It is entirely possible to know something intellectually but
yet not believe it.  Everyone does it all the time.  Until a concept is
internalized it remains outside oneself.  

You are also mixing your metaphors.  Either you wish to discuss the relative
merits of conveying your belief system and your hard-earned insights to your
children, or you wish to lament the appearance of McDonald's in your
neighborhood.

> 
> But hey, that's cool.  I mean the important thing is that there be no
> real
> conflicts in belief, that we're all equally "special" and the personal
> rush
> of liberation we experience in our proudly won atheism is kept as our
> uppermost value.
> 
> Because in the end, it's not about the effects of my thinking on
> society or
> my children or the future, is it?  It's all about how it makes me feel
> in
> the moment, right?  Nothing else matters to  the nihilistic pleasure-
> seekers
> of the me generation.
> 

[Mary Replies] 
If you say so.  You do realize you don't want to believe what you just said?
Beliefs are high Quality static patterns of value.  They've served you well
so far, right?  And they don't like being trumped by even higher Quality
patterns.  That's kind of what Static is all about.

> I know, I'm starting to sound like Rigel.
> 
[Mary Replies] 
In moments of stress people often blurt out what they really believe.
That's what's so handy about our beliefs.  They're automatic.  

There's always more internal heavy lifting to be done.  The answers are
already within you.  I blurt out stuff I wish I hadn't said all the time,
and when I have the energy for it, I try to use that as a learning
experience.  Sometimes the beliefs are so static and buried so deep that we
aren't even aware of them.  Those are the sneaky ones.  The ones you aren't
even aware you have.  It takes some stressor to bring them out into the
light of day.  Before you knew you were carrying around any given belief you
couldn't do anything to change it.  You have to know you have it first.

The unexamined life is not worth living?  Nah, let's keep our lives on
auto-pilot and go to McDonald's!

Best,
Mary