[MD] Moral Responsibility without free will

[MarshaV]

Ron,

Just  to be clear, here are the three RMP quotes I posted under three separate headings:  on freedom, on an ethical code and on morality.  
 
 
Marsha
 

On Aug 13, 2011, at 10:31 AM, MarshaV wrote:   

Hi Ron,

What I actually presented to dmb, which he chose to ignore, was the following:



*** ON FREEDOM:

"To the extent that one's behavior is controlled by static patterns of quality it is without choice.  But to the extent that one follows Dynamic Quality, which is undefinable, one's behavior is free."   -  (RMP,LILA: Chapter 12)


*** ON AN ETHICAL CODE:

"Dharma, like rta, means 'what holds together.' It is the basis of all order. It equals righteousness. It is the ethical code. It is the stable condition which gives man perfect satisfaction.

"Dharma is duty. It is not external duty which is arbitrarily imposed by others.  It is not any artificial set of conventions which can be amended or repealed by legislation. Neither is it internal duty which is arbitrarily decided by one's own conscience. Dharma is beyond all questions of what is internal and what is external. Dharma is Quality itself, the principle of 'rightness' which gives structure and purpose to the evolution of all life and to the evolving understanding of the universe which life has created."  -   (RMP, LILA: Chapter 30)


*** ON MORAITY: 


"... The funny thing was that when she said he was trying to kill her, that was insane - but it wasn't entirely incorrect. He was trying to kill her - not the biological Lila, but the static patterns that were really going to kill her if she didn't let go.

"From the static point of view the whole escape into Dynamic Quality seems like a death experience. It's a movement from something to nothing. How can 'nothing' be any different from death? Since a Dynamic understanding doesn't make the static distinctions necessary to answer that question, the question goes unanswered. All the Buddha could say was, 'See for yourself.'

"When early Western investigators first read the Buddhist texts they too interpreted nirvana as some kind of suicide. There's a famous poem that goes:

	While living,
	Be a dead man.
	Be completely dead,
	And then do as you please.
	And all will be well.

"It sounds like something from a Hollywood horror-film but it's about nirvana. The Metaphysics of Quality translates it:

	While sustaining biological and social patterns
	Kill all intellectual patterns.
	Kill them completely
	And then follow Dynamic Quality
	And morality will be served.
...

"The Metaphysics of Quality translated karma as 'evolutionary garbage.' That's why it sounded so funny as the name of a boat. It seemed to suggest she had arrived in Kingston on a garbage scow. Karma is the pain, the suffering that results from clinging to the static patterns of the world. The only exit from the suffering is to detach yourself from these static patterns, that is, to 'kill' them."  -  (RMP, LILA: Chapter 32)




 
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