[MD] social engagement

[Carl Thames]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "MarshaV" <valkyr at att.net>
To: "MoQ" <moq_discuss at moqtalk.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 4:58 AM
Subject: Re: [MD] social engagement


>
> Greetings Mark and all,
>
> I would like to say a few more words about this lecture because I want 
> everyone to watch it for some important MoQ reasons.  In this talk, David 
> Loy traces the intellectual concern for social justice, and the 
> understanding that humans can restructure society to make it better, back 
> to the Greeks, and makes it a fundamental of the West intellectual 
> point-of-view.  He suggests that before that society was understood to be 
> "the nature of things".  Loy seems to point to a clear division between 
> the social level and the intellectual level which does not include "the 
> East."  I think the talk offers import considerations when defining the 
> intellectual level and differentiating it from the social level, and also 
> offers some strongly worded flaws in its development.
>
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1e7Zysfkj0
>
>
> Marsha

I watched the first half of this which includes the synopsis of what you 
wrote above.  Thank you for posting this.  I see the fundamental problem 
being that the west sees the world through the scientific lenses you 
describe, and tries to make sense of "the nature of things."  Put another 
way, that reduces everything to a thing.  (The nature of THINGS)  That's a 
basic difference.  By definition, every THING is seperate.  Buddha tried to 
eliminate that distinction by pointing out that we're all connected, and 
that it's all one THING.  That realization does happen at the intuitive 
level, not the social or intellectual level.

> ------------- 
>
>
> Hi Mark,
>
>
> I think the title is self explanatory.  Rather than offer a synopsis, 
> David Loy presented a bit of a quote by Gary Snyder written sixty years 
> ago:
>
> "The mercy of the West has been social revolution; the mercy of the East 
> has been individual insight into the basic self/void. We need both. They 
> are both contained in the traditional three aspects of the Dharma path: 
> wisdom (prajna), meditation (dhyana), and morality (sila). Wisdom is 
> intuitive knowledge of the mind of love and clarity that lies beneath one’s 
> ego-driven anxieties and aggressions. Meditation is going into the mind to 
> see this for yourself — over and over again, until it becomes the mind you 
> live in. Morality is bringing it back out in the way you live, through 
> personal example and responsible action, ultimately toward the true 
> community of “all beings.”"
>
>
> Marsha

I left this in because I think it should be repeated.  Then, it should be 
repeated again, until we learn it.

Carl