Re: virus: Free thought and control

Marie Foster (mfos@ieway.com)
Fri, 17 Oct 1997 15:02:58 -0700


Robin Faichney wrote:

snip

Just a bit of Marie

> > Before the bb *nothing* existed. No time. No space. No matter.
> >

Robin who got the joke...

> I like it! :-)
>
Robin continues

> If you're interested in the equivalent in experiential, as
> opposed to intellectual terms, Buddhism may be for
> you. Its endpoint is sometimes characterised as "The
> Void". On the other hand, I've also seen it described
> as "neither something nor nothing", or words to that
> effect.
>
> And, despite my division between intellectual and
> experiential, I do believe there's an important
> connection between these -- more, in fact, I think
> the nothing you're talking about, and the endpoint
> of Buddhism, are the same, if seen from different
> points of view.
>
> Fascinating stuff, though, eh? :-)
>
> Robin

My Buddha spirit agrees. Someone on the list said that Buddhism is a
philosophy rather than a religion. I did not comment then, but I will
now. I just consulted with WWWebster and got the following quote "a
religion of eastern and central Asia growing out of the teaching of
Gautama Buddha that suffering is inherent in life and that one can be
liberated from it by mental and moral self-purification"

While I disagree with the definition, I believe that dictionaries do
capture the majority understanding of a word. Not that numbers matter
either. I have practiced Buddhism for quite a few years and I
personally consider it a very good religion. Not that my opinion
matters either :0)

Marie