Yes.
To complicate matters, the quality of truth is universal and is non-negotiable. Truth either is or isn't, there are no grey areas. It's like pregnancy, either you is or your ain't, you can be a little bit ...
But the 'facts' we describe as 'true' are themselves contingent, so true now, but tomorrow?
Depends whether one seeks the highest ruth, or my highest truth?
I'd like to say yes, but obviously the answer is no ...
Interesting ... can't speak for Buddhism, but I wonder if folk traditions 'mature' towards a central point? Is that because of an emerging patriarchy, or because of natural hierarchy? I've always struggle with polytheism because you can't have two absolutes, two infinities, etc., without some over-arching element?
Folk religion considered in the way of the Greek philosophical tradition?
Just wonderin' ...
I tend to see evolution more than a singular striving towards a distant goal (an hypothesis, like 'progress', that was put forward by privileged white men) as the play of 'interdependent duties or causalities' (a theory posed by Lynn Margulis, pioneering evolutionary theorist, co-developer of the Gaia Hypothesis)
Buddhism is a collection of teachings and practices revolving around the problem of suffering, and of course various folk traditions in its own right, wherever it took root. It explicitly does not contain a creation account of universal origins, rather, one of the tenets in early Buddhism which were carried on into later schools as far as I know, is that universal origins are unfathomable. Philosophically, Buddhism is concerned with understanding the origins not of the universe, but of suffering, and one of the central teachings regarding this subject ("Dependent Origination") can be summed up colloquially "if you start out from ignorance, you end up suffering".
Buddhism nowadays is of course thoroughly patriarchal and hierarchical, in spite of its origins among the homeless, religiously non-aligned and experimental drop-outs of ancient Indian society.
Folk traditions tend to be concerned with mundane stuff like staying in touch with the ancestors, getting help with life's challenges like finding a partner, feeding and sheltering a family, curing illnesses, and with celebrating a good party now and then, over the year and during one's lifetime. If they are centered on anything, then it is "the family", a collective, which, while a focus, is hardly a "central point" (judging by my own family).
In terms of ancient Greece, not the philosophers or the wandering ascetics, but rather the homemakers, buying properly ritually butchered meat, spilling libations to the local gods and spirits, visiting the local Asclepeion for help with a troublesome knee, joinging the annual procession and subsequent party, perhaps getting a little lead tablet with a spell or curse on it to boos business fortunes...
Gatekeeper
Shades of Reason
Yes and yes ... I guess it's a lot like what's perfect for me would be different than what's perfect for you. My highest truth would be more about each individual entity finding a place of greatness or happiness, mixed with some (if only slight) hardship to help spur more growth and to help motivate change and further development. Your's would be?
Gatekeeper
Shades of Reason
I actually think that's the answer ....
Can you explain? Are we doing it wrong? What's the matter with perception?
It may be like thinking I've reached the top of the hill, only to know the road still winds on upward?
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KnowSelf
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I alone am responsible for my spiritual relationship to and with God. No one controls me but me, although I may be influenced, only I control me.
No one can produce enlightenment in another person. You either get it or you don't. There are multitudes of what may be described as enlightenment and no one but you decides the nature of your enlightenment.
No one can produce enlightenment in another person. You either get it or you don't. There are multitudes of what may be described as enlightenment and no one but you decides the nature of your enlightenment.
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Only in nature @Cino. That is the natural view. Darkness is absolute. The centre of the earth is the deepest down possible. The devil is gravity, that drags all natural life down to death and to subduction and destruction in the fires of hell at the centre of the earth. But there are stars. And we look upward?
KnowSelf
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More times than not desperate people calls for desperate measures. When we come to a point in life by which we have nothing to lose we may be willing to consider different options in life, because our present way of living does not work. Thus the Epiphany of enlightenment and suddenly we get it. By the way, manipulative behavior such addiction does not go away unless the behavior is replaced such as spirituality.
I completely agree. Impractical to replace something with nothing. It may sound good in theory, but it doesn't work out at grassroots level, on the ground?
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And when we approach a star, upwards becomes downwards as its gravitational field draws us in.
Our personal devils should be known, acknowledged, not denied or ignored. To ignore them is to give them more opportunity to mess with us. Jesus called them by their name. The Buddha looked the demon of death and decay in the eye, saying, "I see you, Mara".
Look at all the gurus who got highly enlightened, yet when they left their ashrams and moved to western society, they got eaten by their shadow. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.
We need to own our darkness, perceive it, come to an understanding with it, otherwise we will act it out unwittingly.
They are so closely related, they are probably describing the same phenomenon, in physics.
In terms of enlightenment: It is customary in some circles to wait for a year and a day before forming conclusions about any epiphany. Relatively short for such a grave matter...
(edit: I am pleased the pun works the way it does. I did put some thought into my reply, this is what I got for it. Epiphanies are powerful stuff, in my experience, and they do weird things to the mind, not always obviously healing and cleansing)
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