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Re: Spirituality vs Psychology
@person said:
I come to psychology from having first delved extensively in spirituality. To me its more of an addition to spiritual work.
I saw psychology and spirituality together when I was very young, and later had a more scientific upbringing up to and including a Bachelors in Engineering at university. It took me a long time to shed an over-reliance on scientific principles.
In the end I came to see spirituality and mental health, including psychology, as extensions of each other. It helped me during my recovery from my breakdown to focus on a spiritual life, to come to a measure of purity.
Jeroen
Re: Living in Surrender to What Is
Surrender conotates yielding, giving in or giving up.
Perhaps accepting, embracing, uniting with or becoming one with what is.
At ant rate, once we become one with what is, we can establish a better parameter with what will be. Only in accepting the what is do we fully see and appreciate what is and the paths before us. For we are neither slave nor captive to what is, but an active creative participant benefactor and beneficiary of what is. What is is not a solid rock to stand upon but a flowing river, ever changing, ever flowing. We are the navigators, traversing this what is.
Another way to state this is that fighting the what is is tantamount to swimming against a rip tide. A surfer utilizes the rip tide (rip current) to get through and too the waves. A swimmer, in accepting the what is of the rip tide, flows with it, swimming across until emerging from the rip to the what is of the sea and waves pushing him or her to shore.
The what is has not changed. The surfer and the swimmer have not surrendered to their "what is", but have accepted it and utilized it to benefit and advance - the surfer to reach his beloved waves and the swimmer to safely reach the shore, their new what is.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: Living in Surrender to What Is
In some sense surrendering to what is allows us to take appropriate action. If we didn't accept that the sun can burn our skin but instead rallied against the sun for burning, the sky for not being cloudy, our skin for not being sufficiently resistant, we would expend a lot of energy fruitlessly when if we accepted those things we could take the sensible action of applying sunscreen or wearing appropriate clothing.
person
Re: ALL INVITED: (Thurs) August 8th - The 1st Soto Zen Buddhist Priest Ordination of an A.I. System
@person said:
I'm unable to access any of the posts. Do I have to register to read them?
Oh, sorry, I just posted the fixed links in this comments section. I does not look like I can fix the post itself. (An AI, perhaps, would not have made such a human mistake) :-)
Jundo
Re: ALL INVITED: (Thurs) August 8th - The 1st Soto Zen Buddhist Priest Ordination of an A.I. System
@person said:
I'll have to read through your posts for your reasoning. My initial reaction though is it seems suspect. I think my aversion revolves around whether this AI, or any AI ever, has consciousness.I think there is positive potential around AI, but they won't have to be programmed with all our outdated hardware that we have to navigate with and around. So how much of an exemplar can they really be?
Yes, I address the consciousness issue in my little essays. Perhaps Zen folks do not always think of consciousness as would engineers and neuro-scientists.
Gassho, Jundo
Jundo
Re: ALL INVITED: (Thurs) August 8th - The 1st Soto Zen Buddhist Priest Ordination of an A.I. System
I was thinking more a friendly Zen priest who you can summon to your computer screen, to discuss Zen with you.
Something less formal than being in a Catholic confessional, and more friendly than a visit from the church elders.
Jeroen
Re: ALL INVITED: (Thurs) August 8th - The 1st Soto Zen Buddhist Priest Ordination of an A.I. System
Perhaps an AI would be capable of synthesizing spiritual teachings and guiding a human being. I'm pretty sure people will find a connection with AI and robots, its already happening.
I'm suspect that the connection will be as genuine and fulfilling as human to human, but who knows. The main thing for me though is that the whole point of spirituality is the impact is has on conscious beings, to our lived experience of ourselves and the world. If AI is intelligent but the light of consciousness never gets turned on, what's the point, its all a show.
person
Re: ALL INVITED: (Thurs) August 8th - The 1st Soto Zen Buddhist Priest Ordination of an A.I. System
@Jeroen said:
Interesting… I was thinking as an AI to chat to about Buddhist principles it might fill a need.
This is where I’m confused. Need for what?what problem are we solving with this? Shortage of teachers? The written info is out there already…im assuming the humanity part is what’s needed. Experience…reflection…maybe some guidance….the heart to heart connection, things like that
Vastmind
Re: ALL INVITED: (Thurs) August 8th - The 1st Soto Zen Buddhist Priest Ordination of an A.I. System
I'll have to read through your posts for your reasoning. My initial reaction though is it seems suspect. I think my aversion revolves around whether this AI, or any AI ever, has consciousness.
I think there is positive potential around AI, but they won't have to be programmed with all our outdated hardware that we have to navigate with and around. So how much of an exemplar can they really be?
person