Best Of

Doing some reflecting (inspired by Rixh's post "How to practise"), I think beings are in-part made of a unique identifying mixture of kusala(wholesome) and akusala(unwholesome) causes and conditions giving rise to an identity or ego. Determining the way out of samsara often takes different early forms for different beings due in part to this mixture. A simple example could be relating to role-models. Why one person listens to one role-model and not another is often because of relateability. If two beings look for escape from samsara they may have different role-models which they will be more or less attentive to due to likes and dislikes. Having a number of role-models reflecting different mixtures presents opportunity for the being to find the one they identify with best and follow until they can seat themselves on the way. (The sutta where monks go from one teacher to another until they find the one that speaks the message in a way which is right for that group.)

As beings in-part made up of kusala and akusala causes and conditions, volitions are also a mix of kusala and akusala when aggregates are still clung to as an identity. If such a being were to look for escape from samsara, what originates from them would also be a mixture, and a changing one at that as attempts to understand lead to change. It's my current theory that searching for progress along the way causes volitions which provide great opportunity when angle of volition meets angle of reflection in a relatable way such as a multifaceted gem reflects the sun into your eyes(or doesn't) as all the components move around in space.

It makes sense to me, but a lot of things make sense to me that sometimes don't make sense.
Is this view worth examining further? If it is, are any of you examining it? If so, in what ways? Thoughts welcome.

Not clinging

We are all interconnected although we perceive separateness.
Science and religion should be compatible. However, too many persons, especially derived from the Abrahamic traditions, treat science as conflicting with or hostile to their interpretation on religion.
Buddhism and science are, in general, compatible. Even the Buddhist schools that have beliefs at variance with science accept the variances as merely the realm of religion vs the realm of science and continue to embrace both.
(Of course, there are the rare exceptions, but they do not carry the weight of the anti-science movements we see in our Western cultures, especially in the USA.)

Peace to all

Telepathic induction is unavoidable so long as there is a being that feels and senses.
We speak to each other here on topics now but we speak from the entire accumulation of our past. We are each other's brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, friends, and enemies.

A statement can be taken in a hundred ways. How is the way in which it was intended deduced?

Whether or not it's so, we are not in a closed ecosystem from each other. In fact we are tightly packed in here and every volition from every source reverberates against others, causes others, and proliferates. We each have the opportunity to enhance or diminish those reverberations and bring rise to or cease our own. Wisdom is in knowing what to do with which.

I do not cling to science, although I appreciate and trust science in the realms of scientific purview. Engineering is the application of a part of science. Engineers applied the concepts arising from science. Science led to all our modern appliances, our medical advances and our understanding of the physical universe as we know it today.
But, i the end, science is a tool or a set of tools, not an ideology.
The purpose of religion is to enhance the quality of life from the non-physical, the spiritual side of life. Religion is supposed to provide a moral guideline, a compass to traverse the vicissitudes of life and enable us to enjoy and gain meaning within our lives.
so, when there is a contradiction between science, it is not science challenging or contradicting religion. It is rather certain religious dogma not accepting the findings science.
It was once, and in some instances, still is, the religious belief that diseases and illnesses were caused by demons and evil spirits. As the understanding of medical science improved, we now know that those demons and evil spirits are bacteria and viruses. We now have vaccines and medicines to counter these "demons and evil spirits".

It is odd that today, so many deny science while using the products of science and the engineering derived from that science to make those denials.

No, I do not cling to science. I do accept the benefits and shortcomings of science. I do accept that the truths of science and that while some truths, in our mundane world, are fact (gravity as applied to daily life, for instance), a great many will and should be constantly challenged for the sake of expanding our knowledge and understanding of the world we live in to better our physical and physiological well being just as we must continue to question and seek our spiritual growth as we are, by nature, seeker after knowledge and truths both in the scientific and the religious realms.

enough stirring of the mud for now.

Peace to all