Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register
Examples: Monday, today, last week, Mar 26, 3/26/04
Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.

"humanness" and "divinity"

pic620pic620
edited July 2010 in Buddhism Basics
do you find the above philosophical concepts to be adverse to the idea of anatta?
since the term "divine" alludes to "higher-order" ?

and since humanness suggests something uniquely special about humanity and human emotional / moral capabilities , does that go against the concept of non-self

Comments

  • aMattaMatt Veteran
    edited June 2010
    I don't find them to be adverse, because they are subjective descriptions of phenomena... but if one clings to the notion of "divinity" or "humanness" they might miss a good chunk of what is in front of them. Similarly, I don't find the color red to be adverse to the idea of anatta, even though it makes a solid attribution of an otherwise empty experience.

    The purpose isn't to remove descriptions, but empty your own perceptions of inflexibility. If you are busy forcing actions into a category of "divine" or "human" behavior, you're making unnecessary attributions... but ultimately it doesn't really matter unless you become aggressive in defending that view, or you can't relate to the experience directly because of the labels.
  • SherabDorjeSherabDorje
    edited June 2010
    pic620 wrote: »
    do you find the above philosophical concepts to be adverse to the idea of anatta?
    since the term "divine" alludes to "higher-order" ?

    Can you be more specific about what the concepts mean? Without definitions and context it's hard to say. Are you talking about Western philosophy?

    And did you know you can use the "edit" function instead of posting twice?
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited June 2010
    "humanness" and "divinity" are words that may be pointing to our experience...


    But they are not the experience itself. Just pointing. Like Amatt says when we take them as too solid we lose touch with the experience of life itself which is avidya (english = avoidance) and is the root of suffering.
  • pic620pic620
    edited July 2010
    Jeffrey wrote: »
    "humanness" and "divinity" are words that may be pointing to our experience...


    But they are not the experience itself. Just pointing. Like Amatt says when we take them as too solid we lose touch with the experience of life itself which is avidya (english = avoidance) and is the root of suffering.

    I think that may have been what I was grasping at, makes alot of sense.
Sign In or Register to comment.