Thinking about thought and Buddhism

[karabean]

I'm reading the Dalai Lama's book "Kindness, Clarity, and Insight" off and on - I'm about 1/5th of the way in. It's a collection of his lectures and speeches explaining the outlines of Buddhism and how to understand the concepts within it. I have a lot of respect for the Dalai Lama. There are very few people in the world who have had such an

Comments

[lordavon]

Anyways, back on topic, I've never heard of anyone else able to discuss deep philosphical matters, religious matters, public management and governance matters, _and_ attend seminars on things like quantum physics and ask questions of the experts that gave them a run for their money. I don't know how people do these things. Where do they get the time, the insight, the sheer memory power to retain the concepts and vocabulary?

Well, in the Dalai Lama's case, he can do it because he has no job and spends all his time in contemplation and learning.

[karabean]

I always thought that if I had no job and support, then I could study all these things. But when I have time off from work, I just end up goofing off and ignoring all this intellectual stuff I have waiting for me to review it. I think the Dalai Lama has way more discipline than I ever will.

[retsuko]

I'm fairly sure the Dalai Lama and the Pope spent a little time together--the Dalai Lama is all about reaching out to other religions, preaching unity and kindness. What they said to one another would be very interesting, I suspect. ^_^;;

I agree with you about the tenets of Buddhism--I have trouble with the idea that material desire being the root of all evil, because look at what material desire has done for people: given them ambition and drive, produced beautiful works of art, music, and literature... (and yes, countless wars and greed. I know, I know.) OTOH, I really like the introspective nature of its teachings.

[karabean]

It is a fascinating subject, isn't it? I'm looking into things like meditation, and they seem to have such a great body of learning to use with that discipline.

I agree, desire can't be the root of all evil. For example, if you don't get hungry, you don't eat and then you die! I think it's too simplistic in some ways, and you kind of have to bend the idea of the "source" of your desires around to actually fit what is happening, you really have to work at it to make it work, kind of like that "23" movie, where if you keep pushing things around sooner or later it will give the message you want.