Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

   Post 110.  09/06/2020 continued . . .

  Why Buddhism is Enlightening

   Paradoxes and Perplexities

 There is some scientific evidence that various forms of intro-spective exercises can lead to a positive change in emotional problems. But the Buddha took a paradoxical approach to changing the mind, by denying even the “Self” that is exper-iencing the suffering. This makes no sense to most people, who either instinctively, or by childhood indoctrination, “know” that the Self or Soul exists, and is the conscious experiencer of inner feelings and thoughts. Wright covers that perplexing subject in some detail, so I won’t dwell on the Buddhist concept of No-Self. Except to say that it is compatible with my own definition of Self/Soul5 in the Enformationism thesis. That persona or self-image is not so much a delusion, but an imaginary, yet useful, self-referencing concept conjured by the brain to represent the organism’s perspective in the natural world.

More important in this context is the notion that people are slaves of their inner feelings, as Hume asserted. Our basic emotions are indeed programmed into our genes, as a guide to survival in a primitive environment. But as human culture began to modify the natural environment to suit our personal “selfish” preferences, those prompts & urges sometimes became an impediment instead of a life-saver. Wright goes so far as to say, “our feelings weren’t designed to depict reality accurately”. He even referred to Feelings as “natural illusions”7. Then he notes “the fact that we’re not living in a ‘natural’ environment”. And finally, he sums-up the human dilemma : “underlying it all is the happiness delusion . . . The hedonic treadmill”. His dispar-agements of warm Feelings may offend those who prefer to trust their “gut”, rather than turn to “un-natural” cold Reason for advice. Yet, he later insisted that, “there’s a sense in which our feeings deserve even more mistrust than I’ve suggested so far”8. Feelings may include emotional suffering.

However, he also cautions temperance in your expectations of “Enlightenment”. Some Buddhists make extravagant claims of “bliss”, “nirvana”, & psychic powers, that Wright thinks may be beyond the reach of the average westerner, and perhaps beyond even ascetic monks on mountaintops. Instead, like Morpheus, he simply offers Mindfulness Meditation as a “path to liberation from the Matrix”. Some may not have the will or stamina to stay on the path long enough to reach the moun-taintop. Moreover, he likens Nirvana to “what mathematicians call an asymptote : something you can get closer and closer to but never quite reach”. One primary obstacle to achieving nirvana is, “that I – that is, my ‘self’, the thing I had thought was in control – don’t readily control the most fundamental aspect of my mental life : what I’m thinking about.” This is where the Buddha’s paradoxical concept of “no Self” comes in handy as a reminder that we have little control over our urges9.

Some other ironic teachings of the Buddha include No-Self, Non-being, Emptiness, and Formlessness. But Wright presents a modern philosophical and psychological explanation that may help to make such perplexing notions more amenable to Western thinkers. Yet, none is more strange to self-assertive Americans than the idea of Disengagement as a means to take control of your life. That simply means to back-off from your normal hands-on immersive emotional approach to life — to rise above the fray, and take an objective perspective of your own body & mind — to “flip the script”.

                   Post 110 continued . . . click Next

Paradox

Or

Delusion?

Flip the Script
  To reverse the usual or existing positions in a situation; do something unexpected or revolutionary.

5. The Illusion of Self :
  http://www.bothandblog.enformationism.info/page66.html

6. Basic Emotions :
   There are four kinds of basic emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, and anger, which are differentially associated with three core affects: reward (happiness), punishment (sadness), and stress (fear and anger).

7. Natural Illusions :
   See note 4

8. Intuition vs Reason :
   Feelings, Emotions, & Intuitions are motives. But in modern environments they may motivate inappropriate behavior because the context may be different from that of early evolution. That’s where more highly-evolved Reason is appropriate – to override our baser motives, such as impulsive anger.

9. Self-control :
   Alcoholics Anonymous members must admit their lack of self-control, and use slogans as reminders : “let go and let god”, or “progress not perfection”.
https://www.amethystrecovery.org/10-aa-slogans-deeper-meanings/

Why Buddhism is True
The Science and Philosophy of Mediation and Enlightenment

Robert Wright
Journalist, Philosopher

“Buddhism’s diagnosis of the human predicament is fundamentally correct and that its prescription is deeply valid and urgently important”

We speak not strictly and philosophically when we talk of the combat of passion and of reason. Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.

David Hume
A Treatise of Human Nature

Nirvana
(in Buddhism) a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth. It represents the final goal of Buddhism.

If you don’t like paradox, maybe Eastern philosophy is not for you. . . . . neither is
quantum physics.
___Robert Wright