I can’t claim to be a Buddhist or particularly familiar with any specific traditions or doctrines within Buddhism, and I’m not really interested in Buddhism-qua-Buddhism, but I’m definitely interested in stealing the good parts in the name of doing-what-works-ism (and there do seem to be substantial good parts). If indeed there is such a mental state as enlightenment and it is as useful and important and worthwhile as some people think it is, then the steps toward attaining it should be distilled, systematized, and added to the standard x-rationality toolbox, no need to keep it attached to a religious tradition and taught using jargon and symbolism that may be obsolete, misleading, or just suboptimal.
For instance, Buddhism holds that there is no “self”, ultimately; however, it also holds that people are reincarnated… so what is it that is being reincarnated?
Some Buddhists have told me that their concept (known usually as “rebirth” rather than “reincarnation”) is not exactly what people usually think of as reincarnation, but I currently wouldn’t be able to describe what exactly they do mean by it. Though I recall that it struck me as something that would end up being only trivially true or false (depending on interpretation) anyway, even if it’s not “you die and your magical decision-making / qualia-experiencing / virtue-recording homunculus flies off into a newborn kitten’s body” reincarnation.
Of course it’ll contain inconsistencies and factual inaccuracies; perhaps the Buddha really did medidate really hard until something genuinely important clicked, but he was not a scientist and no external empirical information suddenly appeared in his brain at that moment, so I’d mostly ignore anything Buddhism says about the external nature of reality; we can generally expect it to be more insightful about what it says about the proper use of one’s mind, since that’s something that we can get information about just by thinking and noticing the right things (and then testing, of course). Indeed, a lot of Buddhism’s actual insights seem to be about dissolving cognitive illusions (or, at least, that’s the best interpretation I can put on what I’ve heard about it; I wonder if a person claiming to be enlightened could tell you how the self is an illusion (that is, what algorithm feels like a self from the inside), or if all they can do is profess that the self is an illusion).
I can’t claim to be a Buddhist or particularly familiar with any specific traditions or doctrines within Buddhism, and I’m not really interested in Buddhism-qua-Buddhism, but I’m definitely interested in stealing the good parts in the name of doing-what-works-ism (and there do seem to be substantial good parts). If indeed there is such a mental state as enlightenment and it is as useful and important and worthwhile as some people think it is, then the steps toward attaining it should be distilled, systematized, and added to the standard x-rationality toolbox, no need to keep it attached to a religious tradition and taught using jargon and symbolism that may be obsolete, misleading, or just suboptimal.
I’m currently checking out Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, which takes a generally secular and practical approach.
Some Buddhists have told me that their concept (known usually as “rebirth” rather than “reincarnation”) is not exactly what people usually think of as reincarnation, but I currently wouldn’t be able to describe what exactly they do mean by it. Though I recall that it struck me as something that would end up being only trivially true or false (depending on interpretation) anyway, even if it’s not “you die and your magical decision-making / qualia-experiencing / virtue-recording homunculus flies off into a newborn kitten’s body” reincarnation.
Of course it’ll contain inconsistencies and factual inaccuracies; perhaps the Buddha really did medidate really hard until something genuinely important clicked, but he was not a scientist and no external empirical information suddenly appeared in his brain at that moment, so I’d mostly ignore anything Buddhism says about the external nature of reality; we can generally expect it to be more insightful about what it says about the proper use of one’s mind, since that’s something that we can get information about just by thinking and noticing the right things (and then testing, of course). Indeed, a lot of Buddhism’s actual insights seem to be about dissolving cognitive illusions (or, at least, that’s the best interpretation I can put on what I’ve heard about it; I wonder if a person claiming to be enlightened could tell you how the self is an illusion (that is, what algorithm feels like a self from the inside), or if all they can do is profess that the self is an illusion).