I don’t think Chapman would disagree with this. According to the “yanas” page Buddhism-at-large in some sense allows several fundamentally contradictory worldviews without a firm commitment to an overarching cosmology. The free version of Claude says that this framework is pretty much standard Tibetan Buddhism.
Your Claude link doesn’t work for me, I think you haven’t remembered to share it (or at least that’s not the share URL).
If he agrees that it’s a practice rather than a part of the sutta worldview, then I think it’s pretty misleading to have a table that has these kinds of rows:
Your Claude link doesn’t work for me, I think you haven’t remembered to share it (or at least that’s not the share URL).
Sorry, should be fixed now.
If he agrees that it’s a practice rather than a part of the sutta worldview, then I think it’s pretty misleading to have a table that has these kinds of rows:
AIUI his point is that the worldview and practice are supposed to be a congruent package. Since renunciation is the fundamental principle of Sutra, the practitioner should occupy a state of mind where it makes sense to renounce undesirable stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised that various traditional Sutra schools significantly differ in their presentation, and agree that it’s misleading to imply homogeneity.
Sure, but my point is that renunciation with a world-hating vibe and renunciation with a world-loving vibe are very different! It’s “I will let go of pleasures that don’t serve me or the world because I’m in deep love with the world and its people and want to be a better vessel for universal love” versus “the world and everything in it sucks, ideally I’d commit suicide but my religion says that’s bad so instead I’ll go sit in a monastery to meditate for the rest of my existence”, and Chapman’s presentation strongly implies that all sutra would be the latter kind.
If he just said that “sutra is about renunciation” without trying to imply that sutric practice also has to be fundamentally anti-life and anti-pleasure, then that I wouldn’t object to.
I don’t think Chapman would disagree with this. According to the “yanas” page Buddhism-at-large in some sense allows several fundamentally contradictory worldviews without a firm commitment to an overarching cosmology. The free version of Claude says that this framework is pretty much standard Tibetan Buddhism.
Your Claude link doesn’t work for me, I think you haven’t remembered to share it (or at least that’s not the share URL).
If he agrees that it’s a practice rather than a part of the sutta worldview, then I think it’s pretty misleading to have a table that has these kinds of rows:
Sutta
Tantra
Pleasure
Bad; a fetter to be avoided
Good; a delight to be enjoyed
The body
Source of mental defilements; repulsive rotting sack of shit; to be subjugated
Source of delight; indispensible for compassionate action; to be celebrated
Sorry, should be fixed now.
AIUI his point is that the worldview and practice are supposed to be a congruent package. Since renunciation is the fundamental principle of Sutra, the practitioner should occupy a state of mind where it makes sense to renounce undesirable stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised that various traditional Sutra schools significantly differ in their presentation, and agree that it’s misleading to imply homogeneity.
Sure, but my point is that renunciation with a world-hating vibe and renunciation with a world-loving vibe are very different! It’s “I will let go of pleasures that don’t serve me or the world because I’m in deep love with the world and its people and want to be a better vessel for universal love” versus “the world and everything in it sucks, ideally I’d commit suicide but my religion says that’s bad so instead I’ll go sit in a monastery to meditate for the rest of my existence”, and Chapman’s presentation strongly implies that all sutra would be the latter kind.
If he just said that “sutra is about renunciation” without trying to imply that sutric practice also has to be fundamentally anti-life and anti-pleasure, then that I wouldn’t object to.