LOL, and once you make it, you realize ‘it’ was there all along and the journey was totally unnecessary. The bald head was unnecessary. The meditation was unnecessary. The fancy clothing was unnecessary. The Buddha was unnecessary. Your teacher was unnecessary. The books you read were unnecessary. Striving for enlightenment is to move away from enlightenment. You cannot let go of a rope while simultaneously attempting to pull yourself up.
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However, in order to climb a rope you must release the grip of one hand below the other, ascend upwards and repeat.
Getting to the top is a process of holding on to what you have learned while at the same time letting go of what you no longer need. At the top of the rope (at the top of the mountain) you let go of the rope entirely.
It is not easy for a run of the mill worldling to practice extreme letting go. This is the livelihood of a monk. This is the reason for the sangha.
No ratty, you are demonstrably wrong. You only release your grip with one hand. To release your grip would be to fall. If I tell you are a hundred feet off the ground and I tell you to let go of the rope and I will give you a million dollars. You don’t win by hanging on with one hand or your feet and releasing the other. That’s not the way it works. \
You just aren’t very good at this logic shit are you?
If you think there is a top in Buddhist teaching, you will never get there. There are two ways to become a rich man. The first is to struggle and obtain all you want. The second is to not want anything and be happy with what you have. Which do you imagine is the Buddhist way and why do you think you need to climb a rope to get there?
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Uhh. I think I know how to climb a rope, there bud. You misread me.
I said release the grip of the hand below and lift that hand above the other. Grip with that same hand and repeat.
I’m not as stupid as I look. I used to rig ropes off of high rise buildings and go over the edge on a bosun’s chair. If I know one thing, it’s ropes.
Then how dod you just miss the point completely. Go back, start over, read it all again, and see if anything at all can sink into that ratty brain of yours.
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I have zero expectations of Atheists, nor any expectations of myself as one.
I do have expectations of others, but in the end this is meaningless to all but me.
Harris and others have tried several around the “what does the most good for all” approaches. These all are attacked by the define good deflection, adding only a moral god can provide this.
So where are we? I believe those of us that have empathy, that can picture ourselves in another’s situation, can know good. I know of no way to instill a sense of good except to encourage empathetic responses.
Even this can be corrupted as the religious community has shown. The previously posted references to the Jesus freaks who will kill on command for someone proclaiming god thought knowledge attests.
So the answer is fuck if I know, and there ain’t one of y’all who has stumbled on anything better than a western style democracy based in laws of humans for humans. All else is easily corrupted. And remains hard to keep as there are those who need to believe the pablum religion spreads.
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From …
“is good and just because God wills it or whether God wills it because it is good and just”
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I like being correct. 
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Are we really arguing about who knows how to climb a rope properly?
FFS Ratty, it is not the mechanical aspects of rope-climbing, it is the journey of learning.
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But what about pushing rope?
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Only in your mind. I’m quite certain 90% of the people in the forum completely understand what has been said.
The Buddhist struggle involves the “Noble Eight Fold Path”. One step along that journey is “Right Effort”. The path the banana involves Effort. Rooting out the unwholesome; developing the wholesome; preventing the unwholesome from ever rising again; insuring the wholesome stays once it has arisen.
Struggle? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha … is that how you end suffering? Ratty, you are so far in the dark, the whites of your eyes are black. There is no path and there is no effort. Why are you clinging to a path and pretending to let go at the same time? Attachment is suffering. All attachment. Attachment to the 8-fold path. Attachment to Buddhism. Poor, poor, ratty, wallowing in darkness pretending to seek the light. All you need do is open your eyes and let the bullshit out.
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If you haven’t guessed by now. No one cares about your argument on Buddhism. Just let it go.
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Dog-gonnit! Why is everybody giving Ratty such a hard time? He is only trying to enlighten us on our Journey into the Darkness that awaits us in The End. If you all would just pay attention, there are valuable lessons to be learned from his words. Here… Maybe I can help clear things up a bit. (Ratty, please feel free to correct anything I get wrong…)
The struggles in your life can be alleviated if you simply maintain a constant effort to let go of the rope you use to pull yourself to further heights of success and material happiness. But you must alternate your realease of hands as you strive to reach higher levels of serenity without unnecessary thoughts or wasted exertion. Along the way, fold the Nobel Eight Fold Path in half to achieve the advanced simplicity of the Elite Sixteen Fold Path where you will become one-fourth more singularly aware in one-sixteenth the time. This will allow you to free your consciousness from itself so that you may better understand and control your own subconscious without the burden of conscious thought or effort. Only then will the banana become more wholesome than the kiwi as a natural choice for a complete and nutritious breakfast.
lmao, he’s trying to pull a Tony Robbins. At some point positivity becomes delusion. Look at the load of crap in this quote. Obviously if you have multiple felony’s on your record, you’re future doesn’t look so good…
Positivity >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Delusion>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Oprah Winfrey
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Our expectations come from our understanding of right and wrong.
One of the most irritating assumptions about atheism is that–by virtue of having no God–we have no moral compass.
I reject this idea because:
- A theist has faith in God, and this God directs morality.
- Why is it so difficult to get people to understand that an Atheist can have faith in a principle of what is right or wrong, and accept–on faith–that certain actions may be right or wrong without resorting to a God?
Why is it automatically assumed that God is the only thing deserving of faith?
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