I just listened to ET’s talk. Enlightenment — what a morass. I decided long ago not to even think about it. Reminds me of why I did not become a philosopher, although some of my most beloved mentors especially in my high school and undergraduate years were professional philosophers. My first real (?) thought, however, is that in terms of personal growth practices toward making us a sustainable species, we need to find ones that measurably increase (and render less parochial) prosociality, biophilia, and compassion, traits which probably overlap quite a bit. The general search for enlightenment and even something… Read more »
As he mentioned, Thompson’s talk was an excerpt from his book Why I am not a Buddhist. So obviously being well versed in both traditional and modern Buddhism he finds both unsatisfactory. And yet knowing about his personal history he does meditate and does experience some of the states of awareness associated with the concept of Enlightenment. In that regard I like his closing statement: “If we wish to embrace the concept of enlightenment, we have to figure out what it should mean. In other words, we have to decide what the point of having the concept is and what… Read more »
I just listened to ET’s talk. Enlightenment — what a morass. I decided long ago not to even think about it. Reminds me of why I did not become a philosopher, although some of my most beloved mentors especially in my high school and undergraduate years were professional philosophers. My first real (?) thought, however, is that in terms of personal growth practices toward making us a sustainable species, we need to find ones that measurably increase (and render less parochial) prosociality, biophilia, and compassion, traits which probably overlap quite a bit. The general search for enlightenment and even something… Read more »
As he mentioned, Thompson’s talk was an excerpt from his book Why I am not a Buddhist. So obviously being well versed in both traditional and modern Buddhism he finds both unsatisfactory. And yet knowing about his personal history he does meditate and does experience some of the states of awareness associated with the concept of Enlightenment. In that regard I like his closing statement: “If we wish to embrace the concept of enlightenment, we have to figure out what it should mean. In other words, we have to decide what the point of having the concept is and what… Read more »