relative_vs_absolute unhinged buddhism_vs_nihilism religion_vs_philosophy the way we see things is very rarely the truth of them, with all our projections and trying to find meaning_by_context 110124 ... () (resisting temptation) 110125 ... z everything is relative. the absolute, if it existed, would be compared as relative to everything else. to me, this is good example of a false dichotomy. 110313 ... () (my ability to resist was not absolute) 110313 ... unhinged buddhist dialectics very much believes and argues the existence of the relative versus the absolute. i.e. my truth is relative to me but the truth of the order of the universe is absolute i'm not very versed on this topic; at the very least not versed enough to argue it. maybe i'll try to find some links for you. 110314 ... unhinged related buddhist topics: groundlessness egolessness buddhanature 110314 ... () (thank you) 110314 ... unhinged (you are welcome) *smileswide* btw, i did create this blathe when in a buddhist frame of mind 110315 ... unhinged (and maybe it has been the role of religion in society for thousands of years to create absolutes in the face of relativism) 110315 ... unhinged three_words : relative_vs_absolute fantastic brittle 110512 ... larry wird 33 resolute_vs_ablative 160817 ... unhinged 'you may conclude: emptiness is all very well and good, but what about climate change? don't tell me that THAT doesn't exist. don't tell me that my sister doesn't have cancer or that my wife is not having an affair, that my back doesn't hurt, or that i'm not in love. and, especially, don't tell me that republicans have a better political agenda than democrats. any sane and well_adjusted person - like me - would have to agree that such things are true. when we separate the spiritual from the temporal in this way, we prevent insight from infiltrating delusion. in other words, there is no way to work the nature of interdependent expression if we reify it. this dividing of spiritual insight from the 'realities' of everyday life makes spirituality seem impractical and only suitable for those who are out of touch. 'yes,' you may argue, 'meditation and prayer may help me relax and find balance, but aside from that they have no place for those of us who live in the real world and deal with real problems.' it is important to understand that when we are questioning things - particularly the painful or challenging circumstances we face as individuals and societies - we are not dismissing life as it presents itself to us. what we are questioning, however, is the way in which we look at things. for instance, issues such as climate change are not singular, permanent, or independent things, as we have discussed at length; they are instead open-dimensional, dynamic, and subjectively known. our great challenge as human beings is to learn how to reconcile the nature of things with their expression.' - elizabeth mattis namgyel 180812 ... unhinged 'there is no essential conflict between the relative and absolute truth, in the same way that there is no conflict between the appearance of a rainbow and its unfindable nature. emptiness and appearance seem to oppose each other only when we artificially separate the nature of things from their appearance. they come into conflict only when we think things have to be either real or unreal, when we think that our only option is to affirm or deny them or decide whether something is or is not. my suggestion is this: remove the conjunction OR from these equations and frame it differently. an effective way to speak of the relationship between relative and absolute truth would be to use the word BECAUSE (instead of OR) and state it in this way: 'it is BECAUSE everything_leans that all things are empty of defining characteristics.' in other words, it is because we can't find anything that exists outside of the nature of contingent relationship that all things are free or empty of restricting labels we assign them.' - elizabeth mattis namgyel direct_perception nonduality 180812 what's it to you? who go blather from