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Do buddhists know the real purpose of life?

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Awesomelyglorious
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21 Jan 2007, 9:31 pm

Flagg wrote:
What's this NSO and RAR business.

I posted a test quite a while back. It was a philosophical profile test. Corvus and I got completely opposite profiles. I was an RAR and he was an NSO. Given that for the last few discussions we have been talking about philosophical matters, this really ends up being noteworthy as it reflects entirely different ways of viewing the world. The test is found here:
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testi ... 7873131397



TheMachine1
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21 Jan 2007, 9:47 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Flagg wrote:
What's this NSO and RAR business.

I posted a test quite a while back. It was a philosophical profile test. Corvus and I got completely opposite profiles. I was an RAR and he was an NSO. Given that for the last few discussions we have been talking about philosophical matters, this really ends up being noteworthy as it reflects entirely different ways of viewing the world. The test is found here:
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testi ... 7873131397


I could not even answers the questions on that test so I do not understand you or Corvus. :D



HolyDragonSword
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22 Jan 2007, 11:29 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Psychology is a science, religion isn't. Buddhists also have a goal for their minds. As such it can be stated that they don't necessarily seek truth so much as what they believe the world should be like.


Religion can be, but most were created prior to the blossom of scientific research. Buddhists are searching for truth, but on a different level. There is no absolute definition of truth because truth is based upon perception to a degree. They're not searching for the power here, they're looking for the power that lies behind. There are those also seeking that through science-- and what we're finding is the power of will and the manipulation of state and ability by using willpower to alter.

Add to that-- psychology relies upon the faith and belief(in a way) of an individual in order to retool and assist the mental states.

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Quantum mechanics though responds to its own rules and still it does not refute the idea that reality is real. The EPR paradox is just a sign that Quantum mechanics has different rule than classical physics. Logic is the only consistent path to truth as it can be verified by outside sources and other things. Any other path leads to conflicts and inconsistencies. Knowledge is defined by truth though, if something you think you know is untrue then it ends up that we don't know it.


But even most scientists know that there are no absolute truths; all knowledge is based upon a generally agreeable collective perception. Of course, knowledge is just as well defined by un-truth. There are still some things that cannot be broken down into scientific logic without placing in some level of waveform existence.


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Awesomelyglorious
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23 Jan 2007, 1:08 am

HolyDragonSword wrote:
Religion can be, but most were created prior to the blossom of scientific research. Buddhists are searching for truth, but on a different level. There is no absolute definition of truth because truth is based upon perception to a degree. They're not searching for the power here, they're looking for the power that lies behind. There are those also seeking that through science-- and what we're finding is the power of will and the manipulation of state and ability by using willpower to alter.

Add to that-- psychology relies upon the faith and belief(in a way) of an individual in order to retool and assist the mental states.
The only thing is that what religion seeks it can never know the certainty of. All religions fall down to faith. Psychology doesn't rely on faith in terms of study. Healing an individual may require faith though, however, that isn't the aspect of it seeking truth so much as it is the aspect where truth found in applied.

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But even most scientists know that there are no absolute truths; all knowledge is based upon a generally agreeable collective perception. Of course, knowledge is just as well defined by un-truth. There are still some things that cannot be broken down into scientific logic without placing in some level of waveform existence.

I question your statistics, Albert Einstein was noted for saying that "God does not play dice", a claim that there is an absolute plan and idea. All knowledge is based upon the correspondence of idea to reality, because we can accept the eyes and ears to be accurate perceivers of reality we can accept the idea that knowledge is obtainable, although perhaps imperfect. "Placing in some form of waveform existence", are you trying to put in the ideas behind quantum mechanics, that light is a wave and a particle or what? Scientific logic so far hasn't failed in its assessment of reality and offers the most complete and best foundation of ideas for how the world works, now it isn't perfect information but if it was there would be no need to improve upon it.



peebo
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23 Jan 2007, 5:50 am

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
The only thing is that what religion seeks it can never know the certainty of. All religions fall down to faith. Psychology doesn't rely on faith in terms of study. Healing an individual may require faith though, however, that isn't the aspect of it seeking truth so much as it is the aspect where truth found in applied.


then how does psychology seek truth? largely the truths of psychoanalytical thought are based upon theoretical writings, retrospective studies and observation of human behaviour. but there is very little in the way of provable empirical data. in many ways, faith does play a big part in psychology, and there are many who would actually argue that psychology is not actually valid as a scientific discipline.



*edited to slightly improve wording*


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Awesomelyglorious
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23 Jan 2007, 5:54 pm

peebo wrote:
then how does psychology seek truth? largely the truths of psychoanalytical thought are based upon theoretical writings, retrospective studies and observation of human behaviour. but there is very little in the way of provable empirical data. in many ways, faith does play a big part in psychology, and there are many who would actually argue that psychology is not actually valid as a scientific discipline.



*edited to slightly improve wording*

Actually, you are exactly right on many of the aspects I like least about psychology. I just believe that more recent psychology is working largely on dealing with those errors. Ultimately what must be looked at is legitimate psychology over some BS that some psychologist spews out off of his head, this includes looks at brain chemistry, neural structures and empirical data. The reason I point at psychology is because there is more effort there to change their positions and ideas based upon what actually happens, as opposed to other possible things.



amerikasend
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23 Jan 2007, 8:23 pm

You are an R-A-R: a metaphysical Reductionist, an epistemological Absolutist, and a moral Relativist. On this thing that awesomelyglorious posted http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testi ... 7873131397

Now I forgot what I was going to write, probably nothing important. I forgot what I read, but that fellow arguing with awesomelyglorious fellow, corvus it might be, seems a bit out there to me



snake321
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23 Jan 2007, 9:54 pm

amerikasend wrote:
You are an R-A-R: a metaphysical Reductionist, an epistemological Absolutist, and a moral Relativist. On this thing that awesomelyglorious posted http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testi ... 7873131397

Now I forgot what I was going to write, probably nothing important. I forgot what I read, but that fellow arguing with awesomelyglorious fellow, corvus it might be, seems a bit out there to me


And religiously defending greed, ego, hostility, and selfishness like awesome does, isn't "out there". I see more and more people buying into this "lets give into our animal behavior" crap, this is the reason WHY our world is so bad off.
Awesome, you like to talk alot about einstein but einstein wasn't as much of a "hitler in a glass beaker" as you like to think. Apparently you have never read over the Theory Of Everything.



snake321
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23 Jan 2007, 9:56 pm

I can't stand unwavering trolls.



amerikasend
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23 Jan 2007, 10:42 pm

snake321 wrote:
amerikasend wrote:
You are an R-A-R: a metaphysical Reductionist, an epistemological Absolutist, and a moral Relativist. On this thing that awesomelyglorious posted http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testi ... 7873131397

Now I forgot what I was going to write, probably nothing important. I forgot what I read, but that fellow arguing with awesomelyglorious fellow, corvus it might be, seems a bit out there to me


And religiously defending greed, ego, hostility, and selfishness like awesome does, isn't "out there". I see more and more people buying into this "lets give into our animal behavior" crap, this is the reason WHY our world is so bad off.
Awesome, you like to talk alot about einstein but einstein wasn't as much of a "hitler in a glass beaker" as you like to think. Apparently you have never read over the Theory Of Everything.


That's my personal opinion. That's fine if you do not agree.



Awesomelyglorious
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23 Jan 2007, 11:40 pm

snake321 wrote:
And religiously defending greed, ego, hostility, and selfishness like awesome does, isn't "out there". I see more and more people buying into this "lets give into our animal behavior" crap, this is the reason WHY our world is so bad off.
Awesome, you like to talk alot about einstein but einstein wasn't as much of a "hitler in a glass beaker" as you like to think. Apparently you have never read over the Theory Of Everything.

Recognizing that logic exists in these acts isn't out there and recognizing that human beings have their own interests and desires isn't out there. This isn't man vs animal, this is man's will vs doing/believing what others think is right. If people don't wish to succumb to what you consider to be "animal behavior" all the more power to them, but really what must be recognized though is that without a decent brainwashing totalitarian state, which will not work, animal behavior will not be abolished, and because of that and the fact that our concern is with the actions of the individual, we are concerned with actions against individuals. So therefore we should aim to punish those acts rather than preempt them by instating a form of thought-crime.

I don't like to talk a lot about Einstein, he is just one of those scholars that one can point at with ease. Really, on a lot of issues I don't see eye to eye with Einstein.

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I can't stand unwavering trolls.
I've been here longer, posted more posts, and I am not horrible at argumentation, and specifically avoid strong emotive pleas. Trolls usually don't last long or post much being as they get banned and are noted for their horrible argumentation and bad strategies such as emotive pleas. If anything I am just offering a contrary view on these issues.



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08 Feb 2007, 11:37 am

I don't think anyone really knows the "real" purpose of life, if there is one. I always thought your purpose is relative to your own individual path. I think that Buddhists have constructed an excellent way of coping with life's positive and negative aspects, but I don't think they have discovered the "real" purpose in life, except to just BE.



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08 Feb 2007, 3:30 pm

Quote:
So therefore we should aim to punish those acts rather than preempt them by instating a form of thought-crime.


You scare me dude



Awesomelyglorious
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08 Feb 2007, 5:48 pm

Corvus wrote:
You scare me dude

You scare me too Corvus, you scare me too.



Corvus
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08 Feb 2007, 5:59 pm

Awesomelyglorious wrote:
Corvus wrote:
You scare me dude

You scare me too Corvus, you scare me too.


I'm not the one defending the reasons for problems in society

I'm the one arguing how to rid of them



snake321
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08 Feb 2007, 6:27 pm

And you awesome, act like problems are a good thing, seeking to rid of them is "totalitarian".... Ok, so I guess acting to prevent the halucaust by your twisted so-called logic is "totalitarian"... So I guess we should stop prosecuting murder, rape, robbery, and vandalism too then right? If you try to stop them you'r "totalitarian" because your "forcing your idea of right and wrong on them" :roll: