All buddhas are great beings. What great beings practice is called the eight awakenings. Practicing these awakenings is the basis for nirvana. This is the last teaching of our original teacher Shakymuni Buddha, which he gave on the night he entered pari-nirvana.
The first awakening is to have few desires. To refrain from widely coveting the objects of the five sense desires is called “few desires.”
- Dogen (1200-1253)
Having few desires is itself worthwhile. It is even more so, as it creates various merits. Those who have few desires need not flatter to gain others’ favor.
Those who have few desires are not pulled by their sense organs. They have a serene mind and do not worry, because they are satisfied with what they have and do not have a sense of lack.
Those who have few desires experience nirvana. This is called “few desires.”
- Dogen (1200-1253)
@deepthought saidEverything I have ever read of Herman Hesse, including a bit of Steppenwolf, I have found difficult to understand. It could be my German, but I also find philosophical ideas tough to get through in print. It seems one has to make assumptions on meanings.
I intend to get hold of a copy of the Glass Bead Game - I read the synopsis on Wikipedia. Mein Deutsch hat total im Eimer gegangen, but I can give it a try in German.
The more sure I am that I'm right, the more likely I will actually be mistaken. My need to be right makes it more likely that I will be wrong! Likewise, the more sure I am that I am mistreated, the more likely I am to miss ways that I am mistreating others myself. My need for justification obscures the truth.
The Arbinger Institute, The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict
@suzianne saidI haven't read any yet, it's a future project. One that's quite daunting for the reasons I laid out in the post you replied to. With philosophy what I've found is that analytic philosophers are a lot easier to read, they try to be clear. Postmodernists and the Germans such as Kant just witter on and on. Sentences ought to be shorter than a page.
Everything I have ever read of Herman Hesse, including a bit of Steppenwolf, I have found difficult to understand. It could be my German, but I also find philosophical ideas tough to get through in print. It seems one has to make assumptions on meanings.
I wandered lonely as a cloud,
and then I read some Kant,
I read it to my friends aloud,
understand it we just can't.
DeepThought 2019.
@deepthought saidInteresting. You never seem to fail to live up to your moniker. 🙂
I haven't read any yet, it's a future project. One that's quite daunting for the reasons I laid out in the post you replied to. With philosophy what I've found is that analytic philosophers are a lot easier to read, they try to be clear. Postmodernists and the Germans such as Kant just witter on and on. Sentences ought to be shorter than a page.
I wandered lonely a ...[text shortened]... I read some Kant,
I read it to my friends aloud,
understand it we just can't.
DeepThought 2019.
The few introductory philosophy classes I've taken were difficult for me as well. It appears that the German philosophers are beyond my ken, then. Maybe it's not my German after all. I wonder if the German 'wittering on' is somehow intrinsic to the language, since I've noticed some German psychologists 'witter on' as well, albeit not nearly as extensively.
@deepthought saidyou've touched upon a lifelong quest for me,
Sentences ought to be shorter than a page.
I wandered lonely as a cloud,
and then I read some Kant,
I read it to my friends aloud,
understand it we just can't.
DeepThought 2019.
to say only that which needs saying and then say no more
i am grateful to have read yer thoughts
