“The Sojourn of Arjuna” Is that really a song set to music? It's interesting but I have a hard time imagining a melody for it. I recognize the philosophical/spiritual theme though.
I don't consider leftist secular humanists to be true pacifists either. Or true anything other than communists or anarchists. And they have no idea what real anarchy would be either. The Tibetan Buddhist POV isn't pacifist either though. Buddhism is a way of non-aggression not pacifism. There is a very big difference between the two mindsets.
A real pacifist won't defend himself or others. A Buddhist seeks to do no harm to others but not at the cost of ignoring reality. From the Buddhist POV a pacifist is a coward. To allow one's life, or the lives of others, to be taken when there is something you could do about it is cowardly. And more importantly to a Buddhist it is ignorant of reality.
While your view of how evil comes to manifest itself in the world may be different than mine it is definitely better, from my perspective, that you recognize evil to exist than to think there is no such thing. The moral relativism of the secular humanist is more of a poison to the mind than the twisted world view of a fundamentalist Muslim AFAIC.
The jihadi mindset may warp views of good and evil into ridiculous forms but the secular humanist view that there is no good or evil is a far greater denial of reality. Radical Muzzies may be doing most of the murdering in the world right now but the potential for destruction is much greater in the nihilist-narcissist POV of secular humanists. It is scary that their views have found so much acceptance in the west.
“That is a major frustration.”
It is , but I’m more concerned with the possibility of something really bad being in my OS ~ a virus.
I was raised MAC and have only gotten into PC as a matter of cost consideration this year. My IT girl is actually my wife, and, she is busy, but she wants me to learn this stuff myself, which is a nice idea, but NOT if there is some brain eating worm that could potentially destroy my side of the business. Aside from which, it’s making me crazy and I can’t FReep!
“The Sojourn of Arjuna” is sort of a wrap/spoken word piece. There is a live version on Youtube, but not quite as smooth as the original cut and with a little improv by the singer. Still, it’s pretty cool and you become “more cool” by virtue of listening to Bela Fleck. That is a little known fact.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx5Qd6uEWq8&feature=related
I agree with your views on pacifism and moral relativism, I’d also include secular humanism; different name same kind of intellectual poison. There is a great quote by C.S.Lewis about pacifism. I’ll have to see if I can find it.
I sort of knew that Buddhists were not pacifists, but of course, that is NOT in line with how they are portrayed by the media.
I also have an acquaintance who claims to be a Buddhist, but I’m afraid the whole thing is just a kind of foil that he places over his personality to reflect his “humanistic spirituality”. You guessed, he’s a liberal!
The guy once told me that he had been on jury duty in a really heavy case, by which he had to put a man (whom he thought was guilty) in prison. It was all to heavy for him and the next time he was up for jury duty he told me he would opt out because he was a “Buddhist”.
First, I suppressed my urge to laugh, then counseled my friend that he had done the right thing if he had convicted a guilty man and that he shouldn’t feel responsible for what may happen to criminal in a court of law as long as he follows what is proscribed. I also mentioned that he had the opportunity of giving over his seat on a jury to someone who may either have a agenda with a accused person. This can go either way.
By the way, this was a very bad criminal. This wasn’t someone that got caught up in something or a matter of circumstance. From what I gather, the person was a violent offender. So, it’s probably good that people who lack the fortitude to do something difficult naturally remove themselves from the process.
In essence, my friend is a soft-headed liberal, and my esteem for him fell tremendously after this conversation and successive political discussions, which I will say were very polite and courteous, which is significantly different from many conversation that I have had with many left-wing.
Again, and per a previous discussion, another example of what I will now call “Romantic Buddhism”. i might have pointed out that he was not “really” a Buddhist, but this hardly something I argue with others.
Some members of my family were members of the pacifist Christian denomination of the Society of Friends (Quakers) back during WWII. They would not fight or kill others directly, essentially they were conscientious objectors, however they understood the value of opposing evil and they served in civilian medical positions. One of my great uncles submitted himself as a guinea pig for medical testing for vaccines for malaria back during the war.
My uncles were very gentle folk, very kindly. They were definitely pacifists in the sense that they would let others do them harm. I can’t get my head around such thinking. When I was younger I thought this was something of a romantic notion, after I had children and post-9/11 such nonsense went right out the door!
Can’t find the Lewis quote, but there are some good ones out there if you look and they’re all screaming the same thing!