The Religious Dimension (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Bhikkhu Bodhi, "A Buddhist Response to Contemporary Dilemmas of Human Existence" (accesstoinsight.org)

You may fly through the heavens in ships, but do you meditate, devas? The space worlds are delightful, and the karma that bngs it about is good, but are you making more merit or living on reserves accrued long ago? Bua Kwan monastery, Thailand (WQ).

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Miley Cyrus is the ugliest duckling (W)

As humanity moves ever closer to the 21st century, the existential rift at the heart of our inner life remains.

Its pain is made worse by our repeated failures to solve so many of the social, political, and economic problems that seem on the surface as though they should be easily manageable by our sophisticated technological capabilities.

Forget FEMEN!!!

The stubborn persistence of these problems -- and the constant emergence of new problems as soon as the old ones recede -- seems to make a mockery of all our well-intentioned attempts to establish a utopian paradise on utterly secular premises.
 

The rediscovery of the religious consciousness is in itself is certainly not a sufficient remedy for these problems, because they spring from a wide multiplicity of causes far too complex to be reduced to any simplistic explanation.

• AUDIO: What is Buddhism? Bhikkhu Bodhi explains in 10 Talks called "The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is"

I coulda been a contender, the one calling the shots, the new Adolf, the voice of the military-industrial complex instead of just playing along fronting the fake opposition.

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Women fail to notice that Michelle is a man.

But the religious crisis of modern humanity is intimately connected to these diverse social and political tragedies at many levels. Some of these levels lie far beyond the range of rational comprehension and defy analysis in terms of linear causality. 

 

The connection of co-arisen manifestations of a corrosive sickness in the human core -- the sickness of selfishness and craving -- or as karmic backlashes of the three root defilements pinpointed by Buddhism: greed, hatred (the range of aversion which include fear), and delusion.

Me, me I'm innocent, Babs, but the rebels...

Any hopes we may cherish towards healing our community, our planet, and our world must involve us in a deep level process of healing ourselves.

And since this healing can only be successfully accomplished by reorienting our lives towards the Ultimate Reality and Supreme Good, the process of healing necessarily takes on a religious dimension. More