XPost: alt.philosophy.zen, alt.buddha.short.fat.guy, alt.philosophy.taoism   
   From: wudao@wuji.net   
      
   Tang wrote:   
   > Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   >   
   >> The overextension being your suggestion that religions work to the   
   >> extent that they facilitate buddhist understanding.   
   >   
   >My bias is that Stoicism, Daoism and Buddhism   
   >share a basic worldview, which is found in parts   
   >of the three Religions of the Book, though in   
   >lesser concentration. It is, further, that Stoicism,   
   >Daoism and Buddhism advocate an impersonal,   
   >natural worldview which weaves the natural and   
   >supernatural, independent of any person,   
   >including their putative founders. The Logos   
   >(reason), Way (Dao) and Law (Dharma) that   
   >respectively run the world transcend any   
   >personality, however impressive (or   
   >unimpressive). The three Religions of the Book   
   >bind their message to persons, however lofty,   
   >and nothing is above such persons, specially   
   >any impersonal abstraction like the Logos, Way   
   >(Dao) and Law (Dharma). My bias is that what   
   >works in the three Religions of the Book is the   
   >same as what works in Stoicism, Daoism and   
   >Buddhism, namely the set of factors that   
   >constitute mental culture in Stoicism, Daoism   
   >and Buddhism.   
   >   
   >Christianity borrows massively from Stoicism,   
   >and the great Theologians like Augustine and   
   >Thomas build their theology on Stoicism, but   
   >cover it up with Jewish mythology for   
   >respectability, to protect the innocent. In   
   >recent times, the Roman Catholic Church   
   >adopts Buddhist meditative technique en   
   >masse. Eastern Orthodoxy has always been   
   >quite subservient to Neoplatonism, which is a   
   >slightly revised version of Stoicism. Both   
   >major branches of Christianity, east and west,   
   >worship the Pseudo-Dionysius, who was a   
   >Syrian forger in the sixth century and disciple   
   >of the last Neoplatonists, Proclus and   
   >Damascius, ardent anti-Christian pagans. So   
   >there should be much absorbtion of Stoicism   
   >in Christianity, if my reconstruction is in any   
   >way valid.   
      
   It sounds valid and it might be sound.   
      
   How sound it is depends on premises taken for granted.   
      
   If some guy actually walked on water, and time changed,   
   such that there was a reset to zero, on calendars worldwide,   
   and reverberations of that continue unto this day, then,   
   it could be there was an age that is with the world   
   and in the world, yet not of the world, in a way.   
      
   That age may have set with the Sun on an empire   
   whose commonwealth explanded out to be many nations,   
   as it was said it would, back in the daze.   
      
   Once upon a time-frame.   
      
   When the Line of Demarcation divided Earth in two   
   still the Isles kept silent, as they were commanded to do.   
      
   Perhaps they had heard Isaiah's report.   
   Yet then again, who can say for sure.   
   With and without eyes to sail to sea.   
   Waves may break without a sound.   
   While even the deaf may feel it.   
   On and beneath their grounds.   
      
   Of the dregs found   
   within a cup of Joe.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)