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From: rsp@PacBell.COM (Steve Price)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: Love vrs Hate in Buddhist meditation
Message-ID: <14731@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 21 Mar 90 14:32:28 GMT
References: <14591@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <14672@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
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In article <14672@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> dhosek@jarthur.Claremont.edu (---) writes:
>
>Where do you get "'Compassion' for all must be the goal of walking the Path"
>from? 
[omissions]
>
>Zen Buddhism, I know, has no goal ("There is no knowledge, no attainment,
>nothing to attain" -The Heart Sutra). I'm not sure if that's the case in
>other sects of Buddhism, but I think that at the least some aspect of this
>shows up there.
>
>It appears that you are having difficulty letting go of your Western 
>perspective when approaching Buddhism.

Obviously!

I am puzzled to hear that there is "no goal" in Buddhism and then to read
several other postings that mention the great Buddhist Saints who vow
not to leave the cycle of birth/death until all sentient creatures
achieve Enlightenment.  So you are saying that his vow is taken without
Compassion and without a goal?  I don't wish to be confrontational at all,
but that does seem difficult to process mentally.  

Or do Buddhists like to quote Walt Whitman:  "Do I contradict myself?  Very 
well then, I contradict myself" or Ralph Waldo Emerson:  "A foolish 
consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."  I'm open to the possibility 
that the apparent inconsistency here may be an illusion based on mixing 
statements about different levels of spiritual understandings. In any case, 
I'd like to "see" what you mean.)


-- 
Steve Price 		UNIX: pacbell!pbhyf!rsp		PHONE: (415)823-1951

...argument does not teach children or the immature. 
   Only time and experience does that.			Doris Lessing