I find it difficult to grasp how anyone who has taken refuge, i.e. has Saddha in the Buddha Dhamma, could imagine that "science" has revealed anything not know to the rishis and Buddhas of ages past.  It is not,  Dhamma - one thing, and science, everything else.  If so then Dhamma is mere quaint ancient proto-Indian ritualised explanation of the unknowable which "Science" the secular moderns world"s New God / Dhamma, can explain ever so much better than a fat brown guy in a funny outfit, too dumb to get in out of the weather.

Surely not.
Pete Tomlinson




________________________________
From: Ong Yong Peng <palismith@...>
To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, May 14, 2010 9:13:53 PM
Subject: [Pali] Re: Translating anatta

 
Dear friends,

please allow me to expand one of the points:

The Buddha's teachings talk about Samsara, existence in a time-space (perhaps higher-dimensional) construct which we call the "world". I had an interesting discussion many years ago with a friend in university about our understanding of the "world", which I summarise as follows:

In the tribal times, the "world" is the tribe, anything else is "unknown", "danger", "death". As the nomadic tribe became territorial and expanded, the concept of "world" expanded too. And slowly, as cultures interacted, and as people and goods moved around, the "world" is no longer a single tribe or nation, but is the Earth as we came to call it.

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Ong Yong Peng wrote:

2. The Buddha's teachings talk about Samsara, existence in a time-space construct which we call the world. I had an interesting discussion many years ago with a friend in university about our understanding of the "world", which I summarise as follows:

In the tribal times, the "world" is the tribe, anything else is "unknown". As the tribe became territorial and expanded, the concept of "world" expanded too. And slowly, as cultures interact, and as people and goods moved around, the "world" is no longer a tribe or a nation, but the Earth.

In our scientific age, Science helps us further the knowledge of "our world", namely, the Solar System, the Milky Way, the Universe, even multiverse.




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