[unlomarma]

Either this life is all you've got, in which case you'd better get cracking, or this isn't all you've got, in which case you'd better get cracking.

Very apt.

[Promotiona]

The decontextualized, literalized surface reading doesn't ring true to a population that is fairly well educated but who haven't woken up fully from the unconscious mind-numbing cloud of religiosity that pervades all of modern thought (the lingering effects of institutionalized and deeply internalized Christian theology)...this state of limbo creates much confusion on the one hand, and entrenched belief on the other - both states of mind that the Dharma was originally intended to dissolve.

beautifully put, captures the results of viewing Buddhist orthodoxy through the prism of Western Christian influences with the result being a distorted mirror image of Western faiths.

It is often difficult to discern what is central and what is peripheral in the teachings - are we destined to discard too much of what is integral to the Buddha's teaching in order to make it fit in with today's climate of thought ?

[marketheal]

from post #34

are we destined to discard too much of what is integral to the Buddha's teaching in order to make it fit in with today's climate of thought ?

Yes, I think this is likely if the forgotten context of the orthodox surface/shell isn't rediscovered and understood. Discarding the orthodox surface/shell because we're clueless to its context and structural/functional purpose is as useless and deluding as forming entrenched belief in the orthodox surface/shell.

[bs44MhUW]

The confusion about this conceptual tool in our own time exists because the deeper reading and understanding of the teachings has become lost - the teachings have become decontextualized ....this state of limbo creates much confusion on the one hand, and entrenched belief on the other - both states of mind that the Dharma was originally intended to dissolve.

As always your contributions are beautifully expressed.

[zU8KbeIU]

from post #36

Yes, I agree Frank,

Thanks Pink dear, very clearly spoken,

[cefunonge]

What Pink has told us in post # 30 remembers me a little what was told and then written by Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche about Spiritual Materialism:

[vNQmO2BF]

from post #29

Seems to me that you have answered your own question.

[Master_B]

from post #12

Why do we try to reduce our scope of things.
Didn't someone once say something like "if you look only at your feet you'll never see the stars"