mindfulness

Marx is supposed to have said; I am no Marxist. Perhaps Buddha would have said the same about Buddhism. (Perhaps Christ about Christianity) Dan Harris Writes in an article about this: We have to differ Buddhas Dharma from Buddhism or from religion as a phenomena. Even if Buddha was right his teachings have been popularized and vulgarized. But the original teachings can be used in a context outside of Buddhism Harris argues: Algebra comes from the Arabs, but now it's used by the whole world. Science came from the west but belongs to everyone that practice it - and so on. Harris is the US news anchor that found out that mindfulness helped him - though it was no miracle cure. I use to practice mindfulness with a "light" Buddhist group inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh. You don't have to be a Buddhist to join in, but they emphasize some ethics that is fine for me: http://plumvillage.org/mindfulness-practice/the-5-mindfulness-trainings/    It was hard from th

If you are interested in Philosophy or religion, you probably also are interested in ethics. The fruits of the earth belongs to everybody but the earth belongs to nobody.... We have found out that we live in a very small planet in a giant universe. Just a blue water drop in a sea of planets, stars and galaxies. We have done this because of our intelligence. But even though there are things we cannot measure and things that mathematics is of no use. Maybe the most valuable experiences are like this. for instance birdsong. If the birdsong finished most of us would be missing it badly. But how many dollars are the birdsong worth? What would we do to save for our children? It's easier if we look at a bigger picture - if we destroy our forests and lakes it will in the end decrease our chance to survive on this planet Most of us understand that. Anyway we have problems to grasp it. First comes the stomach, then the moral, as Bertold Brecht puts it in the play, Mutter