Here he is talking about the same ideal of non-violence for the sake of mental purification. Yet he gives a violent example when describing how this tranquility works. He says: "Take, for example, Emperor Shun's execution of the four criminals. They themselves had committed the crimes and Shun, therefore executed them. Did Shun have any personal feeling or selfish desire in the matter?..." So it appears that the important this is not avoiding all forms of violence in the world or in action, but avoiding all forms of violence of the mind. So a martial artist in the above example may be able to intervene violently to stop a rape,...
Many people would argue that society should execute people because it will make the victims happy to see them dead, or that it is right to hate and take revenge for harms. The highest Buddhism suggests that the mind is purified by "refrain[ing] from harsh speech -- from rough speech." This further indicates that violence is defined by spirit, not by action. Of course, non-violence in the soul may be just the first step in the great ladder towards total peace and non-violence with the entire world. It is important to start, though, with non-violence of the soul.
This, then, is what takes us to the argument that false rhetoric is the greatest danger to democratic rule. Imagine what kind of leaders we would have if only false rhetoric existed? False rhetoric allows for the use of lies, manipulations, "spin" to become an accepted part of our political discourse - Bill O'Reilly is a perfect example of the false rhetorician. His "newscasts" are filled with verifiable lies, false facts,
If however she had achieved the ideal non-attachment of Buddhism, her grief would still be real, but she would experience it in a different way. Her grief would be part of a process of letting go the son who is no longer there. A degree of non-attachment would then allow her to experience the grief as outside of herself rather than as part of her individuality. This would help
Symposium is one of the most critically analyzed pieces of ancient literature, because it expresses in a fascinating format the lifestyle of the Athenian elite, as well as the intellectual maturity of the philosopher Socrates. While studying the nature of love may be a discussion of low importance to modern philosophers, an emotional reaction so strong as love is to human nature has always been a remarkable aspect of human
Specifically, Caesar masterfully showed how through building alliances one may achieve power and rise to the top of the leadership tier even in a group or society as vast as the Ancient Roman Empire (Abbott, 1901, p.385). The Roman Empire also provides an example of organizational systems within the public domain through the Republican system. In the Roman Republican system of government, one man did not have the power to
Grotesque If one goes back to Plato and examines what the Greek philosopher had to say about beauty and truth, one discovers the foundation of the transcendental spirit in the West. The Greek philosophers -- Socrates, Plato, Aristotle -- more or less constructed the philosophical lens for how to portray ideals such as unum, bonum, verum -- the one, the good and the true. Beauty was viewed from within this
Freud, Socrates, Christ I, Socrates, have only questions for the author of Civilization and Its Discontents, Dr. Sigmund Freud. It surprises me greatly that Dr. Freud should so misread the great tragedy of Oedipus Tyrannos by my fellow Athenian, the poet Sophocles. Does Freud really believe the motivations of Oedipus to be some sort of universal constitutent of human behavior? As my distinguished colleague Frederick Crews (Professor Emeritus of English at
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