Date: 14 Feb 2002 08:55:10 +0200
Subject: AUT: Re: Star Wars and Archetypes




>>> commie00-AT-yahoo.com 02/13/02 10:59PM >>>
> the assumption in taoism and zen
buddhism is that this physical energy is inherent in all living things, and
sense (as even elementary physics tells us) this energy can not only not be
created or destroyed but only transformed and can move in and out of people,
you get an "energy field" which "surounds us, penetrats us, binds the galaxy
together". but its no more mystical or magical than lighting a candle.

Tahir: But what sort of energy is it? You don't mean that it is the same energy as physics deals with I presume?

and while i realize that many on this list are predisposed to rejecting
things like taoism, zen buddhism, etc. outright due to the gross
misinterpretations these philosophies have gotten in the west,

Tahir: I once read the Tibetan Book of the Dead. I talks in great detail about what happens to you after you die. Is this part of the misinterpretation of the West or is it the kind of thing that Buddhists believe, yourself for example?

 keep in mind
that philosophical taoism and zen buddhism form the backbone of materialist
and dialectical thought in asia. and in fact their stated aim is "against
alienation, for community", interestingly enough.

Tahir: How materialist is nirvana? Surely any religion can quite legitimately claim to be "against alienation, for community". I certainly have never encountered any religion that would not say the same.

 class societies prior to
capitalism have become romanticized because people feel, on some level, the
people who lived in them led less-alienated lives, at least to some
extinent. thus, we get fantasy worlds that, on many levels, resemble actual
past class societies. tolkien, in particular, comes to mind. so the desire
for fantasy is, in a sense, an aspect of our desires for a less alienated
existance. because of this, within all the problematic aspects, are going to
be aspects which are useful and helpful.

Tahir: This nostalgia for a past which is part real and part imaginary is nine tenths of the appeal of all religions today, Islam for example. So what?



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