3rd Commendation to owner/operators of JREF Forum.
So far so good, I have not been thrown out by the powers here in JREF. I have been testing the limit of their non-Buddhistic impartiality, and so far that limit has not been reached by me, which is a great tribute to the powers here.
You see, sometimes the Buddhists among the powers that be in a forum dedicated to free inquiry, free thought, and free speech cannot prevail on the non-Buddhist ones to throw out someone who makes it a forum career to criticize Gautama, Buddhism, and Buddhists.
But owing to complaints from Buddhist members of the forum, eventually they, the non-Buddhist owners, admins, and mods, have to give in to the insistence of their fellow admins and mods who are Buddhists and from the complaints of Buddhist members of the forum, because they notice that login statistics are declining with every complaint against the career critic of Buddhism and things Buddhist.
So far, the owner/admins/mods have not succumbed to the complaints of Buddhist members here and have not been influenced by declining statistics of login numbers, hail to them.
But the time will come, specially if they set great store on the donations of Buddhist members to operate their forum, then and with me not heeding warnings, I would be thrown out of this JREF Forum --
i.e., again: unless the JREF does not depend on contributions from members for existence and operation, and also they are not swayed by declining statistics owing to Buddhist members complaining against fellow members who criticize Buddhism relentlessly but on sound grounds.
In brief, I will be around as long as the JREF Forum is around provided the non-Buddhist owner/admins/mods of the forum are not influenced by numerical popularity and not either on loss of donations; because they can do without numerical popularity and without donations from members, owing to because they have this policy of sticking come hell and high water to the ideals of free inquiry, free thought, and free speech.
So, and again: all hail to the
[non-Buddhist] owner/admins/mods of the JREF Forum.
Yrreg
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My words may not be soothing, but consider the ideas
The Buddhist non-self, and its implications, living the everyday non-self existence?
http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/ind...ost&pid=500486
[From the Kalama Sutra by Gautama]
01. Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it long ago.
02. Do not believe in traditions simply because they have been handed down for many generations.
03. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
04. Do not confirm anything just because it agrees with your scriptures.
05. Do not foolishly make assumptions.
06. Do not abruptly draw conclusions by what you see and hear.
07. Do not be fooled by outward appearances.
08. Do not hold on tightly to any view or idea just because you are comfortable with it.
09. Do not accept as fact anything that you yourself find to be logical.
10. Do not be convinced of anything out of respect and deference to your spiritual teachers.
11. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reasons and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
See:
http://www.buddhistinformation.com/the_kalama_sutra.htm