Re: DEBATE about Religion and Atheism - modeling

Posted by Russ Abbott on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/DEBATE-about-Religion-and-Atheism-tp7580664p7580818.html

Think of attachment as: I must ensure that X comes to pass. I want it so badly.

Think of detachment as: I must not want so badly that X comes to pass. I must stay detached.

Think of non-attachment as: I may participate in the process whereby X comes to pass -- or doesn't come to pass. If I participate I may go all out in my participation. I may care very much whether X comes to pass. It it does, I may feel very happy. If it doesn't I may feel very sad. But whether or not X comes to pass I still have my laundry to do.

 

-- Russ 

On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 5:40 PM, glen <[hidden email]> wrote:

The only way I can imagine detachment being a form of attachment would
be that both attachment and detachment are limited to _partial_
[de|at]tachment.  I.e. non-attachment must be some sort of singularity
approachable from either direction.

   http://www.wuala.com/gepr/public/singularity.svg/?mode=list

But if that's the case, then we're guilty of equivocating on the word
"attachment".  Perhaps replacing "detachment" with "anti-attachment"
might prevent the equivocation.

Prof David West wrote at 10/01/2012 04:21 PM:
> "duty has almost nothing to do with the philosophical lesson of the
> story.  Arjuna's dilemma is not between kill and not kill, or deciding
> between two contradictory laws - but between attached and non-attached
> action.  Only the latter avoids the accrual of Karma (western spelling).
> Non-attachment is definitively not detachment (detachment is an instance
> of attachment). Non-attachment is acting with "perfect knowledge" that
> the action is the "right" action in that context, with context being the
> totality of the world. (A kind of omniscience, the possibility of which
> is for another time and place.)


--
glen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org