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I'm not through with the book yet. I read a couple reviews on it and picked it up the other day.
So far, he's expressing his opinion that Buddhism needs to accept when science shows something in their religion isn't true. He goes on to explain that a major difference between science and Buddhism (and Buddhism he sees as being build on logic and experimental study) is that in Buddhism you can fill in the gaps in knowledge with an appeal to ancient texts, where that is meaningless in science.
To that end, he really doesn't mind filling in the gaps in what we know about the material world with whatever you can get from the metaphysics in Buddhism.
When it comes to martial arts, a long time ago I really, really believed in magic. I believed people could control your mind with chi, levitate things, see into the future and hurt without touching. Later on a started not really believing in those things, but I still believed in "too deadly for sport" martial arts like Silat, Kali and Krav Maga. I thought that it made sense that real fighting was too different than sport fighting and was difficult to practice.
Despite that, we still had a very rigorous striking program. Sparring in MMA clubs broke me from a lot of that, seeing that people could be knocked out with 25% hits, or at least wobbled - that I could knock the wind out of someone with a TKD kick if they walked into it, so I didn't think the too deadly material was even necessary. Beyond that, a series of ass kickings got me more interested in the combat sports, like when I was double legged into the cage wall backwards and GnP'd because I didn't know what to do.
You could say I first gave up folklore, then I gave up the appeal to authority, and finally started embracing empirical reality. From there, I've been trying to figure out how to make my mma style training better for my real goal always, which was self defense, in the spirit of JKD. Fortunately for me, my early on belief in Bruce as Jesus helped me get into crosstraining, which lead me though all these different experiences until I finally got to understand something that fighters have known all along, but was unavailable to me because of my soft personality.
Despite all that, I have a longing to believe in martial arts magic. I still love movies and cartoons and still read books about Wing Chun, and I feel nostalgic for when I thought that stuff was real. It can be hard to let go of fairy tales.
My interest in Buddhism (not being a good one at all, just recognizing it as good for me) is really because they give you mental exercises along with some philosophy (8 fold path) that have a good effect on the people who use them, me included.
Even when it comes to Buddhism, I have a desire to cling to their beliefs in spirit and magic. Despite having been to a lot of temples and read a number of books, I don't know that the belief in metaphysical things has much use in Buddhism. It is the framework and exercises that make the difference, just like in martial arts. Each time we cut off something magical and replace it with something practical, we get something that has more use in our actual lives.
I wonder what the future of Buddhism will be, if they continue to cut out the metaphysics and include more scientific knowledge, as the knowledge about neurology and psychology continues to improve. I don't doubt that scientists will eventually be able to improve on Buddhism's exercises for increasing compassion and focus while limiting attachment.
So far, he's expressing his opinion that Buddhism needs to accept when science shows something in their religion isn't true. He goes on to explain that a major difference between science and Buddhism (and Buddhism he sees as being build on logic and experimental study) is that in Buddhism you can fill in the gaps in knowledge with an appeal to ancient texts, where that is meaningless in science.
To that end, he really doesn't mind filling in the gaps in what we know about the material world with whatever you can get from the metaphysics in Buddhism.
When it comes to martial arts, a long time ago I really, really believed in magic. I believed people could control your mind with chi, levitate things, see into the future and hurt without touching. Later on a started not really believing in those things, but I still believed in "too deadly for sport" martial arts like Silat, Kali and Krav Maga. I thought that it made sense that real fighting was too different than sport fighting and was difficult to practice.
Despite that, we still had a very rigorous striking program. Sparring in MMA clubs broke me from a lot of that, seeing that people could be knocked out with 25% hits, or at least wobbled - that I could knock the wind out of someone with a TKD kick if they walked into it, so I didn't think the too deadly material was even necessary. Beyond that, a series of ass kickings got me more interested in the combat sports, like when I was double legged into the cage wall backwards and GnP'd because I didn't know what to do.
You could say I first gave up folklore, then I gave up the appeal to authority, and finally started embracing empirical reality. From there, I've been trying to figure out how to make my mma style training better for my real goal always, which was self defense, in the spirit of JKD. Fortunately for me, my early on belief in Bruce as Jesus helped me get into crosstraining, which lead me though all these different experiences until I finally got to understand something that fighters have known all along, but was unavailable to me because of my soft personality.
Despite all that, I have a longing to believe in martial arts magic. I still love movies and cartoons and still read books about Wing Chun, and I feel nostalgic for when I thought that stuff was real. It can be hard to let go of fairy tales.
My interest in Buddhism (not being a good one at all, just recognizing it as good for me) is really because they give you mental exercises along with some philosophy (8 fold path) that have a good effect on the people who use them, me included.
Even when it comes to Buddhism, I have a desire to cling to their beliefs in spirit and magic. Despite having been to a lot of temples and read a number of books, I don't know that the belief in metaphysical things has much use in Buddhism. It is the framework and exercises that make the difference, just like in martial arts. Each time we cut off something magical and replace it with something practical, we get something that has more use in our actual lives.
I wonder what the future of Buddhism will be, if they continue to cut out the metaphysics and include more scientific knowledge, as the knowledge about neurology and psychology continues to improve. I don't doubt that scientists will eventually be able to improve on Buddhism's exercises for increasing compassion and focus while limiting attachment.
