New Buddhist Path - The Problem with Immanence/Mindfulness - PP 26-38

[Jeremy]

... I just hope Loy isn't going to do the cliched West is evil, bla bla bla.

No, that’s not what David Loy does. For what it’s worth, I think his argument about greed (one of the Buddhist Three Poisons) and capitalism is quite clever. What he’s saying is that greed is not just an unfortunate side-effect of a basically good system. Greed is built into the system – it’s systemic: “The point is that this system has its own in-built motivations, quite apart from the motivations of the employees…”. This is similar to the idea of 'structural inequality', but applied to greed rather than inequality. In relation to capitalism, 'structural inequality' is the idea that inequality is built into the very structures that constitute the capitalist system. Inequality isn't merely a side-effect of a basically good system, it's a structural issue.

All this is slightly off topic to the book. Whether you agree or not, I hope you’ll agree that it’s good food for thought .

Jeremy
SatToday

[Risho]

Equality is a tricky term. In some ways I guess people are equal. Maybe for example the way in which we treat each other. But then again, based on our actions, perhaps we deserve to be treated differently. So what does equality mean?

Equality of opportunity is another one. I guess in some respect, we both have the right ( I believe) to good, solid education. But even given the same environment and education, etc 2 individuals will have similiarities but they won't be equal. Equality is an interesting topic.

And so is greed. Greed is built in to all human-created systems because all human systems are built by humans, in my opinion.

Gassho,

Risho
-sattoday

[Byrne]

I'm inclined to agree with you Risho. When we sit we are equal. All of us are essentially doing the exact same thing regardless of how long we've been doing it or under what circumstances we are sitting. But the circumstances of our day to day lives are not equal. They are extremely complex.

Traveling around America for the past 15 years has shown me that not all of us have access to the same life tools. Sometimes that's a problem. Sometimes it isn't. I hope to plant a few good seeds whenever I can, but I cant tell you how well that's going because I honestly don't know.

Gassho

Sat Today