Interesting collection of Buddhist essays

Just checked out a site that my friend Ara recommended to me. It's called Buddhist Spirituality versus Materialism and is a collection of essays about modern Buddhism, Philosophy, and Science.

It is rather strangely organized, as a big list in alphabetical order on a wide range of topics, but some of the stuff is pretty neat. The articles don't try to keep neutral point of view it seems, but I don't really mind that. Any time you read any sort of religious writing, you have to expect some degree of bias.

Here's one bit from this site I particularly liked, as I feel this is a major appeal of Buddhist practice in general.

Unlike most other religions, Buddhism isn't so much about things to believe, as things to do. It is a technology of mind improvement. This is why Buddhists often refer to themselves as practitioners rather than believers. The Buddha told his students to trust their own experience of the effectiveness of the teachings, and not believe things just because he said so.

Besides Buddhism, I wonder what other spiritual practices explicitly reject dogma. Perhaps Taoism? Are there any Western religions that do this though? I'm sure there are, but I've not investigated. Maybe someone reading this will know...

25 June 2007
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Interesting collection of Buddhist essays

majestic @seacreature

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