What has humanity actually achieved?

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Sam Vara
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by Sam Vara »

Vanda wrote: Typical human mentality:
http://www.dumpaday.com/wp-content/uplo ... ics-48.jpg
:smile:
Of course, what we find "typical" has a strong element of subjectivity. For a person who is depressed, or one who is elated, or maybe has a strong sense of identification, there is no talking them out of the ideas and images they abstract from reality in order to represent a subjective truth to themselves.

Let's assume the images depict what they purport to. (I remember a big outcry in my town a long time ago when some ancient oak trees were felled. Outraged residents claimed that this was an act of wanton environmental vandalism, but it turned out that the trees were diseased and dangerous, and it was followed by replanting of new trees. Manifold are the dangers of amateur arborism.) Are the images any more "typical" of human mentality than those depicting love, kindness, ingenuity, courage, etc? In fact, cutting down trees to put up pictures of trees is so rare that we would struggle to find other instances of it. Like all such meaningful images, it is an abstraction selected from the flux of reality to make a point that someone wants to make.

A disabled friend of mine (now dead) once showed me this picture, and told me that - for her- it represented the best in humanity. It is of a mother bathing her disabled daughter.

Image

I think it has just as much right to claim to represent "typical human mentality". It is just another confected abstraction, of course, but one that makes a different type of point.
mal4mac
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by mal4mac »

Humanity has achieved wanton destruction of the environment.

If only it was only the odd diseased tree here and there that was taken down, but it's not.

An estimated 18 million acres (7.3 million hectares) of forest, which is roughly the size of the country of Panama, are lost each year.

About half of the world's tropical forests have been cleared.

http://www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"

Still I agree that we shouldn't get depressed about these matters, we shouldn't get depressed about anything! What's the use in that?
- Mal
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Vanda
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by Vanda »

Mal,

:goodpost:

Well said.

I agree with you, we shouldn't get depressed about these matters.

I will reiterate my last post...

Support nature ~ help to preserve habitat, help establish community gardens, garden yourself, create a wildlife garden in your back and front yard ~ get involved and make a difference...

http://www.coolearth.org/

https://communitygarden.org/resources/1 ... ty-garden/

https://communitygarden.org/

http://www.nsalg.org.uk/about-us/intern ... -movement/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_garden

http://www.stickywicketgarden.co.uk/ben ... arden.html

:smile:
Last edited by Vanda on Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
“Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted and carried out, lead to welfare and to happiness’ — then you should enter and remain in them.”
- Kalama Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya
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Sam Vara
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by Sam Vara »

Vanda wrote:
I will reiterate my last post...

Support nature ~ help to preserve habitat, help establish community gardens, garden yourself, create a wildlife garden in your back and front yard ~ get involved and make a difference...
Excellent! I've been doing all that for many years before either of your iterations.
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Vanda
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by Vanda »

Sam Vara:
I've been doing all that for many years...
That is wonderful... :)

:twothumbsup:
“Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted and carried out, lead to welfare and to happiness’ — then you should enter and remain in them.”
- Kalama Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya
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Mkoll
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by Mkoll »

Sam Vara wrote:
Dan74 wrote:Wow, this thread makes depressing reading indeed. It seems that many people come to the Dhamma out of a complete lack of appreciation and joy in life and culture and with a huge dollop of aversion to humanity. Is this not a recipe for disaster?
My thoughts exactly. :goodpost:
My thoughts as well, initially. On second thought, I think it's important to realize one may have had a similar attitude at a different time of life, as Dan pointed out in another post. So our final thoughts should be of goodwill and compassion.
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
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samseva
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by samseva »

Mkoll wrote:
Sam Vara wrote:
Dan74 wrote:Wow, this thread makes depressing reading indeed. It seems that many people come to the Dhamma out of a complete lack of appreciation and joy in life and culture and with a huge dollop of aversion to humanity. Is this not a recipe for disaster?
My thoughts exactly. :goodpost:
My thoughts as well, initially.
The purpose of this thread was to actually find positive things humanity has achieved. Meaning all the overly negative/pessimistic and environmental posts are off-topic.

:focus:
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Vanda
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by Vanda »

Samseva:
The purpose of this thread was to actually find positive things humanity has achieved. Meaning all the overly negative/pessimistic and environmental posts are off-topic.
Actually, the topic of this thread is: "What has humanity actually achieved?"
The question is not "What positive things has humanity achieved?"
So I don't think it is off topic.
Last edited by Vanda on Thu Aug 27, 2015 10:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
“Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted and carried out, lead to welfare and to happiness’ — then you should enter and remain in them.”
- Kalama Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya
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Mkoll
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by Mkoll »

samseva wrote:
Mkoll wrote:
Sam Vara wrote:My thoughts exactly. :goodpost:
My thoughts as well, initially.
The purpose of this thread was to actually find positive things humanity has achieved. Meaning all the overly negative/pessimistic and environmental posts are off-topic.

:focus:
If only that had been mentioned in the OP... ;)
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
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samseva
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by samseva »

Vanda wrote:Actually, the topic of this thread is: "What has humanity actually achieved?"
The question is not "What positive things has humanity achieved?"
So I don't think it is off topic.
If you would like to continue with more negative topics, please feel free to start your own thread.

:anjali:
Last edited by samseva on Thu Aug 27, 2015 10:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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samseva
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by samseva »

Mkoll wrote:
samseva wrote:The purpose of this thread was to actually find positive things humanity has achieved. Meaning all the overly negative/pessimistic and environmental posts are off-topic.

:focus:
If only that had been mentioned in the OP... ;)
Yeah, it wasn't that clear. However, now that it is, we can move in that direction—which will make for a much better (and uplifting) discussion.
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Vanda
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by Vanda »

Vanda wrote:
Actually, the topic of this thread is: "What has humanity actually achieved?"
The question is not "What positive things has humanity achieved?"
So I don't think it is off topic.
Samseva's response:
Feel free to start your own thread.
I was just responding to the question as it was asked. No need to be rude.
“Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted and carried out, lead to welfare and to happiness’ — then you should enter and remain in them.”
- Kalama Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya
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samseva
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by samseva »

Vanda wrote:
Feel free to start your own thread.
I was just responding to the question as it was asked. No need to be rude.
Yeah, I reread your post and edited mine before seeing this one. There was no intention to be rude. That is why I added the ' :anjali: ' emoticon.

What I meant was, if you would like to continue with more negative topics, please feel free to start another thread.
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Vanda
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by Vanda »

Samseva,

I understand, thank you for explaining.

:smile:
“Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted and carried out, lead to welfare and to happiness’ — then you should enter and remain in them.”
- Kalama Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya
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SDC
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Re: What has humanity actually achieved?

Post by SDC »

Vanda I just split the topic for you

Can be found here: http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=24558
“Life is swept along, short is the life span; no shelters exist for one who has reached old age. Seeing clearly this danger in death, a seeker of peace should drop the world’s bait.” SN 1.3
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