Where are everybody?

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
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DNS
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by DNS »

retrofuturist wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:25 am It seems "the new religion" is "The Science".
:D

A true prophet would at least throw the ball over the home plate.



Worst "first pitch" ever. :tongue:
thepea
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by thepea »

retrofuturist wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:25 am Greetings David,

This brief comedy sketch nicely addresses what you've just said...



It seems "the new religion" is "The Science".

Metta,
Paul. :)
I can confirm, these “the science” zealots will beat the $h!t out of you if you challenge “the science”.
bpallister
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by bpallister »

"Trust the science"
auto
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by auto »

retrofuturist wrote: Thu Aug 11, 2022 2:56 am ..
yes, people should read Suttas, specially the no-selfers should re-read over and over again in case something have been skipped over
https://suttacentral.net/sn22.69/en/sujato?layout=sidebyside&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin wrote:“Sir, form doesn’t belong to self; I should give up desire for it.
“Rūpaṁ kho, bhante, anattaniyaṁ; tatra me chando pahātabbo.
somehow no-selfer will see that the self doesn't exist at all, like one can't even have question whether self exists or not. It is a case of one using Suttas to reinforce dogmas picked up circulating around budhist communities, not much to do with Suttas.
SarathW
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by SarathW »

auto wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 1:31 am It seem 2012 was the peak when people were into spirituality. 2012 were a let down for many who hoped ascension. Does this nothing happening wearing people down or perhaps it was start of no age, dark passage? no handed down rapture nor body of light.

Forums are flattening. Aliens didn't come? sad life.
Perhaps it is time for Vipassana.
:D
Doing time doing Vipassana.

“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by DNS »

auto wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 1:31 am It seem 2012 was the peak when people were into spirituality. 2012 were a let down for many who hoped ascension. Does this nothing happening wearing people down or perhaps it was start of no age, dark passage? no handed down rapture nor body of light.

Forums are flattening. Aliens didn't come? sad life.


Springfield residents waiting for Judgment Day, it didn't come, Nelson gloats.
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by bodom »

DNS wrote: Tue Aug 16, 2022 9:55 pm
auto wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 1:31 am It seem 2012 was the peak when people were into spirituality. 2012 were a let down for many who hoped ascension. Does this nothing happening wearing people down or perhaps it was start of no age, dark passage? no handed down rapture nor body of light.

Forums are flattening. Aliens didn't come? sad life.


Springfield residents waiting for Judgment Day, it didn't come, Nelson gloats.
:rofl:

:namaste:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by DNS »

And now we're back up to 94 active topics and over 200 posts per day.

It appears that slow time a couple of months ago has passed (when it was about 50 to 60 active topics). Like most things, there are cycles of slow activity and high activity.
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by auto »

DNS wrote: Sat Sep 10, 2022 3:32 pm And now we're back up to 94 active topics and over 200 posts per day.

It appears that slow time a couple of months ago has passed (when it was about 50 to 60 active topics). Like most things, there are cycles of slow activity and high activity.
It seem going towards inactivity. Sometimes the activity rises, but resumes to decline.
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by DNS »

auto wrote: Wed Oct 04, 2023 2:35 pm It seem going towards inactivity. Sometimes the activity rises, but resumes to decline.
Activity fluctuates, sometimes very low activity, sometimes very high activity. I have some theories for why there is low activity.

1. Seasonal changes. Around (American) Thanksgiving (end of November) to New Year's, people are busy with holiday plans, travels, family reunions.

2. In any forum, there tends to be a core group of members who do about 80% of the posts. These are the people with 10,000 posts or more. Over time, they have said all they want to say, argued and debated with others many times, so reach a point of attrition. :tongue:
Then, their activity decreases, making a forum appear somewhat inactive, when in reality, it's just the core group that is posting less.

3. The decline in religion in general. Most developed nations are leaving religion in droves. Their birth certificate might be "Christian" or "Jewish" or "Buddhist" but in reality they are agnostic or atheist.

I think for our forum here, we are at #2 above. We have had several big posters here, but it seems they are reaching a point of attrition. But we're still plugging along, while many other Buddhist forums have shut down, we're still going, almost exactly 15 years now.
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by auto »

DNS wrote: Wed Oct 04, 2023 3:12 pm ..
The points you made can apply to other areas of life too.

To me it seem less and less dhamma is in the world(heart) and dhamma doesn't reach upwards to the brain. Because of the lack of incentive to spread the dhamma one doesn't feel the need to learn to articulate and thus also one won't need practice to personally see things.
People are becoming invested and identified in material things and even look back in shame that they were part in something they can't put a finger on. And every once in a month something might remind that there is dhamma for a moment there is incentive to start over but then again it dies even faster than before.

There is positive side to it. Those who practice it is harder to practice and hold up to the discipline, but its also easier to make progress for that reason alone.
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by PeterC86 »

auto wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 1:31 am It seem 2012 was the peak when people were into spirituality. 2012 were a let down for many who hoped ascension. Does this nothing happening wearing people down or perhaps it was start of no age, dark passage? no handed down rapture nor body of light.

Forums are flattening. Aliens didn't come? sad life.
Greetings,

Conventionally we can make assumptions as to what leads to what, even though ultimately it is nonsense. So if you want to be distracted from your practice, and get entertained by some conceptual proliferation as to why post activity decreases on this forum, please read on.

Through technological advancements, people have more and better access to information, like the printing press was one of the driving forces behind the renaissance period in europe, because people got access to new and different information by reading books, rather then listening to their local pastor or vicar. Before the renaissance period, the main authority in civilized countries was the church, because the church had, and tried to maintain with violance if necessary, the authority on 'truth'. The printing press pushed the scientific revolution, in which the scientific method got developed, after which the authority on 'truth' shifted from the church to science. Through which the power and influence of the church decreased, and is still shrinking. People who made themself smart and wise by reading books other than the bible, turned away from faith to reason. Although the reach of scientific publications is great, it still requires one to read a book or paper. So those who didn't read books, probably mainly because they couldn't read, sticked to faith, whether or not through group pressure from their local community.

After the invention of the radio, television, and computer, we see another revolution in the access to information, through the invention of the internet, and all the rapid inventions the internet brought; fora, social media, youtube, chatgpt, and whatever comes next. Besides that most people can read nowadays, in this day and age we don't need to even read a book or paper to get information, we can just watch a video or ask AI. Now we have access to almost all the information we can dream of, in an instance. Whether that information is accurate or not is something different.

Because we have access to an endless amount of information, people are not dependent on institutions or collectives to determine for them what is true, they can more or less figure this out for themselves. That is why the institutions that were in power until now try to restrict free speech, because their power is diminishing by all the different views. That is also why people nowadays start to question (the) science, because the scientific method has its limitations. The scientific method is very reliable for measuring specific elements in a certain field of interest at a certain point in time. It is however not very useful as a tool to measure the interdependent and ever-changing nature of life. With which I want to say that science has its limitations to what it can teach us about ourselves and life itself. When people uphold science above all else, it becomes a religion.

So on one side we see a diminishing of trust in institutions or collectives that uphold a certain authoritative belief that is not verifiable through reason or direct experience. And on the other side, we have an unlimited access to information. So when in this day and age, someone, or a group of people, start jabbering about transmigration, expect people to move along. When however someone is saying something that is actually useful or verifiable in daily life, expect it to attract attention. Of course your mileage varies by the sanity of each individual.

Warm regards,
Peter
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by auto »

PeterC86 wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2023 3:21 pm ..
Are you waiting the time, when you can simply download anything to brain, like in the movie "Matrix"?
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Re: Where are everybody?

Post by PeterC86 »

auto wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2023 3:04 pm
PeterC86 wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2023 3:21 pm ..
Are you waiting the time, when you can simply download anything to brain, like in the movie "Matrix"?
Who says that this is not already happening? ;)

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