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In the Name of God بسم الله

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  • Veteran Member
Posted (edited)

Death and the Self

First published: 22 January 2018

It is an old philosophical idea that if the future self is literally different from the current self, one should be less concerned with the death of the future self (Parfit, 1984). This paper examines the relation between attitudes about death and the self among Hindus, Westerners, and three Buddhist populations (Lay Tibetan, Lay Bhutanese, and monastic Tibetans). Compared with other groups, monastic Tibetans gave particularly strong denials of the continuity of self, across several measures. We predicted that the denial of self would be associated with a lower fear of death and greater generosity toward others. To our surprise, we found the opposite. Monastic Tibetan Buddhists showed significantly greater fear of death than any other group. The monastics were also less generous than any other group about the prospect of giving up a slightly longer life in order to extend the life of another.


https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/cogs.12590

 

Edited by .InshAllah.
  • Veteran Member
Posted (edited)

Salam ethereal

My initial thought was that accepting Buddhism leads to incoherence - if you live as a devoted Buddhist, and accept there is no enduring self, then you will act and behave as if there is an enduring self.  If you accept this doctrine that is supposed to make you both more generous, and fearless of death, you will end up fearing death more than anyone else, and be the least generous.

Then I asked myself what I would think if a similar study was done on Muslim scholars, but they only interviewed Wahabbi ulema in Saudi.  My reaction would be that these Wahabbi ulema don't actually practice Islam properly.  So a Buddhist can reject my initial conclusion, but only if they say that the monks from the 2 monasteries were not actually practicing Buddhism properly.  I don't have a reason to think that, so prima facie I think being a Buddhist leads to incoherence.

 

Edited by .InshAllah.
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, .InshAllah. said:

Salam ethereal

My initial thought was that accepting Buddhism leads to incoherence - if you live as a devoted Buddhist, and accept there is no enduring self, then you will act and behave as if there is an enduring self.  If you accept this doctrine that is supposed to make you both more generous, and fearless of death, you will end up fearing death more than anyone else, and be the least generous.

Then I asked myself what I would think if a similar study was done on Muslim scholars, but they only interviewed Wahabbi ulema in Saudi.  My reaction would be that these Wahabbi ulema don't actually practice Islam properly.  So a Buddhist can rereject my initial conclusion, but only if they say that the monks from the 2 monasteries were not actually practicing Buddhism properly.  I don't have a reason to think that, so prima facie I think being a Buddhist leads to incoherence.

2

The assumption that desirable character is representative of one's belief in a correct or true doctrine seems to be false. 

The doctrine that there is no enduring self and that ultimate reality is in fact non-dual (sunyata) is universal and is found in all religious traditions in one form or another.  Its realization is expressed in Islam simply as:

"La ilaha illa Allah",

There is no enduring-self but the one and only-enduring-Self.

 

Edited by eThErEaL
  • Veteran Member
Posted

 

1 hour ago, eThErEaL said:

The assumption that desirable character is representative of one's belief in a correct or true doctrine seems to be false. 

 

Its not false if the belief in question is supposed to produce a particular desirable character.  

 

I have no reason to interpret ilaha as 'enduring self'. 

 

 

Posted
12 hours ago, .InshAllah. said:

 

Its not false if the belief in question is supposed to produce a particular desirable character.  

 

I have no reason to interpret ilaha as 'enduring self'. 

 

 

Essentially, an “ilah” is an objectification by some subject (abd).  An objectification or “object” is precisely what is meant by “enduring-self” by Buddhists.  

 

 

 

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