
Originally Posted by
mal4mac
Having read, or tried to read (!), several articles on the site, I think the x in x-buddhist is placeholder for "any kind of Buddhist" so x might be "Tibetan" or "Zen" or whatever. I think a non-buddhist is just a non-buddhist (!) The blog owner has a PhD in Buddhist studies from Harvard and has written several books on Buddhism, and has a mediation practice. So I think to be his kind of non-Buddhist you have to know more about Buddhism, and pursue its practices more, than most Buddhists.
Yes, this really "grounds" the argument doesn't it, I think he's trying to get us from trying to disappear into some kind of transcendental fog, to realise that we are just flesh & blood.
It's sanskrit for "discourse", any written or spoken communication, usually used in reference to the Buddha's discourses.
Yes, as Buddhist mediation leads to a non dual state a killer must, in terms of the highest reality, be killing himself. So there really is no difference between murder and suicide. But, then again, as he is non-dual he can't, really, be doing anything... Imagine the expression, "he lifted the knife". That requires two things, "him" and "knife", so it's a non-dual situation, not part of the Zen master's reality. So a killer is not a killer at all. And that's why Japanese Zen buddhists, like D.T. Suzuki, happily backed WWII. Although the 5th precept says "do not kill", there really is no killing in the oneness of being, even if a samurai sword is splitting your head in two... It's also why Heidegger was a Nazi.