bodhisamaya Wrote:The superficial explanation I understand is that Shunyata is turning away from ATTACHMENT to the impermanent objects of samsara (cyclic existence) due to their impermanent and ultimately unsatisfactory nature.

bodhisamaya Wrote:Things do exist (in the Buddhist view) but not in the way we think they do as interpreted by our senses.

The Secret Beyond Matter Wrote:Most people have been conditioned to assume that the material universe we see is itself the true reality. Modern science, however, demolishes this position and discloses a very important and imposing truth.

All the information we have about the world is conveyed to us by our five senses. Thus, the world we know consists of what our eyes see, our hands feel, our nose smells, our tongue tastes, and our ears hear. We never believe that the external world can be other than what our senses present to us, since we've depended on those senses since the day we were born.

Stimulations coming from an object are converted into electrical signals and cause an effect in the brain. When we "see", we in fact view the effects of these electrical signals in our mind.
Yet modern research in many different fields of science points to a very different understanding, creating serious doubt about the "outside" world that we perceive with our senses.

For this new understanding, the starting point is that everything we perceive as external is only a response formed by electrical signals in our brain. The red of an apple, the hardness of wood—moreover, one's mother, father, family, and everything that one owns, one's house, job, and even the pages of this book—all are comprised of electrical signals only.

On this subject, the late German biochemist Frederic Vester explained the viewpoint that science has reached:

"Statements of some scientists, positing that man is an image, that everything experienced is temporary and deceptive, and that this universe is only a shadow, all seem to be proven by current science."

http://www.harunyahya.com/evolutiondeceit18.php

Thora Wrote:Well I know many people who have done it in 2 seconds!!

Thora Wrote:do you think informing them that they could now (maybe) do it your better way is particularly helpful?

vosmiura Wrote:Well, various reasons for having them in text form rather than images, for example for looking up words in an online dictionary, and for reviewing with Anki's online interface, phone interface, or iAnki.

bodhisamaya Wrote:I know it is not a popular view in this world where consumerism is taught to us as the highest path to happiness, but to buy a new book and just to let it sit on a shelf collecting dust is in my opinion immoral. Much more so than using a creative source without giving compensation. Books are made from a resource that is being consumed faster than it can renew itself, trees. When they are gone, we will follow. All of us, including those we are supporting by buying their products. I am grateful for the shared insights from these books but publishers must evolve or go the way of the irresponsible American auto maker. Either switching to a renewable material like hemp fiber or going full electronic. They are a creative bunch. They will make it work if driven by the consumer.
As a semi-related point: In this world, multitudes of people die from simply a lack of money to buy medicine, food and clean water. Spend your own money responsibly on things you actually use. Use what is left in creative ways to help make others' lives livable. Vacation in a developing country, rent a modest room and keep your eyes open. Use that imagination you unlocked creating stories with RTK and see what happens.
Anyways, sorry for further derailing the thread.

jmkeralis Wrote:

Jeromin Wrote:Libraries precede modern copyright laws, but they go against the intention of these laws of charging for every use of intellectual property. So it is a contradiction, though not illegal as such.

I thought checking things out from the library was free. It always was in my hometown...

welldone101 Wrote:If you want to save the forests stop buying fruit from South America.

bodhisamaya Wrote:Yea, the issue is much more complex than I described. Not eating beef would be more helpful than avoiding fruit though.

ahibba Wrote:I can uderstand this. But if the reason is to have the kanji and kana in text form, why didn't they OCR the images in the CD? It's not like OCRing scanned pages, the images are big and clear, so the OCR result will be accurate and fast.

bodhisamaya Wrote:Yes Ahibba. This is very similar to what I have heard Tibetan lamas explain

vosmiura Wrote:I didn't know you're not allowed to lend movies. Or is that only for rented movies? I thought you can lend or sell movies second hand, but you're not allowed to rent them out commercially without a special license. Ofcourse there are many publishers who would love to ban second hand sales.

Thora Wrote:

bodhisamaya Wrote:Yes Ahibba. This is very similar to what I have heard Tibetan lamas explain

Sounds like postmodernism in robes.

KO2001 - buddhism - environmentalism - unusual thread. So, Bodhisamaya, do you have equally strong convictions about population control? (nudge, nudge)

Thora Wrote:(It was a naughty tease about your population contributions in a couple other countries.) But your thoughts on poverty, equality and population are spot on. It's too easy to turn a blind eye.

vosmiura Wrote:Do you know any good free Japanese OCR software?

ahibba Wrote:

vosmiura Wrote:Do you know any good free Japanese OCR software?

I usually use ReadIRIS the Asian edition. It's not free, but it comes with many products and devices for free.

errtu Wrote:how many sentences are in the ko2001 spreadsheets?