Why are so many Buddhists such self righteous assholes?

There are so many examples of talking a talk but not walking the walk you get the feeling it is all lip service and everyone still crawls around in ignorance not having heard one true thing. Well this comes from looking for an example to emulate. What distinguishes the exemplary from the vain? What does an enlightened man look like compared to a dim witted one? Outwardly they appear the same. Our only measure is our own sensational state of being. We can see all kinds of things for sure but seeing is not being we are beings that see. We see what we look at or for. You do not see what you want because you look in a place where it does not exit, outside yourself. To have the evidence for the thing you want you must become the thing that all those other men see.

I think you are correct to challenge what substitutes for authority in this world.
I find you no less than sincere or honest and in that your success is assured, that is success is assured in your sincere honesty not in my finding. I cannot repeat enough that personal anxiety is a sign of the misapprehension of things or events. A temper tantrum is the result of a nightmare and is where the perception of demons originates. We have here an authority problem and the answer to any problem is the solution or some form of peaceful re-solution.
The truth eases the mind, it doesn't present problems.

As to teachers, a teacher is equal to his subject, not above or below it. You have nothing if you cannot share it. To bless imparts blessing in both the one who blesses and the one who accepts it and we can say the same of a curse.
Having been disillusioned by both churches and supposedly learned men or men of credentials I found myself desperately inquiring as to where my teacher was having heard that when you are ready the thing you need will appear and I was answered in an ecstatic lucid dream that my teacher was everyone I met and as such each had become a holy encounter.

We cannot measure ourselves by degree as there no standard metric to compare to. We either are happy, satisfied, of fulfilled or we are not and it is in our own estate where the truth of it lies.

 

To St. Augustine it is to know to ourselves that as well whether we are happy, satisfied, .... etc. Means we'd need that standard from the world for it, and really that staggers the individual that no one really is successful. Just be happy; for that be judged by another. AN angel brooded over St. Augustine in a painting at the National Museum of Art in London.:2thumbsup:

 

I just has a look at Wiki

Here's the first PG:

I am definitely not an expert in Buddhist philosophy, but I can see some resonance with that, esp. ontological/metaphysical nihilism.

 

We are the teacher as well as the student. What the teacher shows you is always your own beholding. It staggers this individual that we settle for less than success or that we tolerate dis-ease. It is not a fact of nature that our carefree days so seem so few and forever distant but that seeming does represent the fact that we had not learned to be free with our care but to care more or less as though there were some magic elixir or poison we might consume or dance that we can perform that accounts for our condition. If happiness is in you at once, why not always? Because your attention has been fond of something else like perhaps focused on the way you think things should be. The quality of our experience reflects the conditions we agree to or call upon. Happiness is a state of being without objection or resistance to, a congruence of caring and belonging.

We can never experience happiness in things we despise and spite is a level of caring we don't want and the earth certainly will not hold it against us if we denied it's expression. The critical mind in graveterms, must be cultivated and is an active attack against the perception of real things and detrimentally affects our reasonable responses. Resist the temptation to project dissatisfaction and instead look for it's resolution within yourself.
To first dispel anxiety physiologically extend exhalation. Take a breath and observe the sensation that follows. In the same turn notice the sensation that follows when you speak with conviction. You may also notice the sensation that follows when you truly forgive a verdict or recognize your difficulty as conceptual in a sigh of relief. Anxiety is a form fear and fear is of the unknown not the correctly identified.

Many comparisons are being made here of buddhism as compared to the perceived nature of it's adherents and as perceived as compared to other thought systems. We went from buddhism is not a religion to buddhism is a non-theistic religion to buddhism does not propose a creator god. There is a reason buddhism is distinct from other forms and that is it's cultural vernacular not in the devoted nature of it's adherents.
We often see paradigms divided into eastern and western thought. The concept of creation however is not absent in buddhism as it is looked to in the term right action or comparably doing the will of god.

I saw another painting of a lion laying with a lamb. Transiently we exist for and with each other, in heaven we are as the angels co creating good. A mind without anxiety is kind.

 

In other terms god in substance is that which we invoke or we give the world all the meaning it has for us.

 

Me too. But my opinions about Buddhism aren't particularly strong opinions. I went through a period of interest in it years ago, read a certain amount, and absorbed some of the basics.

I have read that before, and it's interesting. I wouldn't like to have to offer any explanation of the meaning.

I don't think all Buddhism is nihilistic - maybe that's an over simplification.
However, there is a kind of nihilist flavour IMO in some basic ideas.

'The world is an illusion'. That seems to me to be at least somewhat nihilistic.

'The self is an illusion' - ditto.

But I'm not anti Buddhism - that would be ridiculous in the extreme.

I don't think I'm reaching for the strawberries either. Not yet anyway Even as I move ever closer to that 500 ft fall.
Actually, logic divorced from feeling might say better to feed the tiger. They always kill things quite rapidly before eating them.
A bear is the animal to avoid being eaten by, or so I hear.

But I'm rambling hopelessly:mickey:

 

I really like your logical treatment of the inevitable outcome. Better eaten by a tiger! A five hundred foot fall assumes you can't fly.
I think nihilistic flavor comes from the idea of a final achievement. I think the idea of final achievement comes from unfamiliarity with an unremitting state of joy. It is inconceivable based on sensational representations. logic is not ruled by feeling but feelings follow conception and in this way they are not divorced.

In the creative terms of human experience the thought comes first and at this level the concept of beginnings is meaningful. Let there be light. There is a sponsoring conception behind every sensational particular. The ray of creation or concerted human effort proceeds thought word and deed. The impulse to perceive, thought, is indiscriminate until it is articulated and our articulations of body are so informed. Intent is the gravity around which the circumstances of our life coalesce. Our intents are always good but are based on a model of goodness or a guide. Our guide is the things we accept as right or true. The thing we treasure as essential. Our unit of measure is our own ease of being or the biological feedback loop. A trained dog will always get on the couch when the master is not around, that is seek it's own comfort, and ritual practice is much like dog training. We are not dogs but we are creatures who find comfort. Ritual and idealism have no pulse for comfort and cause more confusion than remedy.

Let the fruit of your own conceptions and their attending emotions or energetic responses, be your guide. Are you angry? You can trace that emotion to some distortion in your conception of events. If peace is what you desire then peace first sponsors all actions. The world does not depend on our reactions or does not need our contribution to continue being what it is, but our ease of being does so nothing need be uttered in confusion or we can afford to let it be until peace of mind finds us stable again. Peace exists where the conditions of peace are met, in our sense of fine free being. Our fine free life is made to seem obscure by our idolatrous affections. Our heart attends the things we value. I don't mean idolatrous as in worshiping the wrong god but idolatrous in the sense of seeing value as something apart from yourself or apart from your own being. It is a belief in magic or a superstition looking for heroes or scapegoats even in the form of philosophies.