Kamala blasts Pence for refusing to meet women alone

[_honorentheos]

'I left the girl there,' said Tanzan. 'Are you still carrying her?'

Contrasted with -

''And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.'

Eastern wisdom generally views the problem as attachment, western religion as sin. Attachment is something you yourself generate, sin is the result of temptation, something you avoid. Failure to let go of attachment leads to the continuation of your own suffering, continuing to sin means eternity in hell. Depending who you ask, you are saved by the Grace of God and not your good works. Eastern disciplines tend to see your suffering as a direct result of your own attachment.

Well said.

[_honorentheos]

It's worth noting that the narratives that are serving to inform one's view/reaction aren't necessarily all related to the above, either. In both Christian and Buddhist scripture there are calls for compassion towards those who might tempt one directly or indirectly - to be able to look past this to the persons involved and be moved to help them rather than act out of concern only for one's self. And there is a historical male bias in these narratives that, if one is male and raised with them isn't necessarily apparent. But to someone who isn't male and/or might not see themselves represented in the narrative there are inherent framing issues that become their own point for argument. There are many ways these narratives can serve as points of contention rather than vehicles for understanding.

But what I thought was worth highlighting here was the contrast between the internal logic of the two approaches as one is much more likely to represent what is reported to be the policy up for debate. Whether or not one agrees or shares either underlying belief system, there's value in recognizing that a view built on concern for one's eternal soul, and by extension that of the potential other party to some form of infidelity, isn't going to recognize many other concerns as having equal weight. Perhaps someone with a Pence-like view is concerned with the impacts on the careers of women who are being excluded from common relationship-building opportunities and may feel genuinely bad about that. But at the scale of eternity it's not going to have much persuasive power to evoke change. OTOH, recognizing that it DOES have negative consequences shouldn't be dismissed if one has any sense of compassion or concern for one's fellows. At which point, recognizing this and choosing behaviors that are equally applicable to all of one's work associates regardless of gender or other issues of identity shouldn't represent a conflict but rather a form of expression of one's underlying faith values if allowed to expand beyond questions of hellfire and sin to those of enlightenment and godliness.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I think we shouldn't be using Buddhism as any sort of measure, in context of this thread, to ameliorate male-female equality issues. If you're using today's political standards to judge the Buddha and Buddhism, then you're not going to be very happy. Lol...

- Doc

[_honorentheos]

I think we shouldn't be using Buddhism as any sort of measure, in context of this thread, to ameliorate male-female equality issues. If you're using today's political standards to judge the Buddha and Buddhism, then you're not going to be very happy. Lol...

- Doc

Good thing that wasn't happening, then.

[_Lemmie]

If you are a person who is at risk for infidelity during meals alone with someone else, then maybe you shouldn't meat with others during meals alone.

I see what you did there.

Good catch, Canpakes! Nice one, EAllusion. Stout commerce, indeed.