Some more filter madness

Yet more. I had this photo I took of Buddha statues at the stairs at Swayambunath. They lingered in my collection and suffered various manipulations and filters.

Sometimes you need someone to spill coffee on them, or drive a truck over them, or go nuts with scissors and leave the scraps for you to work with. Popsicolor can be ruthless this way. It stripped out all the surfaces I was attached to and left the edges. Only what was essential. A few more layers and compositing in ProCreate, with the scraps of some other filter experiments.

Buddha, Kate, Bertolucci and Seung Sahn

Found as posted by Paul Lynch on Google+, a post from a Blogspot blog: http://chanpoetry.blogspot.ca/2012/09/growing-up-and-so-is-love.html

Buddha painting in progress III

Buddha painting in progress II

Just doesn’t work for me. Probably some interesting stuff in the field around the figure. Hold up your fingers to block it out. It starts to work then.

More Spam for the Blue Box

At Once Delivered, rphilli posts a series of comparative essays contrasting Christianity against various other religions and systems. In response to Comparing Christianity and Buddhism I commented:

No Responses to “Comparing Christianity and Buddhism” dougrogers Says:
December 19, 2007 at 8:54 am              

 
“Mahayana Buddhism worships the Buddha as a god, along with other gods.”


Nope. Wrong.


“Other forms of Buddhism add shamanism and elements of the occult.”


Such as?


“What Buddhism says about salvation: The goal of life is to achieve nirvana to eliminate all desire, particularly by following the Eight-fold Path.”


This isn’t really a very clear statement. Salvation isn’t necessary because there is nothing to save, nor some state where salvation – whatever that is – is outside of or not a part of what we already are. 
To “eliminate all desire” is wrong. The desire to save all beings is a Bodhistava vow. This is not Nihilism. The Eightfold Path isn’t a choice amongst or against other paths to choose.


“What Buddhism says about man: Man is worthless, having only temporary existence.”


Uhm, no. I don’t know where you get this from unless you are mistaking Buddhism for some kind of Nihilism. That is a fundamental error.


“What Buddhism says about sin: There is no such thing as sin against a supreme being. The human condition is suffering,”


Gee. looking up Dukkha on Wikipedia [or Google] seems a difficult task for those whose mind is made up. Sin is a discriminatory judgment applied to actions. Look up the 5 Precepts that Buddhist Laypersons keep.


“There is no reincarnation, in which the eternal soul after death inhabits a new body. ”


Correct, there is no self or personality which reincarnates. There is no soul in Buddhism, so as you cast this statement in a Christian perspective, it really is a bit skewed against understanding what does incarnate.

and in response to Buddhism: An Overview I commented:

No Responses to “Buddhism: An Overview” dougrogers Says:
December 19, 2007 at 9:04 am              


“Buddhism is an impersonal religion of self-perfection, the end of which is death (extinction) – not life.”


This is truly laughable.


“After Gautama’s death, Buddhism eventually died out in India”


This seems to imply that Buddhism died out when Buddha died – actually wrong, if this is what this sentence means to imply.


“The Buddha taught that there are five ways people attach themselves to the world and to self:”


Error in conception here. People do not attach themselves to the 5 Skandhas. The 5 Skandhas are in fact what makes us believe we are people separate from the Skandhas.


“The Buddha taught that the sum of these five parts does not make up a greater whole called the Self.”


This is more correct, but does not address that what we as persons are depends also on the vast and subtle interactions between each of us as individuals and the Universe itself.

Now rphilli also says:

Our purpose in this study is not to condemn anyone or to assume God’s role as sovereign judge of the universe; rather, it is to compare the teachings of some of the world’s major religions and cults with biblical, historical Christianity so that we might be more effective in praying for and witnessing to the lost, and wiser in our ability to discern false doctrines. Every person, regardless of his or her religious beliefs, is precious in the eyes of God and is someone for whom Christ died. Our attitude as we study these false religious systems should be one of humility, love, and grace.     

My bolding. At least rphilli admits bias going into this, but you cannot fairly compare and contrast when you admit to beginning the exercise with a closed mind, and you post errors in understanding as facts to be disputed.

Second; blogs are about conversation. Comments on that site are moderated, and my comments on the posts have not been put up after a day.

 The thing is, I don’t ask to see these things in my Tag Surfer. If you are going to come and knock on my door and tell me things that are wrong or misunderstood, I’m going to close the door in your face and discount all of the rest of the – likely more reasonable – people of your persuasion as kooks too. Junk mail doesn’t even get into my house. I keep the blue box on the porch.