Re: dhw--Epistemological Framework (Order of Rank?) (Humans)

by David Turell , Sunday, March 06, 2011, 16:45 (5010 days ago) @ xeno6696

I understand your explanation, but where I am stuck is "First Cause" I know we do not see reality as it really is, but everything I know has a cause.
 
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> The Buddhist answer is that distinctions between cause and effect are delusion; There is an infinite network of causes and effects.
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> The distinction between cause and effect (in Buddhism) is that they are perspective-based things to begin with. A cause is a cause when viewed as a cause but can also be viewed as an effect of something else. The only way to understand what you're studying is to understand it as a unity of cause and effect. 
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> This teaching causes alot of heartburn and is a big reason why Westerner's "don't get" Buddhism at all. But when you contemplate the real nature of things, all things are unity--all things are part of the same singularity.-Yes, and the only thing we do not know is the cause of the first singularity that caused this universe. 
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> The question of "first cause" is false. There simply "is". God told Moses "I AM." Consider that.-I know, "I am who I am". I've considered it. God is a first cause. Everything else thereafter 'is'. I don't see that Ed Feser is wrong. 
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> Reality supersedes all questions of cause and effect--an observer is required to be able to differentiate between them, but the differentiation is due primarily to linguistic relativism...-All reality is cause and effect. Even quantum uncertainty works as averages of all particle movements and states.