Reddit Reddit reviews Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism (Studies in Comparative Philosophy and Religion)

We found 2 Reddit comments about Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism (Studies in Comparative Philosophy and Religion). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism (Studies in Comparative Philosophy and Religion)
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2 Reddit comments about Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism (Studies in Comparative Philosophy and Religion):

u/[deleted] · 4 pointsr/streamentry

>"There's... nothing... everything is subjective, there's no one truth, nothing matters, what is this? Is this life?" But then, I felt... lighter... happy. I felt a sense of true release.

>I felt joy in not knowing.

You might enjoy Pyrrhonism, aka 'ancient skepticism.'

You did what Pyrrhonists called an 'epoché,' where, you see a bunch of questions, and not knowing what to do, you suspend judgment, and from there all that anxiously-searching or passionately-clinging attitude with regard to the truth or to those beliefs that are super-hypothetical gets evaporated:

>The Sceptic, in fact, had the same experience which is said to have befallen the painter Apelles. Once, they say, when he was painting a horse and wished to represent in the painting the horse's foam, he was so unsuccessful that he gave up the attempt and flung at the picture the sponge on which he used to wipe the paints off his brush, and the mark of the sponge produced the effect of a horse's foam. So, too, the Sceptics were in hopes of gaining quietude by means of a decision regarding the disparity of the objects of sense and of thought, and being unable to effect this they suspended judgement; and they found that quietude, as if by chance, followed upon their suspense, even as a shadow follows its substance.

For those who think that Pyrrhonism isn't especially related to awakening, I suggest reading this paper:

u/kloudspiller · 3 pointsr/streamentry

> I'm not familiar with Pyrrhonism, so if there's any links / articles / books you'd recommend please do so!

I've just found out about it too, due to a post by /u/sponsored

The primary source of Pyrrhonism are Sectus Empiricus writings, he wrote multiple books one of which is "Outlines of Pyrrhonism", which I'm currently reading. I think to get an understanding of Pyrrhonism, this is pretty much required reading, since it's a book written by a pyrrhonist of ancient greece.

/u/sponsored
also pointed me towards these books:

A comparison of Pyrrhonism and nargajuna:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009W3SAKS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1#nav-subnav
(very good, you might even start with this if you're interested in parallels to buddhism)

A master thesis comparing Pyrrhonism and the platform sutra:
http://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw/bitstream/140.119/38734/1/401701.pdf
(read with caution, the authors understanding of Chan seems questionable at times, but good at some parts.)

> what compels you to visit /r/streamentry or consider a meditation practice?

/r/streamentry I don't know, I'm leaving it anyways. Meditation basically because it sounds fun. I don't see it as related to enlightenment at all, but the jhanas sound interesting, so I'll probably do some concentration based meditation. Also I believe that concentration practice might have positive effects on other areas of life, so that's also nice.
So I actually have no interesting reason other than, just being curious.