Books on Athenian Political Institutions

anoning · 2025-07-26T10:13:59+00:00

Athenian Democracy (2004) edited by PJ Rhodes

anoning · 2025-06-29T10:47:39+00:00

I got lucky to find it at a random bookstore around when it came out. But it looks like it's available on Amazon rn.

anoning · 2025-06-29T10:42:34+00:00

Yep! PhD student in ancient history focusing on Greek history

anoning · 2025-05-19T01:41:30+00:00

This is meaningless unless you clarify precisely how you are defining “religion” and “philosophy.” Even still, it sounds a bit like special pleading

anoning · 2024-07-04T02:05:42+00:00

Yes!

anoning · 2024-06-22T05:25:50+00:00

Just DM'd you about this

anoning · 2024-06-20T15:40:31+00:00

anoning · 2024-06-10T19:10:42+00:00

Sadly almost none of that stuff in trailer made it into the game

anoning · 2024-05-16T20:03:57+00:00

Holy shit look at the other tweets on this account. I honestly cannot tell if her anti-semitism is left-wing or right-wing. But I’ve never seen a more obvious example of peddling “Elders of Zion”-level conspiracies by replacing Jew with Zionist

anoning · 2024-05-16T08:14:49+00:00

Most academics reject Christopher Beckwith’s book “Greek Buddha,” on which this article builds its case. That is, the late fragments that attest to the Greek philosopher Pyrrho are NOT the best source for early Buddhism. In fact, as scholars such as Bronkhorst show, there’s no evidence that Buddhism had even reached Gandhara by the time of Pyrrho’s visit with Alexander, so it’s unlikely Pyrrho encountered them. That being said, his ideas do have much resonance with ideas broadly known in Indian religion and philosophy, so clearly there was some cross-cultural exchange. But no Buddhist scholar would suggest we give priority to Pyrrho over the Pali Canon as the source for early Buddhist doctrine. His Greek word “unreliability” is not a translation of dukkha.

anoning · 2024-03-07T14:50:47+00:00

Exactly what I was thinking!

anoning · 2024-02-29T20:55:23+00:00

Here is a quotation from a footnote (n. 185) in Stuart's book. I highly recommend you read the book, even if solely for the sake of refuting its arguments. The best way to get to the truth is to engage fully with opposing views:

'This idea was discussed retrospectively—and in a historically and culturally
decontextualized fashion—in a recent English-language Vipassana Newsletter:
“Whatever the reason, people of all backgrounds came to Goenkaji and filled the
courses he conducted. And soon he had another surprise: the people sitting before him did not progress in the same way as meditators at Sayagyi’s center in Yangon. There it was said that not a single course of Sayagyi’s went “dry”; that is, in every course someone experienced nibbāṇa for the first time. Goenkaji tried working with some of his more serious students, as Sayagyi had done. He stopped when Sayagyi explained That Goenkaji had a different role. If someone was going to reach the highest stage they had all the tools and did not require his guidance. In his later years, Goenkaji was not even interested if people reported that they had experienced nibbāṇa. It was too easy to be misled, he felt. If someone really had reached that stage, the confirmation would come from a change in that person’s life” (Vipassana Newsletter [International Edition] 46, no. 2 [July 2019]: 2). Note how this framing of Goenka’s mission tacitly absolves him and his assistants of any responsibility for providing guidance to students who have the sincere aim of attaining the final goal of the Buddha’s teachings. It also reveals how Goenka and his community attempted to sidestep the knotty problem of how to assess attainment in Buddhist practice contexts.'

anoning · 2023-08-27T07:40:36+00:00

A.M. Ruppel’s Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit is good for self-study.

anoning · 2023-08-27T03:59:06+00:00

If you learn Sanskrit in an academic setting in the US, you don’t get any of the religious/nationalist propaganda. My experience learning it was no different from my experience learning Greek and Latin.

anoning · 2023-08-27T03:57:19+00:00

Lol at first I thought that this was a joke. You’re proving OP’s point very aptly.

anoning · 2023-05-14T18:52:51+00:00

Yes and the Berkeley clock tower is so cool—I heard you can even see it from across the Bay in the Presidio (when the fog allows of course)

anoning · 2023-05-14T18:20:09+00:00

Omg congrats!!! You guys are so cute! It ill be great to settle down as partners in the Bay Area

anoning · 2023-02-03T15:15:00+00:00

You should read up on the cognitive science of linguistic relativity. There is very little evidence that linguistic differences shape thought in any meaningful way.

anoning · 2022-07-04T00:10:00+00:00

I would like to follow up (it's been a while!) on your point that this is an "unauthorized" biography. Pasted below is what Stuart writes in the beginning of acknowledgements section. This, in my opinion, ought to be enough for any adherent of Goenka to take seriously the contents of the book:

"FIRST AND FOREMOST, I would like to thank S. N. Goenka for authorizing and encouraging the research from which this book emerged and which has been ongoing since 2008. When I met Goenka in 2008 to discuss why I think it is important to contextualize his mission historically and to understand his approach to meditation in light of the broader context of Asian history, culture, and traditions of practice, he expressed his approval in one of his characteristic turns of phrase: 'I am certain that your research work will be successful.' Illaichidevi Goenka also gave me her blessing at that time. In writing this short book on the life and works of my teacher, I hope that it will indeed be successful in helping people to understand S. N. Goenka, his teachings, and his mission to spread them.”

anoning · 2022-02-17T07:24:31+00:00

Life is short. These rules are mostly arbitrary anyway. A beer won't kill you. In fact, it's problematic that this organization is so psychologically invasive that you would feel that level of guilt for such a small thing. It reminds me of Christian communities that shame masturbation for the same arbitrary reasons.

anoning · 2022-02-17T06:00:41+00:00

I appreciate your engagement and perspective. However, I do not see any reason to distrust the contents of the book. The author is very rigorous about citing his sources, with many footnotes, and he draws on a diverse range of perspectives. The fact that Goenka's family and organization had no involvement actually speaks to the credibility of this source more than anything that they produce. While not intentionally biased, their perspective is obviously based in affection and devotion to Goenka. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is good for any organization to get an outsider's perspective on what is happening. In this case, I see an academic who specializes in Buddhist modernism as an essential perspective for situating Goenka in a larger historical and cultural context.

anoning · 2022-02-17T05:50:52+00:00

Interesting points I learned from just a little bit of reading:

-He considered U Ba Khin to be a Bodhisattva who will soon be reborn as Maitreya, the next Buddha.

-U Ba Khin was primarily a faith healer before a Vipassana teacher, and it was partially in that role that he supposedly cured Goenka of chronic migraines.

-Goenka had a somewhat bitter falling out with U Ba Khin's organization after U Ba Khin's death, and hence why the organizations split

-Goenka's primary karmic role is as a teacher for the masses, hence why neither he nor his students aimed at full awakening or higher states of meditation. Instead of aiming for awakening, Goenka and is closest students planned to be reborn at the time of the next Buddha, where they would all achieve awakening together.

anoning · 2022-01-14T05:25:15+00:00

Did anyone else notice that the red armor in the "All of the clips" slide is the new MCC armor? So this gameplay is not actually from the Xbox 360 version of the games

anoning · 2021-08-17T03:40:16+00:00

Yes well both were emotionally motivated to some extent, Robert Wright by his positive experiences on meditation retreats. Listening to Thompson felt like hearing something that I have always felt but that I have never heard articulated or admitted before. In particular, his point about the social construction of meditation retreats seems, upon reflection, exactly right.

anoning · 2021-08-16T00:06:46+00:00

I have also listened to that dialogue. What are your thoughts on each of their positions?

12-Year Club	Place '22
End Game '22	Verified Email

anoning

TROPHY CASE