- Thirteen Orphans
- Dec 2, 2012
-
I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist and a theoretical philosopher. But above all, I am a man, a hopelessly inquisitive man, just like you.
|
A dude, 1987.
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2016 00:18
|
|
- Adbot
-
ADBOT LOVES YOU
|
|
|
#
¿
Sep 10, 2024 15:45
|
|
- Thirteen Orphans
- Dec 2, 2012
-
I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist and a theoretical philosopher. But above all, I am a man, a hopelessly inquisitive man, just like you.
|
do you actually believe this stuff op? sincerely interested.
Yes, I do believe it has value. I believe it has value on its own, for the calculation of correct dates to perform rituals and so on within Buddhism. I think it also has a mitigative protective value psychologically, at the very least. It certainly has value within the culture from which it was born as it is used and relied upon for decision making. Personally, I also believe that it has predictive value because I believe that it is a system for divination, but there are a billion caveats on things. Generally, while I acknowledge the value behind the predispositions I'm listing at the beginning of these things, I'm only mentioning them because generally Westerners like reading that kind of stuff - I don't find it particularly important what the personality traits of a person are based on their year-sign because they might not be accurate, and if they are I'll find out soon enough.
Basically, yes, I do generally believe in this stuff as it branches off my religious tradition, and I am particularly, within my religious tradition, focused on ritual. Astrology informs ritual, as you can see with SVO's chart above, by giving advice on what practices to perform, what rituals to attend, and so on.
I also totally believe you can go your whole life without knowing any of this stuff and be just fine. Ultimately, what I believe regarding it isn't nearly as important as what the subject who requests a calculation believes. In Tibetan culture, this is consulted frequently when going on trips, getting married, starting businesses, and so on. Most Tibetans I've met really believe in all of this, as it is a branch of their religious tradition. Because of that, it ultimately isn't that important whether there's some material value to it - there is spiritual value.
But I guess the short answer you're looking for is, yes, more or less. If it's my Sky-Door year and I have to go up to a great height, I'm going to be much more cautious I suppose. I'm not going to avoid things I otherwise might do, because I also believe that if it's my karma to getrekt by something, I will, but yeah, I might take it into account. I'd be a lovely astrologer if I couldn't endorse my own product. But for example I haven't calculated my trip to Ladakh at all - why bother? I'm going anyhow, and I do my Dharma practices anyhow, so there's not too much I can do if it does turn out that the astrology says I shouldn't fly in airplanes on those days.
Basically, I believe that these calculations can provide some kind of useful information that people can use to inform their decisions, but it shouldn't be the entire thing that people use to make all their decisions. If the doctor says you've got double cancer, and astrology says your health and life-force are fine, listen to the doctor.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 18, 2016 22:53
|
|
- Thirteen Orphans
- Dec 2, 2012
-
I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist and a theoretical philosopher. But above all, I am a man, a hopelessly inquisitive man, just like you.
|
but it makes me wonder-- does the reading change for transgendered people? Or will it simply be wrong if they don't give their biological / identified gender? What if they haven't come to that realization yet?
So I was actually anticipating this question when I added the gender bit. Obviously a however many centuries old text doesn't address this question directly, and I am certain my teacher will tell me "you're the astrologer, you have to decide." My inclination is to calculate someone's gender according to how they identify. If someone is born biologically male but identifies as female and they claim they have always been female, then I will calculate is if they were born female. If they claim they changed at some point, then I calculate male until that point, and female from that point on. The calculations involving gender are based on the i-ching trigrams which are used to inform the calculations of directions. Some calculations use the gender of the animal sign, and some calculations use the actual person's gender. I don't see a compelling reason to calculate a person's gender as anything other than how they identify.
If I were doing medical astrology, which I have not learned yet, I suspect the answer would depend on if a person is pre or post transition.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 24, 2016 05:35
|
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2016 00:18
