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'The Trouble with Buddhism' Chapter 6
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The trouble with Reality
In several of the chapters so far, I have already discussed some of the drawbacks of basing Buddhism on metaphysics. At the centre of these drawbacks is the idea that Buddhism is about breaking through to Reality. Note the capital “R” here, which distinguishes metaphysical talk about Reality from other uses of the word in everyday conversation. Talk of Reality with a big “R” involves misleading claims which, though they may seem abstract and irrelevant to some, are the basis of other mistaken thinking in Buddhism that does make a big practical difference. Talk of reality with a small “r”, however is just a common way of talking about conditions that we need to face up to (e.g. “She just won’t face up to reality”, meaning that she is not addressing some important conditions).
To get to grips with what is problematic about Buddhist ideas of “Reality” it is necessary to do some critical metaphysics. However, the goal of this endeavour is ultimately practical. Critical metaphysics is metaphysical discussion engaged with in order to help get rid of metaphysics, rather as a trainee doctor studies diseases with the goal of eradicating them. It may sometimes take a practised eye to distinguish critical metaphysics from dogmatic metaphysics, just as some cures superficially resemble the diseases they tackle, but the intention behind the two types of metaphysical discussion is quite different.
What is even more confusing is that Buddhism contains both critical metaphysics and dogmatic metaphysics. This chapter attempts to unravel them a little more.
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b) The emptiness of the emptiness of emptiness
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