Pascal’s Wager and Blind Faith in Buddhism : Lam Rim Force For Good with Robert AF Thurman
In this short video Professor Robert AF Thurman discusses the Buddhist Centrist perspective on Blind Faith within the “Lam Rim: Stages of the Path” collection of teachings and presents his version of Pascal’s Wager.
“Consider for the moment, this version of Pascal’s wager: If conscious life is a random and meaningless exercise, if our person has come from an inexplicable origin for no purpose and is scheduled for eventual oblivion, no one will be around to regret having made the effort to construct a meaning and purpose for wisdom, love and happiness. No one will regret the wasted time. But if the alienated consciousness rooted in materialism is the illusion, if life is a great field of awareness with infinite continuity which can be bottomlessly miserable or boundlessly happy, and if one does not use the human lifetime to the full, changing negative emotions to positive ones, then oneself and all interconnected conscious life will deeply regret thus tragic waste.
This wager can be sufficiently compelling to set us to work on the turn to the positive through the will to enlightenment, until such time as we actually experience the interconnected-ness of life, an experience that is not at all that difficult to attain.”
Robert AF Thurman from Infinite Life.
“Pascal’s Wager and Blind Faith in Buddhism : Lam Rim Force For Good with Robert AF Thurman” was recorded at the 2016 Lam Rim: Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Sources Class Twelve of the Force for Good Series with Robert AF Thurman at Tibet House US.
“Pascal’s Wager and Blind Faith in Buddhism : Lam Rim Force For Good with Robert AF Thurman” Photo by Samantha Sophia, All Rights Reserved.
This video is an excerpt from the Tibet House US Member video “Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Sources : Madhyamaka Lam Rim” (1:56:24) and is apart of the Force For Good Class Series.
‘A Force For Good’ is a Tibet House US course to further the Dalai Lama’s contemporary world initiatives, from His Holiness’ American Institute of Buddhist Studies and Mind & Life Institute science dialogues (Universe in a Single Atom) and His creation of Abhidharma 2.0 through the “Science for Monks” programs, his “secular ethics” (Ethics for the New Millennium and Beyond Religion), His nonviolent approach to conflict resolution, including His Nobel Peace Laureate activities to seek dialogue and a win-win reconciliation with China in the face of the ongoing ethnicidal policies in Tibet (Freedom in Exile and Man of Peace: The Illustrated Life Story of Tibet’s Dalai Lama) & along with his emphasis on positive activism (A New Reality: Charter of Universal Responsibility).
This on-going series was inspired by Daniel Goleman’s ‘A Force For Good: The Dalai Lama’s Vision for Our World‘.
To join the on-going #ForceForGood series please visit: www.tibethouse.us.
To listen to audio selections from the Bob Thurman Podcast about past lives please visit: www.bobthurman.com.
To watch more videos from past ‘Force for Good’ programs please visit the Tibet House US Member Archive, available to monthly supporters
