Hello fellow travelers!
Stumbled upon this site via spiritualteachers.proboards. I poked around a little and like the vibe. Question that lingers: Why am I here? (Not the profound question necessarily; in other words, why am I here at tdb?)
If I showed you a spirit album of polaroids from my travels it would show an agnostic, leaning-atheist upbringing; further concretized with science-materialist education; then sidewangled into buddhism (vipassana, zen); many years mindfully developing equanimity; babies rocked my world / seismic shift, no more time to meditate; jed mckenna's Blues for Buddha -- arguing that western buddhism is a form of 'compassionatism,' forsaking the whole purpose which was Nirvana; started exploring advaita vedanta...; here I am.
Still agnostic. Largely equanimous, with bouts of defensiveness and other shortlasting broodings. The science/materialist worldview is also more seriously subject to agnosticism now as well. Both the heart sutra (re emptiness) and advaita models have seriously challenged that.
Still, why am I here?
Buddha might say it's this:
Sankhara-dukkha, the dukkha of conditioned experience. This includes "a basic unsatisfactoriness pervading all existence, all forms of life, because all forms of life are changing, impermanent and without any inner core or substance."[web 1] On this level, the term indicates a lack of satisfaction, a sense that things never measure up to our expectations or standards.
Advaitists might say it is confusion due to a mistaken identification with dualistic appearances.
In other words, there are still some questions. This topic title refers to the agnostic propensity for questions. Without knowledge, and wide open to it (provided it is of good quality (most isn't)).
I like El Kabong -- great hero concept, subduing baddies with a guitar (making KA-BONG sound). Somehow his guitar always repaired itself and he was able to use a rope to swing on anywhere in the desert. He was an ultraconfident dimwit, and benefitted from his sidekick Baba-Looey unheralded orchestrated success.) I can claim the dimwit part but not the confidence.
Looking forward to plumbing the riches here!
