The Three Poisons of the Mind in Buddhism
"One should not criticize other spiritual paths."
But what if the 'Spiritual Path' is actually nothing of the sort, but a predatory, supremacist, totalitarian, political ideology masquerading as a religion? And what if it is not only harmful to its own devotees, but also to all other followers of genuine spiritual paths - "As dangerous in a man as rabies in a dog" - to quote Churchill?
Most religions attempt to bring out the best in people, but The Religion of Peace™ appears deliberately to do the opposite. For example, Buddhism attempts to free its practitioners from 'The Three Poisons', whereas Islam gains its power by enslaving them to those very same poisons of attachment, hatred and ignorance.
The Three Poisons
The Three Poisons are:
Attachment, including
- Greed
- Lust
- Envy
- Control freakery and domination
[Note that attachment must not be confused with love (though the two are sometimes mixed). Love is a virtuous mental state in both Buddhism and Christianity.
Love is: "How can I make you happy?"
Attachment is: "How can you make me happy?"Thus Mohammed's relationship with Aisha was attachment rather than love, because if he had truly loved the child, he would never have done what he did to her.] The ultimate illustration of the difference between love and attachment is the 'religious' practice of 'honor killing'
Aversion, including
- Hatred
- Anger
- Rage
- Aggression
- Intolerance
- Vandalism and destruction
Ignorance, including
- Irrationalism
- Intellectual and Philosophical Laziness
- Deluded view of reality (essentialism, reification etc)
- Concealing truth
If we check on the Religion of Peace™ we see that greed, plunder, lust (72 virgins and catamites) and territorial expansion are major motivators, as is hatred of 'The Other'.
Ignorance is a prerequisite for its spread, with the authority of scripture (Koran and Hadith) taking precedence over science, philosophy, commonsense and rational argument.
Islam also shows great attachment to itself, being self-referential and intensely memetic.
Dhimmitude
Of course we can remain in a state of dhimmitude and refrain from criticising Islam, in which case, like some spiritual Gresham's law, the bad will drive out the good. Alternatively, we can shine the light of reason and Buddhist psychological analysis on this mind-virus.
So let's see how many aspects of Three Poisons we can identify in the subject headings at the Islamic Index.
Attachment - Greed, Lust, Domination
- Brothel in the Sky
- Criminality
- Daughter-slaughter
- Domination of Public Space
- Eurabia - the takeover of Europe
- Female Genital Mutilation
- Honor/Shame culture
- Humiliation
- Inbreeding, cousin marriage and incest
- Jizya - protection money
- Meme
- Pedophilia
- Polygamy
- Predation, Plunder and Parasitism
- Rape as a weapon of Jihad
- Razzia
- Sexual perversion
- Slavery
- Supremacism
- Tribalism
- Women - as property
Aversion - Hatred, Rage, Aggresion
- Apostasy
- Buddhists - attacks on
- Bullying and intimidation
- Christians - attacks on
- Contamination and Biojihad
- Cultural Jihad
- Dar al-Harb
- Gays and Lesbians
- Harbi
- Hindus - attacks on
- Infiltration, Subversion and Sedition
- Jews - attacks on
- Jihad
- Kafirs (Kaffirs, Kuffars etc) - obsessive hatred of
- Riots and threats of riots
- Sikhs - attacks on
- Street Jihad
- Sudden Jihad Syndrome
- Terrorism - 'Victorious with terror'
- Ummah - the Muslim 'tribe'
- Violence
Ignorance - including obscurantism
- Censorship
- Deception and Taqiyya
- Education (subversion of)
- Inventions, Innovations and Intellectual Achievements
- Koran - contradictions and absurdities
- Obsessive Compulsive practices
- Pope Benedict's Regensburg critique
- Rationalism - lack of
- Totalitarianism
As Buddha said:
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
As Jesus said:
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
Should Islam's status as a religion be demoted? In fact, is Islam actually an anti-religion?