Indian Buddhism & Chinese Taoism are basically the only major religions that are not alien from the natural world & science
contrary to *GESTALT* Middle-Eastern Judeo-Christianity-Islam, which views life as the whole of God, Indian Buddhism & Chinese Taoism, like science, are *REDUCTIONIST* and view life as a compositions of elements
obviously these monsoonal Asian religions that arose in abundant fertile geographical regions far more *NATURAL* than those religions that arose from hallucinations, mirages & cravings in the middle eastern *DESERT*
monsoonal Asia teems with *LIFE* where as the *DESERT* is the place with the least life.
yet those religions that arose in the *BARREN DESERT* believe they can explain *LIFE*
another anomaly
what did Buddha have to say about *LIFE*?
quite unfortunate that we have conditioned our mind & rendered it incapable of comprehending the simplicity below:
Friend, these five faculties — each with a separate range, a separate domain, not experiencing one another's range & domain: the eye-faculty, the ear-faculty, the nose-faculty, the tongue-faculty & the body-faculty — have the intellect as their [common] arbitrator. The intellect is what experiences [all] their ranges & domains.
These five faculties — the eye-faculty, the ear-faculty, the nose-faculty, the tongue-faculty, & the body-faculty — remain standing in dependence on vitality.
And vitality remains standing in dependence on what?
Vitality remains standing in dependence on heat.
And heat remains standing in dependence on what?
Heat remains standing in dependence on vitality.
I will give you analogy, for there are cases where it is through an analogy that an intelligent person understands the meaning of a statement.
Suppose an oil lamp is burning. Its radiance is discerned in dependence on its flame and its flame is discerned in dependence on its radiance. In the same way, vitality remains standing in dependence on heat and heat remains standing in dependence on vitality.
When this [material] body lacks these three qualities — vitality, heat & consciousness — it lies discarded & forsaken like a senseless log.
Mahavedalla Sutta: The Greater Set of Questions-and-Answers
