I read the following quote this weekend:
“The single most important or most basic insight of the historical Buddha is the claim that who we are and what we think exists is a function of our mind and its cognitive powers. In other words, it is our mind and our uses of it that determine how we see and understand our self, the world, and other things.” – Stephen J. Laumakis, An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy
This is from a textbook describing Buddhism in relation to competing schools of thought in ancient India, and I suppose I don’t really disagree, but something about it rubbed me the wrong way. I guess it’s because it’s taking Buddhism purely as a philosophy and missing out on the experiential part of practice.