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<\/a><\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\n Just back from a Sunday visit to the White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church (\u201clet\u2019s do something different\u201d) and a talk by Rev. Dr. Kendyl Gibbons, \u201cA Failure to Attribute.\u201d The central issue the Rev. Dr. addressed in her well-informed-and-thought-through talk was the fear that nonatheists have about the moral backbone of atheists \u2013 \u201cIf you don\u2019t believe in God to set the rules and reward or punish you, are you safe to be around?\u201d<\/p>\n Atheists, by the way, are the fastest growing religious group in America. Surprisingly, atheists rank behind Muslims, gays and lesbians in terms of who most Americans would rather have marry their child.<\/p>\n Buddhists, although I consider us agnostics (a minor quibble), face the same issue. Historically, Buddhists might answer the above with one word \u2013 karma \u2013 but many modern Buddhists don\u2019t believe in karma (at least in the concrete, simple way often presented in the Sutta Pitika<\/span><\/span><\/a>), so the issue is pertinent.<\/span><\/p>\n And the Rev. Dr.\u2019s answer brings us to the Genjokoan<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe attribution of consciousness,\u201d the ability not only to appreciate one\u2019s self as a conscious agent but also attributing the same consciousness to others, leads to important moral development, \u201cDo unto others as you would have them do unto you.\u201d<\/p>\n The enormity of this achievement by our species cannot be understated. Other species have it too, it seems to me, my dog doesn\u2019t bite off my arm, for example, when he has his chaws locked around it, perhaps because he knows somehow that I\u2019m family and not a meal. Maybe humans just talk about it more.<\/p>\n Anyway, the enormity and thrill of self-consciousness makes it difficult to move on. The medicine becomes the disease.<\/p>\n For the independent, moral, attributing-consciounsess self, cold and heat still come. \u201cHow can we avoid them?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy not go to where thre is no cold or heat?\u201d asked Dongshan.<\/p>\n \u201cHow is it where there is no cold or heat?\u201d asked the monk.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it\u2019s cold, it kills you with cold; when it\u2019s hot, it kills you with heat,\u201d answered Dongshan (Cleary translation from Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record<\/span><\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n