On Sunday, August 13, 2006 Ian and I (Bill!) had the following exchange: Ian: >>Bill! >>Is there spirituality in Zen?
Bill!: >Ian, >Yes. I was very surprised (and disappointed) that no one called me out for giving a 'yes' or 'no' answer to this question when in my posting just previous to this I explained in detail why a 'yes' or 'no' answer was not appropriate. What happened instead was however no surprise: that my 'yes' response was misinterpreted. That response was to Ian's post and Ian's post alone. If someone else had posed that same question to me in a different circumstance the response would probably have been different. It may have been 'no' - maybe to Kahty; or it may have been 'have some more avocado dip' - maybe to Donald. There is spirituality in zen and there is physicality in zen. There is logistic regression in zen, and there is blue, flat-bottom, smooth and crunchy in zen. BUT, knowing or believing all that is NOT going to help you realize your buddha nature. Belief in spirituality, physicality, logistic regression, etc... are just not contributing factors in realizing your buddha nature. So, put all that kind of thinking aside and just sit. Count your breathes, recite your mantra; chant your chant; work on your koan; or just sit (shikan-taza). Do whatever it is you were instructed to do by your teacher. Just what that is doesn't really matter. Just do it, do it as well as you can - and sit. That is how you will realize your buddha nature. Just...Bill! ************************************************************** Scanned by VisNetic MailScan for SMTP Servers. Visit http://www.deerfield.com/products/visnetic_mailscan. ************************************************************** Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today! Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
