--- In Zen_Forum@yahoogroups.com, "Michael Hansen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > With all due respect, I'm always a little leery every time someone says > "throw out your books" because (quite frankly) they usually read that in a > book somewhere themselves, found it catchy, and want to share that wisdom > with the world.
Exactly. It's a good way to "sound Zen", like coming up with some cryptic phrase or putting your shoes on your head ala Joshu. And I've never met anybody that dished out that advice that's actually done it. > Throwing out your books may be the best thing to do for you. Heck, it may > be the best thing to do for all of us, but we each need to find that out > ourselves. I think once we realize how futile searching for Truth in books > is, we put them down naturally. But nothing is forced, and if I didn't > exhaust my intellect in books, I'd have to do it somewhere else, most likely > in meditation or contemplation of the nature of things. So, what's the > difference? > > To use your swimming analogy... Sure, I might go check some books out of > the library. And yes, I'd probably end up going to a teacher for help. But > you can be damn sure *I'd* be the one moving my legs and arms and doing the > swimming. And if you wanted to be a good swimmer and be able to fully engage in it, you'd do everything you could. You might even read about physiology, the dynamics of water, AND you'd have a teacher and spend a lot of time with other swimmers. But more than anything else, you would swim a lot - a whole lot. Most of the time when you're swimming you wouldn't worry about the stuff you read in books, but bit by bit that knowledge would guide you and people would wonder what your secret was. > By the way, I read that swimming analogy in a book somewhere myself. See, > not everything you read in books went to waste. :) > > > Regards, > Mike > > > > > On 8/2/06, Bill Smart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > On Wednesday, August 02, 2006 dkotschessa wrote: > > > > >Have you thrown away all your books, Bill? > > > > No. I sit on them when I do zazen. > > > > What would you do if you wanted to learn to swim? Would you go down to the > > library and checkout a bunch of books on swimming? Or would you locate a > > swimming pool with a swimming teacher? Or maybe you'd just jump in the > > water and hope for the best. > > > > After a competent teacher has helped you through any fears you have of the > > water, helped you relax so you can discover you naturally float, and then > > taught you to dog-paddle a little - them maybe you could check out some > > books on doing the butterfly and the backstroke. > > > > dkotschessa? Don't we already have a dkotschessa? Guess not... > > > > ..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/
