ZenBob,
Thanks for your excellent post. Before I continue I want to make sure my posts are received as I intend them. I've been accused in the past of sounding preachy, assertive or dictatorial. All my posts are my opinions only. They are based on many things including reading and experience, although reading alone is not a very good reference zen. I write them in an assertive manner because, when I write, I do my best to write, and try not to wobble. My remarks are embedded below: >On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 11:53 PM, ZenBob wrote: >There is no guy on the train. There is no train. Get it? This is just a mental construct. The guy and the train are not mental constructs. >But it could be a mental construct that is positive or good. Sure sh-t happens. However, because we have minds, we also have choices to make about everything we >experience and how we choose to experience... Positive/negative or good/bad are mental constructs. And, if you're 'choosing' how you experience things, then you're not practicing zen. >On both a Zen and Quantum level, we have the power to form the universe...when we can select a positive choice we recreate the >world of resulting changes that are positive. It is a gradual and ongoing process, not a singularity event. Again, if you're 'choosing' how you create the world, you're not practicing zen. I'll let the 'gradual/ongoing process' go for now. >[.stuff cut.], and Zen is established on the basis of Buddhism. This depends on your use of the term 'established'. Zen is not a RESULT of Buddhism, but zen is usually explained or taught using Buddhist terms and concepts. Zen itself is not rational so it can't be EXPLAINED, and it has no TERMS or CONCEPTS, except those used to teach. Those are the fingers pointing to the moon, but they are not the moon; and Buddhism does not have the market cornered on fingers. >Buddhism addresses the essential dilemna of suffering, duality, ignorance and spiritual progress via the Eightfold Path. We >are bound most by our mental constructs than we are the world itself. Liberation is a necessary step toward enlightenment, >and that comes only after we give up our attachments to false belief and false desires. Determining the ultimate reality of >our existence is the basic and difficult daily work. It is easy to trap oneself in the illusion of the world, and to spin >fearful constructs based on "if." Our lives take on greater meaning when we understand that happiness depends less on what >we think we want, and realize that it occurs most naturally to those without expectation who delight in the moment of here >and now, and delight in the joy or surprise of others. I normally cut out most Buddhist rhetoric to emphasis the independence of zen from Buddhism, but the paragraph above is well-stated, and are good teaching-words for zen. Notice there is a complete absence of CHOOSING. To make sure of that I would change the word DETERMINING in the third sentence to REALIZING or ACCEPTING. >[.balance cut.] >Cheers, Zenbob Bill!
